Writing Is Not “Anti-African”: How Naipaul “See(s) Much” About Africa

Abstract

Many critics have harshly criticized V.S. Naipaul's works, both fiction and trip memoirs on the postcolonial sociocultural milieu of Africa, for being racially objectionable. The indictment apparently has a rationale too in the sense that his writings- In a Free State (1971), A Band in the River (1979) and Masque of Africa for instance- outright seem to be intestinal butchery of the African life, past and present, without any sense of mercy. However, he has countered all the critics often to defend his writings. In fact, this stand of Naipaul on his writings prompts this paper for a scrutiny and apparently, it seems that, as it will be explored, his defense stands; he has seen “much” about Africa, its future. Paradoxically, in his internal butchery he is neither “anti-African” nor “anti-Negro.” His African discourse, though supposed to be they do not have any such offensive, butchery agenda in nature, rather seems to have a tendency of seeing “much” future possibilities in the postcolonial paradox with a spiral into its past. Although the African post-colonial paradox is colonial, he also understands it as a part of another form of ups and downs in the history of African civilization. This is more apparent in his writings and more perceptible in the context of the postcolonial viewpoint on displacement and dislocation. Postcolonial discourse usually emphasizes a crisis in its perspectives. However, for Naipaul, they are also, just like every other civilization, the nature of the history of the African civilization. It is in this understanding, being explored, he sees “much” possibilities, an enabling phenomenon, rather than a crisis in the African paradox.