“EX-COLONISED BEINGS’ LIVES MATTER”: TRANSGRESSION READING IN IMBOLO MBUE’S HOW BEAUTIFUL WE WERE
“EX-COLONISED BEINGS’ LIVES MATTER”: TRANSGRESSION READING IN IMBOLO MBUE’S HOW BEAUTIFUL WE WERE

Summary/Abstract: Attachment to economic greatness, the yearning to dominate others and impose one’s vision of the world, are some of the main factors fuelling tensions between societies. Modern human history is rich in interest-based conflicts. For many years now, some of the great Western nations have been engaged in a frenzied conquest of the rest of the world to extend their political, cultural and economic hegemony. This resulted in the transgression of civilizational norms in many societies, as reflected in literature. A reading of Imbolo Mbue’s How Beautiful We Were (2021) reveals that, despite the promotion of human rights, Western imperialism remains persistent and adopts new strategies that prevent the emergence of ex-colonized societies. Kosawa is a fictional space that was a victim of colonial barbarism and continues to be influenced by neocolonialism. Looted in an irrational way, that village has become the symbol of neo-colonial evil; its people suffer from poverty, pollution, famine and imperialist domination. Pexton, an American company that was supposed to bring hope to that society, has turned into an agent for the illegal exploitation of natural resources. While that social reality has been addressed by a number of critical studies, the aspect of transgression remains relevant and topical. It is therefore necessary to interrogate the novel under consideration with a view to bringing out the forms of transgression that are deployed in it, pointing out their consequences and scrutinizing the ex-colonized characters’ resilience. The literary and scientific scope of such an exercise is laudable, but to achieve it, postcolonial critique will serve as a methodological framework; its operating devices will help to examine two points of interest: “Forms and setbacks of transgression” and “palliative measures to imperialist powers”.

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