Re-Africanising African Cultural Identity for Nation-Building in Mphahlele’s Down Second Avenue: an Afrocentric perspective

Authors

  • J Mogoboya

Abstract

The thrust of this article is to endeavour to re-Africanise African cultural identity through a textual analysis of Mphahlele’s Down Second Avenue (1959). In this autobiographical account, the re-imagination of African culture is delineated by bringing into focus roles assigned to both male and female characters for nation-building purposes. These communal gender roles are not conflated as some roles are cut out for males while others are designated for females for cultural preservation in the novel.  This is a qualitative study which is undergirded by an Afrocentric approach in that through Ma-Lebona, aunt Dora, Riba, Segone, Mphahlele conscientises society about the need to re-indigenise African culture for African development and prosperity. Purposive sampling was employed to select Down Second Avenue from other novels by Mphahlele because of its relevance to the study. This article recommends that for Africa to be counted among the great developing nations in the world, she should make contributions from the Afrocentric perspective.

Published

2021-01-25

Issue

Section

Articles