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Paper short abstract:

This paper introduces “Inverted disillusionment” as an alternative paradigm to reconfigure knowledge production and critique of emerging untoward in/actions of the people as against leadership in African literature. It sequels pressure to reconfigure ideologies and representations in African studies

Paper long abstract:

The pressure to reconfigure structures, ideologies and representations in Africa given the range of emerging realities in its milieu could be seen as a child’s play without rethinking the place of knowledge production in African literature. This is because studies on post-independent Africa from literary authors and scholars have been inundated with complexions of disenchantments mainly from leaders. Postcolonial theory especially with its ideology of post-independence disillusionment which expresses the disappointment of the people to their leaders after independence has consistently provided a framework for the critique of such literary works. However, emerging realities in postcolonial Africa suggest a reconfiguration on the ideology of disillusionment in Africa as quotidian realities among the people have outgrown the erstwhile ground upon which disillusionment was based. This paper introduces the concept of “Inverted disillusionment” as an alternative paradigm for knowledge production and critique of deep seated and emerging untoward actions of the people in African literature. The first author having established two indices of Inverted disillusionment: ‘General moral decadence among the people’ and ‘Apathy/ disorientation to politics’ in a seminal research, seeks to foreground with textual evidence the third category which is a spotlight on the working class, especially government workers, to see if their actions have holistically made the civil service the enemy of development or not in Africa. The study signals a new direction in African literature/studies, as it concludes with a poser that “if today’s leadership was yesterday’s followership/workers, why much ado about leadership in African literature?”