Afrotopia; transcoloniality; Guinea-Bissau; Lusophone literature

This chapter aims to discuss the connection between striving for an Afrotopia and the emergence of a literary system. The literature of Guinea-Bissau is the youngest among the Lusophone African literatures. Guinean novels that appeared in the late 1990s speak of the difficulties in formulating an Afrotopian vision, contrasting with the enthusiasm of the decolonial fight against the Portuguese. The protagonists are unable to overcome the revolutionary identity (“combatente”) and to adopt a new, constructive male role. The development of the young literature, hindered by indigence and political instability, is characterized by the predominance of dystopian elements. Nonetheless, a cautious Afrotopia is present. In the poetry of Tony Tcheka, it is expressed by minimalistic images. The trans-colonial renegotiation, i.e. the liberation from dysfunctional symbolic schemes, becomes the pivotal element. With the death of the “combatente”, Guinea-Bissau should sever its link to decolonial schemes of male activity. Also, the reliance on foreign aid and the dream of emigration to Portugal are criticized as lingering traces of the Guinean dependence on the former metropolis. A consistent Afrotopia implies a trans-colonial reorganization of the symbolic coordinates, permitting the Africans to overcome the ways of thinking and acting according to the obsolete paradigms inherited both from colonialism and from the dysfunctional reality of the postcolonial decades.

This chapter aims to discuss the connection between striving for an Afrotopia and the emergence of a literary system. The literature of Guinea-Bissau is the youngest among the Lusophone African literatures. Guinean novels that appeared in the late 1990s speak of the difficulties in formulating an Afrotopian vision, contrasting with the enthusiasm of the decolonial fight against the Portuguese. The protagonists are unable to overcome the revolutionary identity (“combatente”) and to adopt a new, constructive male role. The development of the young literature, hindered by indigence and political instability, is characterized by the predominance of dystopian elements. Nonetheless, a cautious Afrotopia is present. In the poetry of Tony Tcheka, it is expressed by minimalistic images. The trans-colonial renegotiation, i.e. the liberation from dysfunctional symbolic schemes, becomes the pivotal element. With the death of the “combatente”, Guinea-Bissau should sever its link to decolonial schemes of male activity. Also, the reliance on foreign aid and the dream of emigration to Portugal are criticized as lingering traces of the Guinean dependence on the former metropolis. A consistent Afrotopia implies a trans-colonial reorganization of the symbolic coordinates, permitting the Africans to overcome the ways of thinking and acting according to the obsolete paradigms inherited both from colonialism and from the dysfunctional reality of the postcolonial decades.