The Protest Tradition in African Literature: Symbolism in Chinua Achebe’s Anthills of the Savannah

Abstract

critical examination of African literature will show that Africa before the advent of Europeans in Africa had two types of literature namely: oral literature and literature written in the indigenous languages. African literature raises the question of defining African literature geographically, racially or culturally and any impingement on any of these is vehemently opposed by African writers in their works: protest novel, protest drama and protest poetry alike. The main purpose of this paper is to explore and establish the idea of “protest” as aspect of the African fiction (novel) as espoused in Achebe’s Anthills of the Savannah. This paper adopts ecocriticism and qualitative method. It looks into elements of protest in the chosen text; in reflection to the African fiction and literature generally. It is the findings of this paper that protest in African literature results from the fight for decolonisation and a struggle against intimidation, dehumanisation, degredation of the environment through colonialism and neocolonialism. This paper concludes that this commitment of African literary writers has made African fiction a protest literature, especially as seen in Achebe’s Anthills of the Savannah.