Interracial/inter-gender versus Intra-racial/intra-gender Antagonism in Postcolonial Literature

Abstract

Though postcolonial literature affirms what the oppressed have endured, not much scholarship, past or present, have addressed the infighting people of the same kind have historically and continuously engaged in. Kind, in this context, refers to people who share a homogenous religion, race, gender, class, education, and so forth. This paper will be a dual examination of the conflict theory with a primary focus on intra-racial and intragender hostility. This paper will suggest that though the passionate outcry and resistance regarding interracial and intergender oppression is necessary and warranted, intra-racial and intragender antagonism should also be protested with the highest tenacity. The eccentricity of this paper includes an observation and analysis of the award-winning filmmaker Spike Lee and postcolonial author Mariama Ba, who have failed in emphasizing the detriments that occur as a result of infighting. Spike Lee’s films, which have preceded the Black Lives Matter Movement, address the plight African Americans or marginalized people experience from the dominant culture. Feminist author Mariama Ba credits patriarchy to women’s disadvantages. Nevertheless, Spike Lee and the aforementioned postcolonial novelist should also include internal strife in their discourse as well. This paper will argue that although postcolonial works are competent with their motifs regarding external oppression, there should also be an examination of intra-racial and intragender conflicts in films and other postcolonial literary selections.