Globalisation Discourse and Postcolonialism

Abstract

This paper addresses the relationship between Colonialism and Globalisation as raised in In Koli Jean Bofane’s novel Congo Inc. Le testament de Bismarck . It draws upon the theory of decolonization by Achille Mbembe to investigate the way the novel represents Congo and its natural resources as the beginning, but also the result of colonial claims from Europe. The paper also questions the postcolonial relationship between Europe and Africa on the basis of the encounter between the young Congolese hero of the novel and the European Aude Martin and is consequently addressing the issue of colonial memory from a postcolonial perspective. It raises the argument that Bofane’s narration of an African present is the deconstruction of the topos of a postcolonial Africa caught in nostalgic cant, for it represents Isookanga, the Pygmy, as a perfect master of imagination in the sense Appadurai puts it.