Formas de empleo de la Teoría de Género en la conducción de las

According to Ashcroft, Griffiths and Tiffin, Colonialism refers to ‘the period of European expansion and dominion of racialized others’ (Tiffin, 2013: 39) traceable to many nations of the world including parts of Africa. With the notion of domination came the ‘justification for exploitation and domination of the other’

(2013: 39) which is perceived in the testimonies and narratives in the explored postcolonial texts. Coloniality is associated with the lingering effect of Colonialism.

Quoting Escobar (2007: 179-210) and Quijano, (2000: 342) Ndlovu-Gatsheni, (2013: 128) reflects on Colonialism as a direct Colonialist administration set over a people; whilst Coloniality is related to the ‘long standing patterns of power that emerged as a result of Colonialism’ (128). Ndlovu-Gatsheni continued by suggesting that ‘Coloniality lies in the centre of the modern/colonial world of

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yesterday and today where Europe and America are at the apex of global power hierarchy, and Africa is at the bottom’ (2013: 128). This confirms the notion of the centre and periphery (Ashcroft, Griffiths and Tiffin, 2013: 43) highlighted in the created plays and corroborated in the Literature review in the second Chapter.

Said, Bhabha, and Spivak provide varied perspectives on colonialist activities (Ashcroft, Griffiths and Tiffin, 2013: 204-2015). It is through such varied perspectives that the critical and creative perspectives of postcolonial trauma may be understood. The ‘post’ in post-colonialism refers to activities in the era of independence; though the notion of independence is questionable, seeing that the exegesis and created plays in this study give the impression that the nations of Africa are still strongly under the influence of colonialist domination (Ndlovu-Gatsheni, 2013: 128). It is within that context of knowing about the strength in colonialist activities that the created plays and exegesis continue to reflect the pain reflected in postcolonial trauma. The creative reflection of the pain in praxis is an attempt to confront and reverse insidious colonialist voices within colonialist structures in Africa (Ndlovu-Gatsheni, 2013). The new plays constitute a new fronting of decolonisation, capable of making relevant meaning within Africa and the diaspora. This is important because decolonisation is perceived as a movement associated with ‘revealing’ and ‘dismantling’ (Ashcroft, Griffiths and Tiffin, 2013:

73) images of colonialism as reflected in the exegesis and the created plays associated with the effects of colonialism and coloniality. The exegesis and praxis corroborate trauma notions and colonialist exploitation reflected by Ndlovu-Gatsheni (2013: 7) and Ngugi. (1994).

Basil Davidson (2014) suggests that indigenous people renowned with cultures that define Africans as individuals and collectives may be seen in the context of the centre. This is corroborated by Sirayi opinion, (2012: 168) of typical activities associated with the strength of the centre; like, who opines African art, music, dance, proverbs, wise-sayings, medicines, jokes, folklore, including evidence of

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pre-colonial African theatre; reflecting a sense of embedded identities which explored sources suggest were disrupted as a result of colonialism in Africa.

Emenyonu and Nnolim (2014: 178) stated that, though pre-colonial Africa had internal conflicts and differences like other ethnic groups in the universe, there were ways and means of reaching resolutions. This is corroborated in TFA (Achebe, 1958: 17), where people in Igbo land had their own worldview before European colonialists orchestrated things to fall apart (Achebe, 1958) as a result of colonialist activities. Ngugi had a similar perspective with Achebe (1958) in Decolonising the Mind (1988: 10) reflecting an African pre-colonial model of identity dislocated by the colonialists.

From the above account, it is possible to imagine a reflection of the African pre-colonial context, and how trauma may be inferred in the imagined nation and the created plays in this research. However, some important perspectives in Ngugi’s background are worth knowing; though not an excuse for his language choice in writing. First, he was ‘born into a large peasant family: father, four wives and about twenty-eight children. I also belonged, as we all did in those days, to a wider extended family and to the community as a whole.’ Thus, from the onset, he spoke ‘Gikuyu’ with his family. Like my experience in my part of Africa, he was exposed to storytelling which presumably was in his native language. Some of the folktales he mentioned have similar motifs and characters like those in my part of Africa, showing the inter-relationships among nations of Africa.

However, all that changed, as in Achebe’s account in TFA, where things fell apart in his native Kenya, reflected as cultural disruptions in East Africa by Ngugi. (1988:

10). The images reflected by Ngugi (1988) and later in Basil Davidson’s accounts on West Africa before the colonialists came to Africa (2014) highlights what might be reflected as ‘the greatness of Africa’ when compared to other universal contexts; suggesting that the colonialists should have left Africa alone on its path

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of development. In reflecting on the ‘Hamitic myth’ Fyle, points out that it is assumed that Africans were not capable of making any ‘contribution to the progress of human society... that any element of progress observed in Africa historically was brought there by people of Caucasoid descent’ (1999: 2). Fyle (1999: 3-6) controverted that notion by citing examples of development in Africa before the coming of European colonialists. Such developmental signposts are perceived in the role of mythology and religion (1999: 6), the notion that ‘some African societies apart from Egypt did develop their own systems of writing’ (Fyle, 1999: 4).

It in intriguing to know Fyle’s position (1999: 4); that ‘some cultures utilized the Arabic script to devise their own writing patterns,’ citing the Swahilis and the Fulani. He also pointed out that although ‘the majority of African cultures had no system of writing…such cultures had a way of preserving their history through oral tradition’ where history was preserved by the deliberate handing down of information ‘through generations’ from the aged father for instance to the youngest sons ‘who came to possess much of the traditions, drummed into their heads through constant repetitions’ (Fyle, 1999: 4). What is inferred from Fyle and many other accounts not mentioned here is that there were ordered systems in place before the advent of the colonialists in Africa, which may have been disrupted by the colonialists. This suggests the loss of cultures, traditions and identity; necessitating the need to understand why trauma is identified in the postcolonial texts explored. Edward Said postulated about the the past being related to the present as he says:

Appeals to the past are among the commonest of strategies in interpretations of the present. What animates such appeals is not only disagreement about what happened in the past and what the past was, but uncertainty about whether the past is really past, over and concluded, or whether it continues, albeit in different

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forms. The problem stirs all sorts of discussions – about influence, about blame and judgement, about present actualities and future priorities (Culture and Imperialism, 1994, 1).

Said’s notion of the past is relevant to me as a playwright, like other background information in this Chapter; reflecting that the traumatic condition is a reality in the imagined nation and the created plays. He opined that the past is supposedly gone, but ideas from the past are still useful for understanding present day realities. In other words, although, the contexts reflected in pre-colonial Africa are consigned to the past, they are perceived as the parameters by which the effect of trauma is measured in Africa in the present as seen in the created plays. Such issues are useful for a meaningful juxtaposition of the past and the present; and knowing about the impact of trauma associated with colonialist activities in Africa.