response for Cheik Hamidou Kane’s The Ambiguous Adventure

HAO 1

HAO XU

9532730

BLST 130

Responses

1) Kourouma portrays disappointment in various ways. First of all, he emphasizes the fact that Africans gained next to nothing from independence. For instance, Fama feels frustrated and angry. He notes that White people keep enjoying various privileges while Africans live in poverty and do not own anything they built after years of hard work, including houses and roads. In essence, they live in Hell despite their nominal success. Kourouma also depicts this disappointment as deprivations of every person. Notably, independence gave Fama nothing but identity documents and a card affirming his party membership. Fama is old and helpless. He no longer can work on land or make a living and only can count on someone’s mercy.

2) Colonization harms African men by devaluing the notion of honor. Fama, as representative of old, traditional values, still believes in the importance of honor. However, after Bamba assaults him, other men offer him compensation. They refuse to believe that he fought because of honor and only sought to restore it when he decided to confront Bamba. These men seem to think that one can attach a price tag to human dignity. This case suggests that the harsh realities of life after independence forced many men to embrace a more survivalist lifestyle, paying less attention to honor and other values associated with masculinity.

3) Women exhibit such consequences, among others, by struggling to overcome their traumas and hardships. For instance, Fama’s wife, Salimata, has to cope with hard work and poverty. Moreover, she must deal with the disrespect for her freedom and personality. Even her husband often thinks of her as a set of erogenous zones, sex partner, or potential mother of his children, not a person with interests, desires, and dignity. Such status reflects the fact that women’s social status always remained low. Their deprivations and grievances remained irrelevant to most people because domination was the law. In other words, women exhibit the consequences of colonization through their powerlessness.

Feedback: Very nice close readings on Kourouma's The Suns of Independence/Les Soleils des Independences. Try to get someone to read over your responses before turning them. The syntax is sometimes awkward.