A Hidden Transcript as Discursive Process and Justification of Acts of Resistance in Post-Colonial African Novel

This article examines Armah’s The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born (1968) as a hidden transcript of resistance to the ills committed by post-colonial African leaders and elites. This is done by presenting selected texts from the novel and analysing it using principles of counter discourse which resists and protests against the dominant discourse. Thus, the counter discourses have been achieved as a hidden transcript of resistance through non-euphemistic language intentionally employed to be offensive and show the intensity of resistance and resentment at the post-colonial ills in Africa. The vehemently objected and detested conditions include moral decadence, rampant corruption and Europeanism dilemma. To achieve this protest, explicit reference to and use of dirty language that are concerned with excretion, sex, and animal abuse are used to establish resistance through hidden transcripts. The form of counter discourse important here is that of hidden transcript of resistance of the weak, the powerless, and the voiceless who are able to use only informal ways of protesting rather than directly and boldly confronting the pervasive moral conundrum. The language styles in short were deviations meant to counter deviations. Analysing the use of non-euphemistic languages in the novel, it is concluded that indirect protest towards the existing post-colonial decadence, corruption, Europeanism dilemma and failed promise of African independence were achieved. It is also demonstrated that language has been used as a weapon of struggle and counter discourse to the empty rhetoric of the post-colonial leaders that resonated with, but empty spirits of hopes and transformations.