The poem “The Stranglehold of English Lit” is a poem written by Felix Mnthali. When I first read this poem it went right over my head. I had no idea what the author was trying to get across. After reading more deeply I found that the writer had found something very disturbing within Literature as he knew it by the powerful tone he used. He seems sort of angry.
When reading between the lines I noticed that he was upset with the way the African Literature was being portrayed. This author Jane Austen was someone he would not consider a wise author to read from, being African. He seems to say that what she had to say had nothing at all to do with the life he knew.
Once I understood what the poem was saying I could grasp how the author felt. The teaching of African Literature was actually the teaching of British Literature. In reading these readings in the African schools, where they are irrelevant, unless studying British Literature, brings me to the part of the poem that says “How could question be asked at Makerere and Ibadan, Dakar and Ford Hare with Jane Austen at the centre? He is saying how can the question that the people of Africa be answered if the solutions given are for different answers? It cannot be done.
Thank you for the paragraph breaks! It makes it easier for the reader to follow the organization of your thoughts. You make a good point that Mnthali is complaining that 19th century British Lit is not much good for helping people in Malawi or Botswana understand their worlds. I particularly like your last question, although the syntax is a little tangled up. I think you mean to ask, "How can the questions of people in Africa be answered if the literature offers solutions to questions they are not actually asking?" This is a a poignant questions. Of course it assumes that the stories are actually posing and answering questions.
ReplyDeleteIn your next posting, see if you can locate the guiding questions that are listed on our "Assignments" page so that you can be sure you have all the components of a strong, well developed reader response.