No / The Crises of Postcoloniality in Africa is an assemblage of transdisciplinary essays that offer a spirited reflection on the debate and phenomenon of postcoloniality in Africa, including the changing patterns and ramifications of problems, challenges and opportunities associated with it. A key conceptual rhythm that runs through the various chapters of the book is that, far from being demised, postcoloniality is still firmly embedded in Africa, manifesting itself in both blatant and insidious forms. Among the important themes covered in the book include the concepts of postcolonialism, postcoloniality, and neocolonialism; Africa’s precolonial formations and the impact of colonialism; the enduring patterns of colonial legacies in Africa; the persistent contradictions between African indigenous institutions and western versions of modernity; the unravelling of the postcolonial state and issues of armed conflict, conflict intervention and peacebuilding; postcolonial imperialism in Africa and the US-led global war on terror, the historical and postcolonial contexts of gender relations in Africa, as well as pan-Africanism and regionalist approaches to redressing the crises of postcoloniality.

This work is a comparative analysis of the works of the Ukrainian author Oksana Zabuzhko (Field Work in Ukrainian Sex) and the Algerian writer Assia Djebar (Women of Algiers in Their Apartment). Although the lives of Algerian and Ukrainian women were shaped by different historical and social forces, discourses and traditions, common themes exist in their writings because of their common postcolonial background. Both authors examine the relations of women to history in the postcolonial setting, the problem of inscribing women into history, and the double oppression women experienced during colonial times (as colonized subjects and as gendered subjects). One of their main themes in the works of Djebar and Zabuzhko is that of the body. In their writings, Assia Djebar and Oksana Zabuzhko unite the discourses of female body, pain, and history. Woman’s body, “unseen” by the Algerian and Ukrainian societies, is inscribed into the historic process through pain. The experience unacknowledged before is expressed through details of (sexual) violence and rape that the women of the colonized nation suffered from the colonizers (the French or the Soviets), because the discourse of postcolonial nationalism ascribed to women the roles of chaste patriotic icons. In my research, I focus on the themes of the female body as a site of (colonial) violence done to a woman, as well as a site of resistance to patriarchal values. The methodology of my research consists in close reading of the texts of Assia Djebar and Oksana Zabuzhko. I analyze the texts providing historical context of women’s condition in Algeria and Ukraine and concentrating on the impacts of French and Russian/Soviet colonialism and nationalism on the lives of women. One of the issues under analysis is that of decolonization, or disengagement from the colonial trauma. I argue that the language chosen by these authors for writing (French by Assia Djebar and Ukrainian by Oksana Zabuzhko) contains a liberating potential.

Through the critical discourse analysis of Anglophone Caribbean literature as a polyrhythmic performance, this research sets out to examine the claim that, in a world in a state of constant flux, emerging Caribbean voices are offering a challenging perspective on how to negotiate identity away from the binary constructs of centre and margin. It argues that the Caribbean writer, as a self-conscious producer of alternative discourses, offers an innovative and transcultural vision of the self. This research consists of three stages which integrate critical discourse and literary analysis with colonial/postcolonial and socio-cultural theories. Firstly, it investigates the power of language as an operation of discourse through which to apprehend reality within a binary system of representation. It then examines how the concept of discourse, as a site of contestation and meaning, enables the elaboration of a Caribbean counter-discourse. Finally, it explores the role, within the Caribbean text, of literary techniques such as narrative fragmentation, irony, dialogism, intertextuality, ambivalence and the carnivalesque to challenge, disrupt the established order and offer new perspectives of being. My study of Anglophone Caribbean texts highlights the power of language and the authority of the ‘book’ as subtle, insidious tools of domination and colonisation. It also demonstrates how, by allowing hitherto marginalised voices to write themselves into being, Caribbean writers enable linear narratives and monolithic visions of reality to be contested and other perspectives of understanding and of meaning to be uncovered. It exposes the plurality and the interweaving of discourses in the Caribbean text as a liberating, dynamic force which enables new subject positions and realities to emerge along the lines of similarity and difference. At a time when the issue of identity is one of the central problems in the world today, the research argues that this celebration of the plural, the fluid and the ambivalent offers new ways of being away from the stultifying perspective of essentialist forms.

