The “Great Man” and the Construction of the African Identity in A Bend in the River by V.S. Naipaul

Abstract

At A bend in the river V.S. Naipaul tells the story of an African postcolonial country after a coup, which is reconfigured through the charisma and public policies of their president, who is labeled as the "Great Man". A newly independent country, with minorities of foreign descent and African natives in dispute, seeks to create a national identity, which will be developed throughout the novel. This article proposes the multidisciplinary analysis of the Naipaul’s novel under the tutelage of Cultural Studies and through the concept of Charismatic Domination by Max Weber, the notions of culture and culturalism by Arjun Appadurai, the postulates about immigration by Will Kymlicka and the Race principle by Stuart Hall.  It also give a glimpse of Postcolonial Theory and African Dictatorships.