Disculpation de Dieu dans le malheur des hommes: Une lecture critique de Gouverneurs de la rosée de Jacques Roumain

La conception et création du monde sont attribuées à un créateur divin, invisible, omniprésent et omnipotent généralement dénommé Dieu, et celui-ci protège, nourrit et pourvoit les besoins de ses créatures. L‟homme, nommé contremaitre de la création par Dieu lui-même, est doué d‟une cognition supérieure qui l‟aide à se munir, se protéger et préserver son environnement. En dépit de son aptitude innée, l‟homme persévère de charger Dieu de sa survie sur la terre, épargnant ses propres compétences. Dans son roman Gouverneurs de la rosée, Jacques Roumain (1946) met en jeu la résignation de l‟homme devant les défis de la nature, de ses propres actions et inactions, et conséquemment sa dépendance excessive vis-à-vis de Dieu dans la résolution d‟un désastre environnemental. Affligé par la désertification, suite au déboisement et d‟autres activités destructrices de la production agricole, le peuple de Fonds-Rouge d‟Haïti se réfugie dans des rituels, s‟abandonnant ainsi à la grâce de Dieu et d‟autres êtres cultuels. Du point de vue de l‟existentialisme théiste, cet article met en examen la responsabilité de Dieu dans la souffrance des hommes sur terre et la capacité de l‟homme de se faire et se défaire. Cet examen critique vise la disculpation de Dieu, et aussi la mise en cause de la dénonciation athée ou anti-religion de ce texte romanesque depuis sa parution. Ceci s‟accomplit par une lecture critique et une analyse réfléchie de Gouverneurs de la rosée de Jacques Roumain. Cette étude se conduit dans la structure analytique des études littéraires et de la sociocritique.

Political Transformation and Development in Africa: Lessons from Achebe’s Things Fall Apart.

Drawing upon Achebe‟s classic work, Things Fall Apart, where Okonkwo, the principal character, refuses to accept intrusions or changes influenced by Westernisation, this paper challenges one of the central assumptions in this story, that Africa falls apart as soon as it comes in contact with Europe. Notwithstanding the overwhelmingly negative effects of the trans-Atlantic slavery systems and European colonialism on Africa (and its Diaspora), this study argues, that to a large extent, Africa‟s economic transformation and development could be greatly enhanced by adopting some new ideas and systems from within as well as outside the continent. This paper questions aspects of political conservatism exhibited in Okonkwo who is suspicious of fundamental changes to his society. The discussion is based on the jollof-rice principle of political hybridisation of development which proposes the amalgamation of Westernised and non-Western ideas and systems, in order to achieve economic development, rather than totally rejecting Westernisation in its entirety. The jollof-rice principle of political hybridisation is based on the idea of blending systems and ideas in much the same way that rice and tomato are combined in West Africa, to create jollof-rice. This study uses the academic discipline of international political economy in its analysis of themes of political conservatism and development in Africa, as portrayed in the Achebe‟s work. In contrast to Okonkwo‟s political conservatism, this study uses examples of Western-style democracy and state intervention in Africa to demonstrate the significance of embracing some aspects of Westernisation through political hybridisation.

Didactique de la littérature et littérature didactique: l’exemple de la littérature africaine francophone en classe de langues étrangères au Burkina Faso

The teaching of foreign and second languages such as English, French and German in Burkina Faso has always used literature. However, its exploitation has always been limited to the handling and knowledge of the language. The potentialities of literary texts go beyond linguistic aspects. The didactic of literature helps to discover the potentialities of literature. They transmit cultural, socio-cultural, intercultural, empathic and educational skills. The purpose of this paper is to show not only how to teach literature in language class but also how to use didactic literature to develop social skills among learners to reduce vandalism, school violence, negative stereotypes, misunderstandings of intercultural nature while cultivating social peace and living together in a context of internationalization, globalization and digital revolution. Focusing on francophone African literature, the methodological approach used for the didactic transpositions of literary content is based on the new orientation and the redefinition of the objectives of language teaching according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (2001) and on the didactic models of the aesthetic reception of didactics of literature from Bredella and Burwitz-Metzler’s (2004), which consists to put the learner in intensive interaction with the text and to motivate him to express oneself on one’s reading experiences.

Digital Audio-visuals Aids and Listening in English as a Foreign Language Classrooms

Many scholars and language practitioners have stressed the importance of listening and speaking in language learning and teaching particularly in formal contexts. However, learners of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in Burkina Faso appear to perform very poorly in those basic language skills. This experimental study investigates the potential of digital audio-visuals to improve the listening skills of EFL learners in secondary schools in Burkina Faso. Assuming that learners born around the year 2000 are digital natives, we have tried to integrate smartphone-friendly audio-visuals in their EFL classrooms in a four-week experiment involving one Experimental Group and one Control Group. The experiment aimed at gauging the effectiveness of those aids operated via students‘ smartphones in improving learners‘ listening and speaking skills. Independent T-tests were used to compare the groups and Sample Paired T-Tests to make comparisons within groups. Furthermore, Cohen‘s d, an effect size formula, was used to measure the effect size. The findings show that the listening skills of the students exposed to the digital audio-visual aids improved on average from 10.2 to 18.5. It was noticed incidentally that their speaking skills improved as well. The study suggests that, if appropriately used, smartphones are excellent devices for language teachers and learners in this digitizing world.

Lexical Gaps and Ideological Shift in the Translation of Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart as “Le Monde S’effondrein French”

In translating Chinua Achebe‟s Things Fall Apart, Michel Ligny translates directly Igbo terminologies, realities and beliefs into the French language. This has contributed greatly in the preservation of the beauty and authenticity of the original text. However, the title of the novel is domesticated by Michel Ligny to present a different ideology. Within the framework of Lawrence Venuti (2004) theory of domestication and foreignization of translation, this paper examines the ideological divergence between the title of the original text and the title of the translation. The paper concludes that the ideology that the translated title projects to the French-reader is totally different from the ideology that the original title projects to the English-reader.