Esta tese analisa diferentes representações da província angolana de Cabinda como um lugar definido por múltiplas mediações e caracterizações de sua vocação social, política, econômica e cultural, construídas em disputas por sua incorporação a diferentes projetos coloniais e póscoloniais. Com base em material etnográfico produzido em trabalhos de campo realizados em Cabinda, observei o modo como diferentes interlocutores me apresentaram sua “realidade” a partir de avaliações e interpretações de práticas e símbolos considerados tradicionais. O imperativo de divulgar as tradições cabindas assenta-se, por sua vez, em um discurso de “desolação cultural” da província construído concomitantemente à evidenciação de sua situação colonial. Entretanto, diferentes atores utilizam representações de Cabinda mediadas por saberes coloniais como fontes de reconhecimento do trabalho de divulgação das tradições feito por antepassados. O argumento desta tese é o de que este “uso” das representações coloniais é constitutivo de uma perspectiva pós-colonial sobre o conceito de tradição. / This thesis analyzes representations of the Angolan province of Cabinda as a place defined by multiple mediations and characterizations of its social, political, economic, and cultural vocation, constructed in disputes for its embedding in distinct colonial and postcolonial projects. Through the analysis of ethnographic material produced in fieldworks conducted in Cabinda, I observed the ways different interlocutors presented their “reality” by assessing and interpreting practices and symbols viewed as traditional. The imperative of disclosing Cabinda traditions stems from a discourse of “cultural desolation” in the province constructed in concur with the evincing of its colonial situation. However, different social actors use representations of Cabinda mediated by colonial views as sources for the recognition of the work of disclosing traditions made by ancestors. The argument of this thesis is that this “use” of colonial representations constitutes a postcolonial perspective on the concept of tradition.

Léonora Miano est une écrivaine franco-camerounaise qui est « jeune » mais féconde et déjà appréciée et reconnue par un large public ; elle peut être considérée comme une figure représentative parmi les écrivains de la génération postcoloniale sur le continent africain. Elle a publié une dizaine de romans, y compris deux trilogies, l’une dite africaine et l’autre « afropéenne » , de nombreux d’essais et des pièces de théâtres. La trilogie africaine regroupe L’Intérieur de la nuit, Plon, 2005 ; Contours du jour qui vient, Plon, 2006 ; Les Aubes écarlates, Plon, 2009 et constitue le corpus principal de cette thèse. La problématique identitaire est un sujet central et incontournable parmi les axes de recherches sur la littérature francophone africaine à cause de l’histoire coloniale et post-coloniale qui a perturbé les cultures traditionnelles et mis en contact des peuples et sociétés fort différents. En tant qu’écrivaine née dans les années 70, époque à la fois stimulante et troublante, Léonora Miano a vécu ses expériences d’adolescente sur le continent africain puis d’adulte en France à partir de ses études universitaires. Cette mobilité entre les continents et les cultures l’a amenée à connaître une vraie vie postcoloniale, à prendre du recul par rapport à l’histoire africaine ancienne et récente, à réfléchir sur les crises identitaires des Africains en Afrique et les causes de leurs crises dans la société postcoloniale complexe. Nous verrons donc que la trilogie africaine de Léonora Miano est révélatrice de ces questions socioculturelles car elle décrit un panorama des questions identitaires concentré spécifiquement sur une Afrique fictive mais évocatrice de bien des pays africains réels. Or ces bouleversements sont trop souvent éludés par les Européens et