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Research Article
Colorism and Identity Formation in African American Literature
Kodjo Adaha*
Issue:
Volume 14, Issue 3, June 2026
Pages:
43-47
Received:
31 March 2026
Accepted:
11 April 2026
Published:
11 May 2026
Abstract: This article examines the role of colorism in shaping identity formation in African American literature, with particular attention to the works of Nella Larsen, Delores Phillips, and Brit Bennett. While racism has been widely studied, colorism, defined as intra-racial discrimination based on skin tone, remains an underexplored yet deeply influential social and psychological phenomenon. Drawing on Critical Race Theory, cultural studies, and theories of identity construction, this study analyzes how literary narratives represent the complex interplay between social hierarchies, family dynamics, and personal identity. Through a close reading of Passing, The Darkest Child, and The Vanishing Half, the article highlights how characters negotiate their identities within systems structured by both racial and intra-racial inequalities. The analysis reveals that colorism operates as both a structural and internalized system, shaping access to social mobility while producing psychological fragmentation, insecurity, and tensions in belonging. The phenomenon of racial passing further illustrates the paradox of identity, where proximity to whiteness provides privilege but often results in alienation and loss of self. By foregrounding literary representations of colorism, this study contributes to broader debates on race, identity, and cultural representation in African American and diasporic contexts. It argues that African American literature not only reflects the realities of color-based hierarchies but also critically interrogates the processes through which identity is constructed, negotiated, and transformed.
Abstract: This article examines the role of colorism in shaping identity formation in African American literature, with particular attention to the works of Nella Larsen, Delores Phillips, and Brit Bennett. While racism has been widely studied, colorism, defined as intra-racial discrimination based on skin tone, remains an underexplored yet deeply influentia...
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Research Article
Towards the Canonization of Cameroonian Pop:
A Geocritical Appreciation of Selected Cameroonian Pop Songs
Tatang Banda*,
Adamu Pangmeshi,
Gilda Forbang Looh
Issue:
Volume 14, Issue 3, June 2026
Pages:
48-57
Received:
20 April 2026
Accepted:
30 April 2026
Published:
18 May 2026
Abstract: This paper examines the conditions under which selected Cameroonian pop songs may be read as candidates for cultural canonization within postcolonial African music studies. While Cameroonian popular music circulates widely across local and diasporic spaces, it remains under-theorized as a corpus capable of generating enduring aesthetic, ideological, and historical value. The paper addresses this gap by interrogating how certain pop songs function not merely as entertainment, but as cultural texts that crystallize collective memory, gendered subjectivities, and glocal negotiations of identity. Through a comparative reading of “Crying for Salvation” by Afo Akom, “Ça Va Aller” by Salatiel, “Jongde Ma” by Tao, and “Esingan” by les Têtes Brûlées, the study hypothesizes that songs become canonizable when they successfully mediate between global musical idioms and localized cultural codes while engaging urgent socio-political concerns. In order to examine Cameroonian pop songs as geocritical texts capable of contributing to cultural canonization through spatial and narrative analysis; Cameroonian pop songs function as geocritical texts that construct complex spatial, temporal, and cultural meanings through intertextuality, referentiality, and multisensory representation, thereby justifying their inclusion within an expanded African cultural canon. Leaning primarily on geocriticism, the article reads these works as cultural artifacts embedded in the socio-political conditions of postcolonial Cameroon and its diasporic extensions. Through close lyrical analysis, sonic interpretation, and attention to performance and reception contexts, the study argues that canonization in Cameroonian pop emerges at the intersection of aesthetic innovation, historical resonance, and transnational circulation. Ultimately, the paper proposes a framework for understanding how popular music participates in shaping national memory and diasporic belonging. These songs are selected because they span different historical moments—linguistic registers and stylistic orientations—ranging from bikutsi, folklore-inflected performance to contemporary Afro-pop, yet converge in their thematic engagement with moral responsibility, resilience, gender construction, and communal continuity.
Abstract: This paper examines the conditions under which selected Cameroonian pop songs may be read as candidates for cultural canonization within postcolonial African music studies. While Cameroonian popular music circulates widely across local and diasporic spaces, it remains under-theorized as a corpus capable of generating enduring aesthetic, ideological...
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Research Article
Rethinking Moral Paradigms: A Postmodern Deconstructive Reading of Mrs. Warren’s Profession and The Importance of Being Earnest
Divine Njong*
Issue:
Volume 14, Issue 3, June 2026
Pages:
58-67
Received:
25 April 2026
Accepted:
9 May 2026
Published:
26 May 2026
DOI:
10.11648/j.ijla.20261403.13
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Abstract: This study examines the destabilization of Victorian moral certainties in George Bernard Shaw’s Mrs. Warren’s Profession and Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest through a postmodern deconstructive lens. It explores how both playwrights, writing within the constraints of Victorian society, anticipate postmodern concerns by challenging dominant ideologies of morality, identity, and social structure. Emerging during a period marked by rigid social hierarchies, strict gender expectations, and an intense emphasis on public respectability, both plays expose the contradictions embedded within Victorian moral discourse. The study is situated within broader debates on literature and ideology, particularly the relationship between social performance, moral authority, and the instability of meaning in literary texts. The central hypothesis is that these texts deconstruct moral absolutes by exposing their contradictions and performative nature, a position consistent with Jacques Derrida’s assertion that meaning is never fixed but always deferred (Of Grammatology 158). Drawing primarily on Derrida’s theory of deconstruction, and supported by Michel Foucault’s critique of power and discourse as well as Jean Baudrillard’s insights into bourgeois simulation, the study adopts a qualitative textual analysis method. Through close reading, comparative literary analysis, and critical interpretation of selected scenes and character constructions, the research investigates how the plays of the authors undermine claims to moral stability and social authenticity. The study demonstrates how Shaw interrogates capitalist and patriarchal structures through the commodification of women’s labour, while Wilde satirizes the superficiality, hypocrisy, and self-fashioning that underpin middle-class respectability. The analysis shows that both plays undermine essentialist notions of truth, virtue, and identity, revealing moral norms as unstable constructs rather than universal absolutes. By and large, the research concludes that these late Victorian dramas not only critique the ideological foundations of their own society but also anticipate central postmodern concerns regarding fragmentation, performativity, and the indeterminacy of meaning. Through their dramatic strategies, Shaw and Wilde expose morality as a socially constructed and deeply contested concept rather than a fixed ethical reality.
