Stranglehold of English Lit

I will be writing a reader’s response to the Stranglehold of English Lit written by Felix Mnthali. The main thesis of this poem are the questions that Jane Austan poses in her writing which have nothing to do with the African society as a whole.

        The text of this poem has much impact on how it relates to my life since both of my parents are from Ghana, West Africa. They informed me that it was a requirement at many African colleges to take English Lit which may have consisted of reading the book Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austan.  My parents demonstrated the perfect example of what Ngugi was describing when he had stated “African Literature is being overshadowed by the European language”.
        The text agrees with how I view the world because I feel that one’s culture should learn about their own culture first before exploring other cultures outside of the country.  Mnthali wrote, “Your elegance of deceit Jane Austen, lulled the sons and daughters of the dispossessed into a calf- love with irony and satire around imaginary people.” This is an excellent point because the students are reading about events in another country that are not based on real people and are becoming very interested in books by Jane Austan. While in their own country they have real issues involving real people that can be studied right in front of them.  Colonialism has taken away the identity of the African country and left them with the identity of the Colonial country.  From the reading of The Gentleman of the Jungle by Jomo Kenyatta, we should gather colonialism up and burn it to the ground.
        The text strengthened my view that there is not enough African literature being taught in Africa. Africans have a rich and diverse culture that will be lost and forgotten over time if we continue to abandon our own culture and language and convert to the traditional English literature.  

Africans are mocking themselves if they do not notice that they are the “victims of branding irons and sugar plantations that made Jane Austan’s people wealthy beyond compare (Mnthali). We fall in love with this type of literature to only forget that Jane Austan is the one that is mocking us and exploiting us for slavery that we had to endure.

Stranglehold of English Lit is a great poem to start African Literature with because it opens the eyes and minds of the students into how English Literature can mock the African culture while Africans are unaware that they are being mocked. One of the parts that I liked in the poem was when Mnthali stated, “How could questions be asked at Makerere and Ibadan, Dakar, and Ford Hare’ with Jane Austan at the center?  How could they be answered”?  Questions will not and cannot be answered with Jane Austan at the center because Africans cannot personally relate to the life of Europeans; they can only adapt their life to resemble the Europeans. Jane Austan’s book is based on imaginary people so no correct answer can be produced. With no true insight and knowledge to English literature how can you, as an African, appreciate it more than your own culture’s literature.

I enjoyed reading the text because it allowed me to think outside of the box and really try to understand where the author’s points are coming from. The opening of the poem caught my attention because it was very intense as if he is killing you with the words “stab, jab, gore to close to the center” (Mnthali)!