USA Africa Dialogue Series - English, Colonial De-jobbing, and the Mapping of Victimhood

"Now, is Asuquo Okon only a victim of language politics, the type we make him become when we regard the English in his letter as inferior to ours, just as the colonial power cancelled the authenticity of the colonized culture? No; at another level, Okon's letter as a cultural production signifies the struggle of power at the level the signification. As a subject of the English language, he is already a victim of the process that requires him to search for a semiotic that would ensure his being understood by the colonial master. It is this task of making oneself understood, even at the cost of being laughed at both in the colonial moment and in the online presence, that seems to me to be Asuquo Okon's highest level of victimhood."

Read the full essay, " English, Colonial De-jobbing, and the Mapping of Victimhood" at:
http://x-pensiverrors.blogspot.com/2012/02/english-colonial-de-jobbing-and-mapping.html

-- Thanks.
Obododimma Oha

--
*Obododimma Oha*
http://udude.wordpress.com/

(*Associate Professor of Cultural Semiotics & Stylistics*)
Dept. of English
University of Ibadan
Nigeria

&

*Fellow*, Centre for Peace & Conflict Studies
University of Ibadan

Phone: +234 803 333 1330;
            +234 802 220 8008;
            +234 818  639 5001.

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