Conflicts of Cultures in Chinua Achebe and Ayi Kwei Armahs Novels A Comparative Study

Abstract

Cultural conflict is a byproduct of the European imperial rule in West Africa. Conflicts of Cultures take place as a result of the clash of cultural values and beliefs. The European cultural invasion of African culture and subsequent terrible experiences of Africans attract sociologists and academia from different disciplines. The research observes and highlights social, economical, political, and psychological dominance and subjugation at the hands of the tyrannical and barbaric rule of the Europeans in Nigeria and Ghana with special reference to the representation in the novels of Chinua Achebe and Ayi Kwei Armah respectively. The thesis focuses on numerous tenets of African ethnicity such as cultural issues, colonial experiences, and reaction, the conflict between ancient and modern culture, use of myths, historical records, the native language of the people, symbolical codes, religious conflicts within African tribes, art and architecture, dressing style of people and socio-political background of Africans. This thesis attempts to describe the similarities and dissimilarities between two writers from West Africa in order to highlight cultural conflict as an upshot of the pulls and pressures of the past lives of West Africans continue to influence their presence in the colonial rule. Both Chinua Achebe and Ayi Kwei Armah join their hands in the honest articulation of the African voices through the major characters in the novels selected for study with an unbiased and authentic representation of the Conflicts of Cultures. newlineThe present research brings larger benefits and interest to the students, academicians, researchers, and aspirants in the field of English literature by exploring different perspectives of cultural conflict. It observes that the black culture is oppressed by the white culture in the African continent for centuries. The blacks were deprived of equal opportunities and social respect. Their voice has been suppressed. The present research aims at finding the experiences of the Africans and making