| Summary: | SELF-IDENTITY AND CERTAIN ANGLOPHONE AFRICAN AND WEST INDIAN NOVELISTS, IN COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE The issue of self-identity is at the heart of black Anglophone African and West Indian literature. The dual processes of slavery and colonialism conspired against the black man's sense of himself. Slavery irrevocably divided a once unified people into African and West Indian, and consigned them to second-classs tatus. Colonialism reinforced this by assertingw hite political overlordship on black societies. This study examines the attendant problems of self-identity from the point of view of certain black Anglophone African and West Indian novelists, in comparative perspective. These comprise George Lamming, Vic Reid, Wilson Harris, Ngugi Wa Thiong'o, and Wole Soyinka. The historical legacies of these writers is stamped indelibly with pain and loss. And yet, through their creative talents, they have translated the sufferings of their people into major works of fiction, producing two of the most vibrant and exciting literatures of our time.
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