Stepping out of Line in Independent Conakry

ABSTRACT:In this paper, I take the time-space of post-independence Conakry as an important site in the history of articulations and rearticulations of culture and politics that have rightly sustained critical interest in the conjuncture of decolonization. Such a maneuver might lead us to challenge the centripetal tendencies of postcolonial studies. In this article, though, I ask only this: how does taking Conakry at this time seriously as a site of cultural production modulate understandings of cultural production in the conjuncture of decolonization? My answer to that question centers on dissidence, through a discussion of the work of Maryse Condé and Condetto Nénékhaly-Camara. The conjuncture of post-independence Conakry can help us configure the place of literary and artistic non-conformism in the context of authoritarianism. It supposes moving from an aesthetics of independence to an aesthetics of dissent.I remember being in Conakry in 1968. … Those were, in their way, golden days. (Johnson 3)S. T. spoke at maximum volume for over an hour, his speech punctuated by cheers. The woman next to me got a bit bored and began to tuck into a huge bag of nuts. (Nkrumah and Milne 220)