Analyzing Critical Discourse on Neocolonialism in Ayi Kwei Armah’s the Resolutionaries

This paper examines the fictionalized discourse on neocolonialism in Ayi Kwei Armah’s The Resolutionaries. The focus is on a series of speeches from Western and African representatives in their quest for solutions to the post-colonial African issues. In this novel, Armah goes on with the critical description of post-colonial societies stated in his earlier fictions and essays. In addition to political and economic factors, this novel presents implicit and explicit allusions to colonial practices that are still well on track in the post-colonial Africa. Specifically, this paper examines the Western rhetoric and the African responses in the studied sequences of The Resolutionaries. Then, using the frameworks for Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) described by Norman Fairclough and Teun van Dijk, this paper will examine the ideologies promoted by Western neocolonialists and African writers or intellectuals in the post-colonial context.