White Shadows: A Dialectical View of the French African Novel

European colonialists assumed the prerogative to interpret the experiences of their “charges” and to decide the legitimacy of creative expression among Africans. Yoder examines that assumption, frankly discussing the racism and cultural chauvinism of nineteenth-century France, as well as colonial practices and the reactions to them as reflected in West African novels. Using a dialectical structure derived from Sartre, Yoder argues that modern African literature is, above all, a defiant response to years of oppression—the Africans’ own reply to questions once asked and answered only by whites.