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IJELC ISSN: 2360-7831 |
International
Journal of English Literature and Culture |
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International Journal of English Literature and Culture Vol. 7(3), pp. 28-39, May, 2019 ISSN: 2360-7831 DOI: 10.14662/IJELC2019.004
Review paper
Mapping some Linguistic Features Sustaining the Transatlantic Slave Trade Portrayal in Amma Darko’s Beyond the Horizon (1995).
1Koumagnon Alfred Djossou and 2Ashani Michel Dossoumou
1Laboratoire du Groupe de Recherche sur l’Afrique et la Diaspora (GRAD)1, University of Abomey-Calavi / Republic of Benin. E-mail: djossou.alfred@gmail.com 2Laboratory for Research in Linguistics and Literature (LabReLL), Faculty of Arts and Humanities, University of Abomey-Calavi. E-mail: dossoumoumichel@gmail.com (Corresponding author)
Accepted 3 April 2019
Centuries
ago, Africa witnessed one of the most shocking traffic in human beings
ever to happen in the world. The traffic stripped millions of young,
brave and strong African people from their fatherland for free labour
beyond the horizon. The traffic set commercial opportunities for the
perpetrators providing them with wealth and fame. The Contemporary
pro-female literature triggered by the need for a devoir de memoir for
future generations is the emerging battle field ignited and dragged
along by some African female writers including Amma Darko. The paper
seeks to show that Amma Darko’s novel is not just written for aesthetic
purposes alone, but can be approached as part of the continuous struggle
against the force of any sort of slavery in the past and its persistent
effect in contemporary society. In the present paper, we will
demonstrate the relationship between the past Transatlantic Slave Trade
and Amma Darko’s fictional female body transaction as surging from past
collective memories. Mara’s body represents a way to make money for her
different masters, as did the slaves in a different context. Eventually,
the mapping and spotting of some linguistic features such as
de-verbalization, de-modulation and de-modalization, on the one side,
and the preponderant use of some mental process including perceptive,
cognitive and affective with Mara and other slaves in position of
recipient, and beneficiary of sufferings, inhuman and degrading
ill-treatments have significantly contributed to illustrating the
dehumanized and heartless brutality, trauma and wildness fictionized by
Darko.
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