Conflict Cultural Spaces and Hybrid Identities in Zakes Mda’s The Heart of Redness and Jamaica Kincaid’s Annie John

Abstract

This paper examines conflict and the establishment of hybrid identities in Zakes Mda’s The Heart of Redness and Jamaica Kincaid’s Annie John. The study stems from the premise that colonialist ideologies and discourses have adversely affected relationships between the north and the south. From a colonialist perspective, the multicultural configuration of the world skews the Eurocentric move towards the establishment of Western enlightenment in colonial and post-colonial societies. As seen in the novels, the colonial setting becomes a conflict space because colonialism is simultaneously accompanied by psychological or coercive resistance. The colonized resists the discourses that described them as inferior and they also rejected their dehumanization and exploitation by the colonizers. Discourses about the inferiority of colonized people are continuously resisted because the colonized also have a culture which they consider superior to the cultures of the colonizers. These oppositional views create conflict. However, there is the need to gaze into the idyllic pre-colonial societies free from all abhorrent colonialist ideologies and practices. Thus, the realization that cultural tolerance and adaptation are ideal in the face of discrimination and xenophobia reshaped the manner in which African literary writers and critics perceived and conceived their relationship with their ‘former’ colonial masters. This paper probes into the discursive ways in which Zakes Mda and Jamaica Kincaid deconstruct the obnoxious inter-human relationships in their societies. The analyses demonstrate that Kincaid and Mda have consistently shifted to the past in order to make positive reflections that can heal their societies of their various predicaments. They have created a composite culture that fuses past indigenous culture with contemporary Western culture.