Body, Blindness and Re-Memory: The Struggle for Post-colonial Understanding of Identity

Abstract

BODY, BLINDNESS, AND RE-MEMORY: T H E S T R U G G L E FOR A POST-COLONIAL UNDERSTANDING OF I D E N T I T Y Anne-Lancaster Badders is a doctoral candidate in French at the University of California, Los Angeles. Identity quests are hardly a new literary topic. Neither are novels of independence where the struggle against the oppressor and the desire for nationhood and self-determination are in focus. Independence for most French speaking West African colonies came in 1960. Jean-Marie Adiaffi's novel La carte d'identite was published in 1980, twenty years later, but still seeming to focus on liberation from the oppressor. His peers criticized his book for its thematic regression, as i f he was still in need of the colonizer in order to write, as i f he was unable to think and write independently of the colonial paradigm. Upon further study, Adiaffi's novel does not simply replicate earlier ones. Instead it charts a path of liberation from the angst of post-colonial iden­ tity. In an interview he says that while on croyait avec les independances arriver au bout du tunnel, on va s'apercevoir qu'on va rentrer dans un autre tunnel, dont on ne connait pas la fin ( Interview with Riesz 31). In this paper, I will discuss Adiaffi's vision of the light at the end of the second tunnel. To get there, I will retrace the path of Meledouman, the Prince of Bettie and protago­ nist in La carte d'identite. The book begins with a demonstration of l'indigenat, a pro­ vision where during colonial rule, the Commandant could stop, try, and convict a person for any reason. In the case of Meledouman, only after he has been beaten and hauled in for questioning is he given a justification for the abuse and detainment: the Prince does not have his ID card on him. The