Racial alienation in Africa: A post‐colonial reading of Doris Lessing's No Witchcraft for Sale

• Published date: 01 December 2022
• Author: Malesela Edward Montle
• Date: 01 December 2022
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2756

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Racial alienation in Africa: A post-colonial reading of Doris

Lessing's No Witchcraft for Sale

Malesela Edward Montle

Department of Languages (English Studies)

School of Languages and Communication

Studies Faculty of Humanities, University of

Limpopo, Polokwane, South Africa

Correspondence

Malesela Edward Montle, University of

Limpopo, Department of Languages (English

Studies) School of Languages and

Communication Studies Faculty of Humanities,

Mankweng, Polokwane 0724, South Africa.

Email: edward.montle@ul.ac.za and

eddiemontle@yahoo.com

The colonial administration in Africa aimed to institutionalise racial peripheries in the

continent in an effort to perpetuate separation. This meant eternising racial bound-

aries in African societies to underpin segregation. In the pre-colonial times, African

kingdoms were enshrined in equality, peace and unity, which the advent of colonial-

ists moulded. The colonial assignment of division demonised African natives and still

does in the post-colonial age. Despite the colonial monarch being defenestrated by

African movements of independence, its brainchild, racial discrimination continues to

wreak havoc in the post-colonial period. Therefore, this qualitative article sought to

explore the height of racial tension in African societies from a literary perspective. It

employs post-colonial theory to underpin the exploration of Doris Lessing's No

Witchcraft for Sale. Lessing's post-colonial narration reflects on the painful experi-

ences engendered by the deteriorating racial division in the post-colonial African

societies. It points out the impacts of racial spells upon the social development of the

continent. For instance, the story does not only unearth hatred amongst diversified

races in African societies but also the stereotypes against Afrocentric identities and

talents. Thus, the researcher has sampled the above narration as a neat fit for the

post-colonial reflection of racial disparities in Africa.

KEYWORDS

colonialism, identity, independence, post-colonial theory, racial tension, Western influence

1|INTRODUCTION

Doris Lessing's No Witchcraft for Sale divulges racial tension as a patri-

mony of colonialism. It is the colonialists that perpetuated racial divi-

sion in African societies. The colonial heritage and most of its policies

championed racial alienation in the African continent, which often

affected the colonised more than the coloniser. Asma (2015, p. 74)

notes that “many Europeans travelled to Africa and Asia. These travel-

lers wrote about their experiences there and drew a picture of these

continents in the minds of their peoples. They had written accounts

about the traditions and values of these places making them seem

savage and uncivilised, and planting the idea of the superiority of

Europeans over other races.”Several global states were colonised and

endured hardships meted out by colonial forces. However, this study

focuses on the colonial experiences suffered by African natives to fill

the objective of the study, which is to explore racial tension in the

African context. The colonial forces marginalised African natives dur-

ing their time in power and subjected them to stereotypical notions.

Notably, the colonialists institutionalised white supremacy and sold

the notion that Western identities are beautiful, sophisticated and

innocent whereas African identities are ugly, unsophisticated and

guilty (Montle, 2020a). Furthermore, colonial undertones such as rac-

ism are still predominant in the post-colonial era. Montle (2020b)

affirms that colonial forces had afforded themselves esteemed socio-

economic and political opportunities whereas preserving domestic

work; cleaning, cooking, hard labour and gardening for the colonised.

This identity has expanded into the post-colonial age where racial

identities are still associated with the distribution of opportunities.

Puttic (2011, p. 21) asserts that “whiteness is a contingent social hier-

archy which grants differential access to economic and cultural

Received: 21 April 2021 Revised: 25 August 2021 Accepted: 28 August 2021

DOI: 10.1002/pa.2756

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https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2756