Réactions des femmes face au conflit de genre dans C’est le soleil qui m’a brûlée et Tu t’appelleras Tanga de Calixthe Beyala

This paper examines the reactions of women to gender conflict in Calixthe Beyala‟s C’est le soleil qui m’a brulée and Tu t’appelleras Tanga. Driven by the impulse of feminism, Beyala brings to the fore the age-old conflict between man and woman as fuelled by traditional values which serve as ideological grounding for manipulation and oppressive exploitation of women by their male counterparts. This antithetical situation resulting from biological differences between the two sexes is the source of perpetual conflict which serves as raw material for these two Beyala‟s narrative texts. The study seeks to critically reflect on the various ways women in Beyala‟s C’est le soleil qui m’a brulée and Tu t’appelleras Tanga react to oppression and exploitation resulting from patriarchal domination. It therefore examines the sources, nature of this conflict, and how women react to it in the two novels. Besides, it critically examines the extent to which these reactions are justified. The study points to the fact that, much as conflict emanating from patriarchal oppression and male‟s domination in human societies is inimical to the rights of women, the methods used by the latter to free themselves from this state of being remain questionable, in that, these methods defy rational thinking and are also a kind of reversal oppression and domination which are equally unacceptable. The paper is posited within Carolyn Allen‟s (1978) feminist conceptual framework. It is based on critical literary analysis of textual data collected from the aforementioned narrative texts of Beyala.

Analysis of Wole Soyinka’s The Trials of Brother Jero in Relation to Ghanaian Religious Discourse.

One of the roles of Literature is its aesthetic value. Aside from that literary works serve as important tools that are used to comment on issues of society since most writers base their writings on their societal occurrences. While agreeing with the reflectionist theory of art that Literature reflects the society from which it emerges, this paper underscores that through writing, literary works have often sought to correct the ills of society. Wole Soyinka’s The Trials of Brother Jero satirizes the work of the clergy. The paper analyzes selected reports in the Ghanaian media in relation to the clergy and identifies how Wole Soyinka’s theme is reflected in these papers. The presence of Soyinka’s theme in these reports is a reaffirmation that literary writers do not only present fiction but also express pertinent realities. This study seeks to examine the extent to which themes in Soyinka’s Trials of Brother Jero play out in religious discourses in Ghana. The global nature of the issues problematized by Wole Soyinka also comes out through this study as the work set in Nigeria is analyzed in relation to the selected articles set in Ghana. The paper relies on a content analysis of The Trials of Brother Jero and similar themes presented in the selected articles and makes a few recommendations on how these religious issues could be partially, if not wholly, resolved in Ghana.

Local Culture and EFL Vocabulary Learning

This paper attempts to investigate the influence of learners‘ culture on foreign language vocabulary. It seeks to demonstrate that there is a link between culture and lexico-semantic errors committed by learners of English as a foreign language among Dioula speaking students in Burkina Faso. A sample population of 157 of Dioula speaking students from two secondary schools was purposively selected, using the non-probability sampling technique. A language test composed of two written activities was used as the data collection instrument. These activities were translation activities from Dioula into English. A tape-recorder was used during a story-telling session as an oral activity to collect supplementary data. The data were analysed first qualitatively and then quantitatively. The SPSS software version 17.0 (2008) was used to process the quantitative data. The qualitative method was employed to determine the link between Dioula culture and lexico-semantic errors committed by learners of English as a foreign language. Similarly, the quantitative method was used to establish the seriousness of the influence of the Dioula culture on the learning of vocabulary as a foreign language. The results revealed that the Dioula speakers‘ English is influenced by their culture. These results have some pedagogical implications. They, therefore, suggest that we adapt the teaching of EFL vocabulary to learners‖ culture.

Decolonizing the Postcolony: Of Men, Spatial Politics and the New Nation in wa Thiongo‟s Wizard of the Crow

The advent of democracy – and in particular multi-party democracy – was thought to be relieving for Africa, especially in terms of the desire to undo the damage of colonialism. A careful look at Postcolonial Africa today, relative to the desire for economic and political freedom, reveals conditions that suggest that not much progress has been made. Ngugi wa Thiongo‘s Wizard of the Crow blatantly explores Africa‘s complicity in a seemingly cyclic colonization in the 21st century and its attendant consequences for the total liberation of Postcolonial Africa. Employing Bakhtin‘s theory of the carnival and other such concepts as polyphony and the grotesque, this paper examines the correlation between masculine representations, spatial re-organization and futurity as alternative ways in thinking about Africa‘s future. The result of the analysis is that the correlation between forms of communities and forms of masculinities is an indication of a vision of hope for Postcolonial Africa.

Quod erat demonstrandum: A comparative study of narrative technique in Ama Ata Aidoo’s Changes and Albert Camus’ Les justes (The Just Ones)

Authors of fictional works often have recourse to irony whereby they subtly indicate their disapproval of certain ideas or courses of action. Irony is a rather complex and wide-ranging phenomenon. However, in both Ama Ata Aidoo‟s Changes and Albert Camus Les justes, the authors resort to a specific form of irony to bring the discussion of issues raised to a conclusion. The technique consists in demonstrating clearly a huge discrepancy between a “fine” idea and its practical usefulness. This study, through textual analysis, aims to show how the two aforementioned authors successfully use this narrative technique. Albert Camus demonstrates the hollowness of the idea of fighting for justice through revolutionary violence and Ama Ata Aidoo similarly demonstrates the fatuousness of the theory of women- emancipation-through-polygamy.