par les Africains eux-mêmes (c’est à la fois cette distanciation et ce retour africain qui fait la particularité de l’œuvre de cette Franco-Camerounaise). Cette thèse essaye en premier lieu de contextualiser notre approche de la trilogie, en donnant un aperçu général, surtout indispensable pour le lecteur chinois, sur la problématique de l’identité, le parcours de Miano (peu connue en Chine), et les contenus thématiques de la trilogie africaine. Dans la deuxième partie, nous travaillons sur toutes sortes de représentations de la désidentification africaine, autour du mal principal provoquant la crise identitaire : la violence (que ce soit la violence physique ou la violence psychologique) ; ses systèmes de fonctionnement sont analysés en détail et thématiquement fondés sur le corpus. Dans la troisième partie, nous traitons des résistances des personnages africains, protagonistes ou personnages secondaires, face à leurs crises identitaires pour élaborer une nouvelle identité africaine à l’époque postcoloniale. Dans toutes les parties, nous prenons en compte la particularité de l’écriture mianesque qui n’a rien de réaliste mais qui laisse entrevoir un sens parabolique, un monde noir mystérieux et tourmenté, des personnages divers mais typés, des histoires frappantes et cruciales rendant compte d’une vision affranchie et sans concession de l’Afrique contemporaine. Cette modalité narrative fait prendre conscience des évolutions identitaires des populations africaines dans le continent africain lui-même, l’ambition de l’auteure, à travers cette trilogie africaine, étant d’attirer notre attention sur ce qui est souvent ignoré volontairement ou non tant du côté africain qu’en dehors du continent. / Léonora Miano is a "young" but fertile Franco-Cameroonian writer who is already appreciated and recognized by a large-scale public ; she can be considered as a representative among the writers of the postcolonial generation on the African continent. She has published a dozen novels, including two trilogies, one named as african and the other as "afropéenne", many essays and theatres. The African trilogy includes L’Intérieur de la nuit, Plon, 2005 ; Contours du jour qui vient, Plon, 2006 ; Les Aubes écarlates, Plon, 2009 and they are the main corpus of our thesis. The African trilogy is revealing of the socio-cultural questions related to colonization and entry into the postcolonial era, because it describes a panorama of identity questions focused specifically on a fictional Africa but evocative of many real African countries. But these upheavals are too often ignored by the Europeans and by the Africans themselves (at the same time, this distancing and this return to Africa make the work of the Franco-Cameroonian particular). The thesis attempts firstly to contextualize our approach to the trilogy, giving a general overview, especially essential for the Chinese public, on the question of identity, Miano’s course of life (who is still noteless in China), and thematic content of the African trilogy. In the second part, we work on all kinds of representations of African de-identification, around the main causing the crisis of identity: violence (physical violence or psychological violence); their operating systems are analyzed in detail and thematically based on the corpus. In the third part, we deal with the resistance of African protagonists or secondary characters, in front of their identity crises as well as the consequences and perspectives of their attempts to establish a new African identity in the postcolonial era. In all the parts, we take into account the peculiarity of the "mianesque" writing which is not realistic but suggests a parabolic sense, a black world mysterious and tormented, various et typified characters, striking and crucial stories, and making account of a frank and uncompromising vision of contemporary Africa.

