• Shashidhar S

The paper attempts to explore the nature of African fiction that emerged in the post-colonial era. The perennial rule of imperial power was being constantly challenged through the fictional writings asserting the uniqueness of the native culture which had long been ignored or subjected to erasure under the vicious imperial rule. Fiction is a powerful tool in manifesting ideologies and presenting reality to the mass. Hence, the imperial powers that colonized the African territory established it’s superiority through a sequential portrayal of the native culture and ways as inferior and uncivilized in the fictional texts published during the colonial period. The colonizers gained mastery in colonizing a nation by the most powerful means of colonizing the mind through pieces of texts that claimed to impart education. The education was a propaganda of the colonizers to retain their superiority in the world by enslaving the colonized through education. Yet, it is undeniable a fact that education was a double-edged weapon and hence the educated colonized were enlightened on the biased portrayal of them in the narratives. They employed the education to re-iterate those indigenous practices and experiences which had long been suppressed by the imperial powers to create a history which undermined the natives and upheld the imperial powers. An in-depth reading of Nadine Gordimer’s The Conservationist and July’s People upholds the richness of African sensibility which has been outrageously dismissed in the colonial writings through the violent portrayal of barbaric Africans in the civilized world of Europeans. The paper attempts to present the ways in which the above mentioned works challenge the masked civility of the Europeans by reflecting the higher morals and values of African communities.

Key words: Counter discourse, indigenous experience, binarism, narratives

"African Fiction: A Counter-discourse to Re-assert Indigenous Experiences", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.5, Issue 4, page no.50-53, April-2018, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1804012.pdf

"African Fiction: A Counter-discourse to Re-assert Indigenous Experiences", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.5, Issue 4, page no. pp50-53, April-2018, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1804012.pdf