A Critique of Empire in Le Clezio'sOnitsha

Abstract

Onitshais a literary documentation of disintegrating British Empire that focuses on the oppressive ways of white colonizers over native blacks in West Africa, and the resistance of native Africans as a natural or inborn instinct of human being to live a free andindependent life. In one of the incidents of the novel, Black convicts can not tolerate the brutal and most inhuman treatment of the white Masters and revolt against them. The uprising that begins among the small group of Black convicts in Gerald Simpson'sproperty spreads as a wild fire throughout West Africa in no time. It burns down the great castles of British Empire by making native Africans free from colonial chains. The novel equally focuses upon the historical, mythological and cultural aspect of colonization. It expresses its sympathy over the great West African indigenous cultures that get lost when they come in contact with so called superior European culture.