Sadism and Fear as Dominant Metaphors in the African Novel: A Study of Ngũgĩ Wa Thiong’o’s The River Between, Wizard of the Crow and Henri Lopes’ The Laughing Cry

Abstract

African literature is, in essence, the dramatization of sadism and fear that has impacted greatly on both its themes and style. This is because African historical and political experiences have presented highly topical subjects for the continent’s literary creation. The purpose of this paper is to show the relationship existing between sadism and Art with reference to Ngũgĩ Wa Thiong’o The River Between and Wizard of the Crow, and Henri Lopes’s The Laughing Cry. The exploration of these novels reveals that symptoms of the mental pathology could be diagnosed both among some characters who, either in the relationship colonizer-colonized, or in the context of post-independence, as well, joyfully perpetrate acts of an extreme barbarity.