Decolonization, with or without the Mother Tongue: The Blinkards

The article develops the idea of an uncolonizable language as a language that belongs to all. This analysis contrasts Frantz Fanon's theorization of colonized societies in which the ideas of the mother tongue, indigenous cultural resources, and the struggle for self-representation are much less...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Research in African literatures Vol. 55; no. 3; pp. 17 - 27
Main Author: Jeyifo, Biodun
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Indiana University Press 22.09.2025
Subjects:
Criticism and interpretation
Decolonization
Dramatists
Friel, Brian (British playwright)
Native language
Playwrights
Portrayals
Sekyi, Kobina
Africa
ISSN:0034-5210
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:The article develops the idea of an uncolonizable language as a language that belongs to all. This analysis contrasts Frantz Fanon's theorization of colonized societies in which the ideas of the mother tongue, indigenous cultural resources, and the struggle for self-representation are much less salient, with critiques developed by other postcolonial and post-classical theorists and thinkers like Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Amilcar Cabral, Audre Lorde, Sylvia Wynter, Edouard Glissant, or Abiola Irele. To illustrate this argument, a reading of Kobina Sekyi's The Blinkards and Brian Friel's Translations asks readers to consider the racialization of English as the "language of whites" through the lens of colonial catachresis.
ISSN:0034-5210
DOI:10.2979/ral.00068