<p>This study explores second and third year students' and teachers‟ views on factors that hinder or facilitate the mastery of English for Academic Purposes (EAP) in the Science and Engineering Technology Higher Institutions of learning in Rwanda (KIST) and seeks to establish the extent to which the current programme meets the needs of the students. This is done by highlighting a whole range of teacher and student perspectives on the EAP programme. Two key requirements invite students to write their academic assignments in the form of research proposals and research project reports. In order to help them perform well in their field subjects, KIST introduced a department of English with a General English Programme under the umbrella of the then School of Language Studies (SORAS) in 1997. The department‟s first assigned mission was to teach English to students in all departments in a bid to support and encourage them to cope with their field specific courses which are taught in English. Rwanda‟s National Council for Higher Education (2007), on language teaching and learning, states that the trio, that is Kinyarwanda (the Mother Tongue and national language) and English and French (as foreign languages), should be taught at primary, secondary and higher education levels in order to reconcile the divide between Rwandan returnees (who had lived abroad for many decades) and locals. It is in this context that KIST, one of the institutions of higher learning, adopted the bilingual policy to cater to students‟ needs to learn both French and English as media of academic communication. However, after Rwanda‟s integration into the East African Community and the Commonwealth, English has been officially adopted as the medium of instruction in all schools and higher institutions of education. That is why there was a sudden language shift in 2006 from French to English as a medium of instruction at KIST. French and Kinyarwanda are now merely taught as subjects. The motive behind the move was to cater for Rwanda‟s needs to fully participate in the economic community of East African Community in general and in the global economy in particular. The move drastically affected students‟ ability to read and write English in their respective disciplines. The move also affected lecturers of other speciality areas. To avert the obvious challenges emanating from this sudden shift in language policy, the Institute introduced the English for Specific Purposes (ESP) and English for Academic Purposes (EAP) programmes under the then KIST School of Language Studies (SOLAS) and the KIST Language Centre. However, appropriate instructional materials for such courses have not been easily available. Given this situation, English teachers have had to create their own materials rather than the existing generalised and pre-packaged language teaching materials. As a result, students‟ specific needs for induction into a scientific writing community at tertiary level have rarely been met. It is against this background that the study seeks to investigate factors that are facilitating and the mastery of EAP. The study operates on post-colonial/post-structuralist theoretical perspectives. These were founded on the analytical framework that is guided by thematic and/or conceptual underpinnings of language policy in the post-colonial Africa. Thus, English Language Teaching (ELT), developed into English as a second and additional language that is multi-semiotic and multi-modality in EAP and science genres, focusing mostly on its academic literacy, identity, ideology, power and agency, as well as its investment in language teaching and learning and the scientific community practice. Using a combination of ethnographic principles/practices like participants‟ observations, oneto- one interviews, focus group discussions and documentary review in data collection, the study utilises thematic/conceptual analysis to draw its conclusions. Drawing from the above conceptual perspectives, therefore, as well as from the methodological approach, this thesis emphasises the fact that the inability of students to successfully master EAP is caused by various factors, including the choice of English language learning materials. Contradictory approaches to language learning and to academic literacy practices create further challenges to the Rwandan students‟ advancement in English mastery. These same practices also serve to limit the students‟ ability to learn this language and complicate their access to local and global cultural exposure that is necessary for their socio-economic development of Rwanda. The study also reveals lack of appropriate discursive competence and multi-semiotic repertoires as some of the major factors inhibiting students‟ academic progress. This is partly explained by the nature of the English language learning and teaching materials that is in use which neither provides general nor disciplinary specific academic and learning opportunities in English. Similarly, a range of structural and professional constraints on &bdquo / agency‟ exists for teachers of English in Rwanda as an additional language to the students, including lack of induction into scientific discourses or the EAP community of language practice. The overall lack of power and agency by teachers also contributes to constraints and constrictions in English language learning practices for these students in Rwanda. The study, however, observes that this situation is not only peculiar to KIST, as it is also common in almost all tertiary institutions in Rwanda. Specific recommendations are made in the study to improve the quality of English language learning and teaching in general and EAP in particular at KIST as an institution of higher learning, through the establishment of a clearer language policy