Describing the Politics of Sovereignty in Postcolonial Africa: Rereading Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o's Matigari and Alobwed'Epie's The Death Certificate

The 1960s in Africa are usually described by historians and political scientists as the era of the "wind of change" because it was during this period that most African countries gained political independence from their colonial masters. In fact, this "wind of change" gave African countries the legitimacy and legality to be the custodians of their own progress and destiny. However, the African continent since then has been a furnace for social revolution, ethnic conflict, and martial dissension. The reasons for this political uproar in most postcolonial African states are wide and varied. However, a principal reason is that the ruling African elites have confiscated the sovereignty of the postcolonial African state for their own individual benefits thereby leaving the masses in desperate conditions. This tragic situation is reflected in the literary and cultural discourses of post-1960 Africa as seen in the novels of Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o and Alobwed'Epie. Using Ngũgĩ's Matigari and Alobwed'Epie's The Death Certificate, this article analyzes the relationship between postcolonial African citizens and their political leaders and also shows how these leaders manipulate the dynamics of political or sovereign powers to the detriment of development in their societies. The article supports the view that the political leadership of the postcolonial fictional states, as seen in the novels, is the archetype of the misuse and abuse of state power in contemporary Africa. Using social semiotics as a theoretical paradigm, the paper affirms that postcolonial Africa is unprogressive, fragmented, and dismembered because of the mismanagement of political power for personal aggrandizement. This mismanagement of state powers has exacerbated the politicization of ethnicity in postcolonial Africa and is also responsible for the political tyranny, corruption, and ethnic conflict for which most contemporary African states have been noted.