From the Culture of "Assimilation" to the Seach for a New Order: A Study of Laye's The Radiance of the King and Beti's Mission to Kala

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to show that although written at different times by two writers, who proclaim not to share the same creative vision, The Radiance of the King and Mission to Kala share certain common features. The novels portray expatriation as dramatised in African fiction, e.g., the passage of a Frenchman from the West to the African city, and that of an African from the Westernized city to the African Village. These passages are necessitated by the main characters' acute realization of the inadequacy of the culture of "assimilation, " which France is the maker and of which Africa is the victim. The journey into the African hinterland undertaken by these characters becomes a pilgrimage in the course of which they hope to liberate themselves from the French monolithic vision of culture and to find fulfillment in a culture of diversity.