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February 23, 20260 citationsOpen Access

Reworlding Africa: Narrative Plurality and Decolonial Vision in Chinua Achebe's Anthills of the Savannah

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MCMonir A. Choudhury

Key Points

  • This research aims to explore how Achebe dismantles hegemonic ideological models through narrative plurality.
  • Qualitative study using interpretative research methodology
  • Analysis through hermeneutics and deconstruction
  • Incorporation of postmodern theory and postcolonial views
  • Reveals interconnected systems of epistemic domination like Western universalism and colonial education
  • Demonstrates Achebe's narrative as a counterforce against neo-colonial elitism and patriarchy
  • Concludes that Achebe's fiction transforms African modernity through pluralism and moral coexistence

Abstract

Chinua Achebe Anthills of the Savannah is an impressive postcolonial novel that questions the legacies of colonialism, patriarchy, and western universalism on African identity and rule. Based on the philosophical approach to African humanism, the novel by Achebe does not only demolish the metanarratives of hegemony that still inform the postcolonial consciousness but also propagates plural and indigenous narratives based on orature and community ethics. This research aims to discuss how Achebe dismantles these hegemonic ideological models and reinvents mini-narratives that glorify multiplicity, hybridity, and cultural rebirth. The study is a qualitative study that uses an interpretative research methodology and incorporates the postmodern theory, which focuses on metanarratives, developed by Jean-Francois Lyotard and postcolonial views of Homi K. Bhabha and Gayatri Spivak. The analysis of the text performed through the method of hermeneutics and deconstruction reveals that Western universalism, neo-colonial elitism, colonial education, and patriarchy are the interconnected systems of epistemic domination, which is revealed by Achebe in his story. Conversely, it emphasizes the novel in terms of its reworlding, indigenous wisdom, and feminist agency in opposition: as resistant and reworlding counterforces. The results confirm that Achebe's fiction makes the postmodern criticism of the universality turn into African philosophy of pluralism and moral coexistence. The paper concludes that Anthills of the Savannah is not an ordinary political allegory but theoretical intervention, transformation of African modernity, in terms of narrative plurality and dialogue across cultures.

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Cite This Study

Monir A. Choudhury (2026) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/699ba09872792ae9fd8707a2https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18725054
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