Black Narratives and Critical Theory: Two Responses

Abstract

As a new century unfolds, it is significant that some of the critical issues that defined the relationship between the so-called Third World and the West because of the colonial encounter from the late-nineteenth to mid-twentieth centuries have remained topical. It is not for want of other issues that colonialism and its aftermath have retained such a major position in the critical discourse of both regions; instead, the continued discussions on colonialism are testimony to its overwhelming impact in defining much of the intellectual, cultural, economic, and political reality of the former colonies. Conversely, the discussions reveal how Western intellectual tradition and culture have been shaped by [End Page 461] the encounter. One field where the impact has become quite pronounced is postcolonial studies. The global ascendancy of postcolonial studies, 1 with perhaps even more prominence in Western academia than in the African continent, has created an arena for the examination of the intellectual "rules of engagement" between the two worlds. Africans and Diasporic Africans, especially those from the Caribbean, enter into the discourse wrestling with the dilemma of choosing between adopting the predominant critical voice of Western academia as passport to participation and devising new critical approaches for representing their historical reality on their own terms.