Achebe Interview

For the discussion during Wednesday's class, an important take away was mostly the depiction of coloured people in literature of the western societies. To explain this, Achebe describes how africans were used in western literature and were described as savages and weren't given human properties such as a caring personality or being kind. Instead, they were uncaring animals nearly who were not ever given proper character and were mostly antagonised by the likes of Joseph Conrad amongst others.

A general idea the group used as a discussion point was the usage of English as a form of resistance, like discussed previously in Topic 3, Language, Power and Resistance. We had questions such as "Why do you think African's couldn't use English as a form of resistance in literature prior to the midst of the 20th century?". We used arguments to point out the possibility of ever publishing only arising at that point in time and the fact that independencies occurred around that time. In relation to this general idea, we also, again, discussed the idea that English can be used as a form of resistance. One argument for this was that if the suppressed are able to communicate and speak the language of the suppressor, then there is nothing for the suppressors to hold them above the suppressed, nothing that makes them more powerful in a non-violent way. I believe these ideas are quite interesting due to the fact that something as simple and non-physical such as language can have such a massive effect on colonisers and their usage of power.