and training opportunities for staff to update and develop required language skills in EAP, especially with regards to writing skills in sciences and engineering. The government of Rwanda, under the umbrella of Rwanda Education Board (REB) and the contribution of English language experts at the Institute, should provide a clearer direction of the language policy and curriculum that addresses Rwandan students‟ specific needs. KIST, as an institution of higher learning, should value and facilitate the teaching and learning of English in general and the teaching of EAP in particular, bearing in mind its assigned mission. The management of the Institute should encourage interaction between EAP and subject area lecturers to discuss and agree upon, text types to be used by EAP lecturers in teaching. KIST management should also provide room for regular interactions with English lecturers to listen to their views and offer them further language training opportunities in order to update and develop the required skills in EAP, especially with regards to writing skills in science and engineering.</p>

The thesis attempts to describe resistance in terms of history, space, and identity in Michael Ondaatje¡¦s The English Patient. The first chapter of the thesis sets out to elaborate the historical context of the novel, and its influence on the subaltern personas. The chapter aims to demonstrate how postcolonial literature rejects Western official history, providing an alternative voice for the subaltern subjects in the novel. In the second chapter I focus on the spatial politics of the novel, bringing geographical and bodily space into discussion by means of adopting the concepts of de- and re-territorialization. It designates how the broken geography and the wounded body characterize the marginalized characters and their dwelling space. Chapter Three is dedicated to the study of the personas¡¦ identity and their relationships, which are formed and developed under emotions of lack and desire. In this chapter I also discuss the intertextuality of the novel, exemplifying how the novel mirrors other literary works and art works, borrowing yet subverting the classics of Western civilization. In The English Patient, Ondaatje voices for the subaltern, adopting Western classics as the objects of revision. He maps the resistance of the subaltern on the ruins of the Western classics by rewriting the Empire¡¦s histories, space and subaltern identities. The mergence of alternative histories and spaces interweaves a fictional world that is divergent from the official Western world.

Abstract

<p>This study explores second and third year students' and teachers‟ views on factors that hinder or facilitate the mastery of English for Academic Purposes (EAP) in the Science and Engineering Technology Higher Institutions of learning in Rwanda (KIST) and seeks to establish the extent to which the current programme meets the needs of the students. This is done by highlighting a whole range of teacher and student perspectives on the EAP programme. Two key requirements invite students to write their academic assignments in the form of research proposals and research project reports. In order to help them perform well in their field subjects, KIST introduced a department of English with a General English Programme under the umbrella of the then School of Language Studies (SORAS) in 1997. The department‟s first assigned mission was to teach English to students in all departments in a bid to support and encourage them to cope with their field specific courses which are taught in English. Rwanda‟s National Council for Higher Education (2007), on language teaching and learning, states that the trio, that is Kinyarwanda (the Mother Tongue and national language) and English and French (as foreign languages), should be taught at primary, secondary and higher education levels in order to reconcile the divide between Rwandan returnees (who had lived abroad for many decades) and locals. It is in this context that KIST, one of the institutions of higher learning, adopted the bilingual policy to cater to students‟ needs to learn both French and English as media of academic communication. However, after Rwanda‟s integration into the East African Community and the Commonwealth, English has been officially adopted as the medium of instruction in all schools and higher institutions of education. That is why there was a sudden language shift in 2006 from French to English as a medium of instruction at KIST. French and Kinyarwanda are now merely taught as subjects. The motive behind the move was to cater for Rwanda‟s needs to fully participate in the economic community of East African Community in general and in the global economy in particular. The move drastically affected students‟ ability to read and write English in their respective disciplines. The move also affected lecturers of other speciality areas. To avert the obvious challenges emanating from this sudden shift in language policy, the Institute introduced the English for Specific Purposes (ESP) and English for Academic Purposes (EAP) programmes under the then KIST School of Language Studies (SOLAS) and the KIST Language Centre. However, appropriate instructional materials for such courses have not been easily available. Given this situation, English teachers have had to create their own materials rather than the existing generalised and pre-packaged language teaching materials. As a result, students‟ specific needs for induction into a scientific writing community at tertiary level have rarely been met. It is against this background that the study seeks to investigate factors that are facilitating and the mastery of EAP. The study operates on post-colonial/post-structuralist theoretical perspectives. These were