Farewell to Tensions for Post-independence Algerian and Nigerian Populations: ‘Hybrid Affirmation’ as a Postcolonial Proposition

Abstract

ABSTRACT Through the novels of Maissa Bey’s Bleu Blanc Vert and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah, this article examines the legacy of colonialism on post-imperial societies. Both novels engage with the relationship between culturally hybrid people and their compatriots, who are against the cultural colonial legacy in post-independence Algeria and Nigeria. This article contends that these texts can be interpreted as an appeal to settle tensions vis-à-vis the colonial legacy in post-independence societies, and to create a bond of solidarity between members of the same society. The article examines the social tensions that the culturally hybrid subjects experience in the novels, and proposes the concept of ‘hybrid affirmation’ as a way of coming to terms with the cultural colonial heritage. Although displacement, alienation, and rejection characterise the nature of the everyday life of Algerian and Nigerian post-independence people, affirmation of the self, trust and stability mark the attitude of the culturally hybrid characters by the end of both novels. Such an attitude is defined as the ‘hybrid affirmation’ of the postcolonial individual. The concept of ‘hybrid affirmation’ is intended to eliminate the gap that has long been widened by conflicts about the cultural colonial legacy. ‘Hybrid affirmation’ seeks to reframe postcolonial criticism so that characteristics such as strength and determination become attributed to the postcolonial individual instead of loss, disillusionment and displacement. Finally, ‘Hybrid affirmation’ implies ceasing conflicts about the cultural colonial heritage that exist between members of the same society in Algeria and Nigeria.