Affirmation and contestation: Negotiating and contextualizing African masculinity in Chigozie Obioma’s The Fishermen

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article investigates representations of African masculinities in Chigozie Obioma’s The Fishermen (2015) and their formation in the state of postcoloniality. The methodological apparatus of the analysis is positioned at the intersection of masculinity and postcolonial studies; its main premise is that African masculinity is composed of two equally important components – a socio-historical construct and a spiritual-ancestral essence. The article outlines the postcolonial African masculinity topos of Okonkwo from Chinua Achebe’s classic Things Fall Apart (1958) and explores intertextual relations between Achebe’s and Obioma’s narratives on both discursive and metaphysical levels. As a result, Obioma’s protagonists are read from the constructivist perspective as masculinity adepts seeking to define themselves against (post)colonial imaginaries and political challenges as well as spiritual and ancestral predeterminants of their identity according to their essence-oriented interpretation.