founded on the analytical framework that is guided by thematic and/or conceptual underpinnings of language policy in the post-colonial Africa. Thus, English Language Teaching (ELT), developed into English as a second and additional language that is multi-semiotic and multi-modality in EAP and science genres, focusing mostly on its academic literacy, identity, ideology, power and agency, as well as its investment in language teaching and learning and the scientific community practice. Using a combination of ethnographic principles/practices like participants‟ observations, oneto- one interviews, focus group discussions and documentary review in data collection, the study utilises thematic/conceptual analysis to draw its conclusions. Drawing from the above conceptual perspectives, therefore, as well as from the methodological approach, this thesis emphasises the fact that the inability of students to successfully master EAP is caused by various factors, including the choice of English language learning materials. Contradictory approaches to language learning and to academic literacy practices create further challenges to the Rwandan students‟ advancement in English mastery. These same practices also serve to limit the students‟ ability to learn this language and complicate their access to local and global cultural exposure that is necessary for their socio-economic development of Rwanda. The study also reveals lack of appropriate discursive competence and multi-semiotic repertoires as some of the major factors inhibiting students‟ academic progress. This is partly explained by the nature of the English language learning and teaching materials that is in use which neither provides general nor disciplinary specific academic and learning opportunities in English. Similarly, a range of structural and professional constraints on &bdquo / agency‟ exists for teachers of English in Rwanda as an additional language to the students, including lack of induction into scientific discourses or the EAP community of language practice. The overall lack of power and agency by teachers also contributes to constraints and constrictions in English language learning practices for these students in Rwanda. The study, however, observes that this situation is not only peculiar to KIST, as it is also common in almost all tertiary institutions in Rwanda. Specific recommendations are made in the study to improve the quality of English language learning and teaching in general and EAP in particular at KIST as an institution of higher learning, through the establishment of a clearer language policy and training opportunities for staff to update and develop required language skills in EAP, especially with regards to writing skills in sciences and engineering. The government of Rwanda, under the umbrella of Rwanda Education Board (REB) and the contribution of English language experts at the Institute, should provide a clearer direction of the language policy and curriculum that addresses Rwandan students‟ specific needs. KIST, as an institution of higher learning, should value and facilitate the teaching and learning of English in general and the teaching of EAP in particular, bearing in mind its assigned mission. The management of the Institute should encourage interaction between EAP and subject area lecturers to discuss and agree upon, text types to be used by EAP lecturers in teaching. KIST management should also provide room for regular interactions with English lecturers to listen to their views and offer them further language training opportunities in order to update and develop the required skills in EAP, especially with regards to writing skills in science and engineering.</p>

Esta tese analisa diferentes representações da província angolana de Cabinda como um lugar definido por múltiplas mediações e caracterizações de sua vocação social, política, econômica e cultural, construídas em disputas por sua incorporação a diferentes projetos coloniais e póscoloniais. Com base em material etnográfico produzido em trabalhos de campo realizados em Cabinda, observei o modo como diferentes interlocutores me apresentaram sua “realidade” a partir de avaliações e interpretações de práticas e símbolos considerados tradicionais. O imperativo de divulgar as tradições cabindas assenta-se, por sua vez, em um discurso de “desolação cultural” da província construído concomitantemente à evidenciação de sua situação colonial. Entretanto, diferentes atores utilizam representações de Cabinda mediadas por saberes coloniais como fontes de reconhecimento do trabalho de divulgação das tradições feito por antepassados. O argumento desta tese é o de que este “uso” das representações coloniais é constitutivo de uma perspectiva pós-colonial sobre o conceito de tradição. / This thesis analyzes representations of the Angolan province of Cabinda as a place defined by multiple mediations and characterizations of its social, political, economic, and cultural vocation, constructed in disputes for its embedding in distinct colonial and postcolonial projects. Through the analysis of ethnographic material produced in fieldworks conducted in Cabinda, I observed the ways different interlocutors presented their “reality” by assessing and interpreting practices and symbols viewed as traditional. The imperative of disclosing Cabinda traditions stems from a discourse of “cultural desolation” in the province constructed in concur with the evincing of its colonial situation. However, different social actors use representations of Cabinda mediated by colonial views as sources for the recognition of the work of disclosing traditions made by ancestors. The argument of this thesis is that this “use” of colonial representations constitutes a postcolonial perspective on the concept of tradition.