Medium and Credibility in the African Novel: The Novelistic Vision of G.D Nyamndi and Blessed A. Njume

Abstract

The post-colonial African novelist is committed beyond his/her art to a statement of value. Thus he is not interested in art for art’s sake. This study distances itself from Dan S. Izevbaye’s 1971 position for a ‘suppressed social reference’ in literary discourse. The post-colonial novelist believes that he must be socially committed in order to be universally engaged. In his/her novelistic vision, he/she questions the very foundation of the independence of most African nations. There is a consensus amongst African creative writers that the independence of most African countries is a sham because independence means self-determination. George D. Nyamndi in his The Sins of Babi Yar (2012) and Blessed Ambang Njume in his In a Web (2016) set out to bring out the visionary role of a committed writer and his moral obligation to his society. Using the medium of effective communication, the two novelists highlight corruption and the abuse of power as banes to socio-political development in Cameroon in particular and Africa as a whole. Using new historicism and the concept of socialist realism to interpret, evaluate and analyse the two novels under study, the paper explores and highlights the moral responsibility of a committed novelist in post-colonial African society. In this light, this study submits that the law courts, the judiciary, the military, the church and the educational systems in post-independent Africa are conduits and mechanisms for the propagation of neocolonialism and imperialism. Rev. Father Aaron in a Web and Justice Dan Mowena in The Sins of Babi Yar provide clear justifications for these social ills.