Textual Attitude, Colonial Literature and the Mental Subjugation of the Colonised in Africa

This paper underscores the cultural dimension of the European imperialist project with particular reference to Anglophone Africa. Drawing on assumptions and insights rooted in colonial discourse analysis, it explores the implications of the subtle use of the literature of empire for the promotion of European imperialism. It reveals that African curriculum planners, who perpetuate the imperialist hegemony by giving undue prominence to literary works that were originally popularised by the colonial establishment, are still serving the imperialist interest promoted by colonial education. This suggests that while colonialism is a determinable experience in temporal terms, imperialism outlives the official termination of colonial engagements.[PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]