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Bessie Head’s Absorbent Poetics: Lessons from Co-operative Farming in Botswana.
- Source :
-
English in Africa . Nov2023, Vol. 50 Issue 3, p75-88. 14p. - Publication Year :
- 2023
-
Abstract
- In her autobiographical novel, A Question of Power (1973), Bessie Head identified a dialectical bind in the language and imagery of decolonial and nationalist movements across Africa at the time. I contrast the novel’s treatment of such language with Head’s observations of the agricultural development projects in which she participated during her time in Botswana, which are distinguished by a relational responsiveness across difference, reflected in their responsiveness to the natural environment. Her involvement as a participantobserver, I argue, allowed Head to develop a unique Afrocentric philosophy and poetics, distinct from and often at odds with the language and ethos of campaigns for national liberation. This poetics is what I term “absorbent”: defined by its capacity for sustaining and responding to difference. However, although Head attempted to transcend the dialectical discourse of nationalism, I show that this effort towards transcendence sometimes risked intellectual deflection, which ultimately reinforced a conservative model of global politics and economics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Subjects :
- *NATIONALISM
*AFROCENTRISM
*ECONOMICS & politics
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 03768902
- Volume :
- 50
- Issue :
- 3
- Database :
- Academic Search Index
- Journal :
- English in Africa
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 177127966
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.4314/eia.v50i3.6