The Postcolonial Animal

In this book, Evan Maina Mwangi assembles a wide range of contemporary texts to explore the interface of postcolonial writing, posthuman theory, and human-animal studies in Africanist contexts. Topics include the engagement with animals in indigenous ethics; representations of animals in modern texts based on African folklore; treatments of insects and small animals in African art; interspecies sex; and the deployment of animals as narrators and narrative agents. The book also considers animals as cultural signifiers of class, race, gender, and sexuality in works from Africa and its black diaspora. The book demonstrates that the human is not separated from other agencies in the universe, making it a central feature of the way African writers represent animals in literary texts. Writers discussed include such well-known artists and intellectuals such as Nuruddin Farah, Ng?ug?i wa Thiong'o, J.M. Coetzee, Charles Mungoshi, Jan Carew, and Zakes Mda. Emergent or less-discussed writers like Yuda Komora, Henryole Kulet, Grace Ogot, Patrice Nganang, and Rebecca Nandwa are also given consideration. Repurposing Rosi Braidotti and other theorists of posthumanism, Mwangi advocates an egalitarian ethics in its unconditional acceptance of nonhuman others for their authenticity in being what they are--Provided by publisher.