Abstract: This study examines the destabilization of Victorian moral certainties in George Bernard Shaw’s Mrs. Warren’s Profession and Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest through a postmodern deconstructive lens. It explores how both playwrights, writing within the constraints of Victorian society, anticipate postmodern concerns by challenging domi...
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Research Article
Contextual Dynamics and Language Choice in Wole Soyinka’s Death and the King’s Horseman and Ola Rotimi’s The Gods Are Not to Blame
Bode Rufus Olofinmuagun*,
Samuel Oyeyemi Agbeleoba,
Samuel Ayodele Dada
Issue:
Volume 14, Issue 3, June 2026
Pages:
68-79
Received:
30 April 2026
Accepted:
13 May 2026
Published:
26 May 2026
DOI:
10.11648/j.ijla.20261403.14
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Abstract: This study undertakes a sociolinguistic exploration of the intricate relationship between context and language choice within two seminal works of Nigerian drama: Wole Soyinka’s Death and the King’s Horseman and Ola Rotimi’s The Gods Are Not to Blame. The mastery of a language is not merely a function of grammatical competence but is profoundly demonstrated by the ability to select linguistic forms appropriate to a given context. This research investigates the contextual factors that govern language choice in these plays, which serve as rich repositories of sociolinguistic phenomena. Employing a qualitative methodology grounded in discourse analysis, specifically the SPEAKING model associated with the ethnography of communication, the study analyzes 115 exchanges from 16 purposively sampled excerpts. The findings reveal that the contexts influencing language choice are multifaceted, primarily delineated along the formal and informal axes. These contexts are shaped by a confluence of factors including the physical setting, the social and hierarchical status of the participants, the cultural worldview embedded in the speech community, and the overall atmosphere of the communicative event. The study concludes that context exerts a determinative influence on the linguistic choices made by the characters. The participants in the plays adeptly navigate their linguistic repertoires, deploying language in a manner that is congruent with the situational and cultural exigencies they face. This research contributes to the understanding of sociolinguistic dynamics in literary texts, highlighting the interplay between language, culture, and society as portrayed in Nigerian dramatic literature.
Abstract: This study undertakes a sociolinguistic exploration of the intricate relationship between context and language choice within two seminal works of Nigerian drama: Wole Soyinka’s Death and the King’s Horseman and Ola Rotimi’s The Gods Are Not to Blame. The mastery of a language is not merely a function of grammatical competence but is profoundly demo...
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Research Article
Living Between Borders: Transnationalism, Identity and Exile in Gordimer and Adichie
Angandze Sheily Ngobalep*
Issue:
Volume 14, Issue 3, June 2026
Pages:
80-91
Received:
8 May 2026
Accepted:
18 May 2026
Published:
26 May 2026
DOI:
10.11648/j.ijla.20261403.15
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Abstract: This article explores transnationalism in postcolonial literature through the migrant experiences in None to Accompany Me and Americanah. Political oppression, economic instability, racism, and globalization continue to compel many Africans to migrate, yet migrants often retain deep emotional, cultural, and economic ties to their homelands. Drawing on transnationalism, diaspora, postcolonialism, and identity from scholars including Rainer Bauböck, Thomas Faist, Bill Ashcroft, and Homi Bhabha, this study investigates how migrants negotiate identity, belonging, and cultural preservation abroad. The article argues that migration does not sever homeland ties. Rather, migrants construct “transnational spaces” that bridge host and origin countries, sustaining familial, cultural, linguistic, political, and economic relationships while adapting to new societies. Central themes include exile, hybridity, resistance, sexuality, identity, and Bhabha’s “third space.” Through qualitative, comparative textual analysis of characters such as Sibongile and Didymus Maqoma, Ifemelu, and Obinze, the study shows how migrants resist assimilation, navigate racism and alienation, and use language, family ties, remittances, and nostalgia to maintain transnational connections. The analysis concludes that transnationalism is central to the migrant experience in contemporary African literature. Despite identity crises and cultural conflict, these novels present migration not as abandonment of origins, but as negotiation of multiple identities and spaces affirming the resilience and adaptability of the postcolonial subject in a globalized world.
Abstract: This article explores transnationalism in postcolonial literature through the migrant experiences in None to Accompany Me and Americanah. Political oppression, economic instability, racism, and globalization continue to compel many Africans to migrate, yet migrants often retain deep emotional, cultural, and economic ties to their homelands. Drawing...
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