Untitled - Memorial University of Newfoundland

eviden t not only in the language of fictional texts but in what was consi dered "true"
scientific and philosophical observations. Concepntal framewor ks of men like Darwin
and Freud were based on patriarcbal hegemonic structures of race, gender andclass.
in · Writing 'Race' and the Differen ce it Makes " Henry Louis Gates Jr. says , "Hegel.
echoin g Hume and Kant, claimed thaI Africans bad 00 history. because they had
developed no systems of writing and had not mastered the art of wri ting in European
languages" (1 1). Chinua Achebe . one of the foremost postcolonial writers. resists such.
assumptions by suggesting in his novels and essays that Africans had a rich culture
and an organized system of reli gion and governmen t prior to European dominati on. In
Morning Yel On Creation Day, he reiterates that the African 's "past - with all its
imperfections - was net one long night of savagery from which the first Europeans
acting on God 's behalf delivered them " en). Ironicall y, colonialist wri ters , who
assume that the blacks had no written history or culture . conveniently ignore the fact
that the Egyptiansoot only inven ted hieroglyphs but also made the writing material
from papyrus. which other civilizations copi ed andan African mask sculptured by the
Fang people. which came into Picasso's possession. revolutionized twentieth-century
Europeanart. The music of the Africans in America hasgreatly influenced American
popular music, like gospel, rhythm-and-blues, rock and jazz. Paul Simon has relied on
African musicians and musical instruments to enhance his songs, although he basbeen
accused of artistic exploitation and colonialism.
Edward Said , in Ori erualtsm, applies the notion of discourse to his analysis of
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