Christianity and Africa’s underdevelopment in Swallow, News from Home (Sefi Atta), Not Without Flowers (Amma Darko), Purple Hibiscus and The Thing Around Your Neck (Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie).

Résumé

Abstract – Sefi Atta’s Swallow(2010), News from Home(2010) Amma Darko’s Not Without Flowers(2007),Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus(2003) and The Thing Around Your Neck (2010) analysethe role Christianity plays in the underdevelopment of Africa. Introduced into Africa, on one hand toevangilise the Africans so as to put an end to the so-called Africans’ heathen customs and to weaken anyform of resistance to colonisation on the other hand, Christianity has had some drawbacks that hinder thedevelopment of Africa. Hence, I seek to explore through Sefi Atta and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie andAmma Darko’s characters’ conversion to Christianity how this religion affects the development of Africa.In this regard, this paper examines how Christian doctrines favour mass poverty and cultural alienation.Using Claude Ake’s approach ‘building on the indigenous’ I advocate a Christianity that must not onlyempower African culture but it must also guarantee peace and social cohesion in Africa.Key words: underdevelopment, heathen, Christianity, cultural alienation, poverty.Résumé – Les oeuvres Swallow (2010) et News from Home (2010) de Sefi Atta, Not Without Flowers (2007)d’Amma Darko, Purple Hibiscus (2003) et The Thing Around Your Neck(2010) de Chimamanda NgoziAdichie analysent le rôle que joue le christianisme dans le sous développement de l’Afrique. Introduit enAfrique, d’une part, pour évangéliser les Africains et mettre fin aux pratiques africaines soi-disantpaïennes et d’autre part pour affaiblir toute forme de résistance à la colonisation, le christianisme a eu deseffets collatéraux qui freinent le développement de l’Afrique. Dans cette perspective, j’ai montré à traversla conversion des personnages de Sefi Atta, de Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie et d’Amma Darko auchristianisme comment cette religion a affecté le développement de l’Afrique. A cet effet, cet articleexamine comment les doctrines chrétiennes ont favorisé la paupérisation et l’aliénation culturelle au seindes populations. En s’inspirant de l’approche de Claude Ake ‘building on the indigenous’ je plaide danscet article pour un Christianisme nouveau qui non seulement se repose sur la culture africaine mais qu’ilsoit aussi le garant de la paix et de la cohésion sociale en Afrique.Mots clés : sous-développement, christianisme, païen, aliénation culturelle, paupérisation (pauvreté).1. IntroductionMany development theorists relate the present state of Africa to its steadyeconomic growth. But, in practice, there is another hidden factor that hasunbelievably favoured the underdevelopment of Africa; this factor is Christianity.Africans are inwardly religious and this is assumed through the different ritualsperformed at each individual’s step of life as Holloway J.E (1990) writes:Religion was (and remains) a vital part of the lives of most Africans. For some itencompassed their entire existence. It substantiated and explained their place in the* ficab1@