Re-asserting Cultural Perspectives: Old People and New Ideas in Bole Butake’s Lake God and The Survivors and Sankie Maimo’s Succession in Sarkov | Chapter 10 | Perspectives of Arts and Social Studies Vol. 2
African cultures have undergone transformations from the colonial period to the present, often to the detriment of its cultural evolution and within the larger global community. As it were, colonial education subordinated African communalism and created in its place an anti-African spirit evident in the assimilation of western values. This did not only end up in a kind of cultural betrayal, but also posed as a serious threat to the dignity and identity of the people. Those who fall prey to this kind of cultural imperialism are the young people who are often irrationally carried away by western fashion and modes that they tend to neglect and/or forget their cultural ways of life as they join the race of “progress.” This situation has given rise to a conscious effort by creative writers to re-assert and protect African values while at the same time liberating themselves from the longstanding western effort at suppressing, controlling and dominating their thoughts particularly through n...