V.S. Naipaul on Political Independence and Tyrannical Oppression: The Paradox of Freedom in A Bend in the River

This paper examined V.S. Naipaul’s novel A Bend in the River in a postcolonial perspective. It addressed the complexities of post-colonial freedom and liberation that stunt the socio-cultural, economic and political advancements of the African citizen caught in a web in the newly illusory independent Africa. The study aimed at examining the significance of independence of a nation within the context of liberation from external domination. It also investigated the effects of evils of dictatorial governance in a political organization of a nation. It finally interrogated the role of the African elite in the socio-cultural and economic mutation of the post-independence Africa to achieve effective integration and self-reliance. Being qualitative in its holistic analytical process, the study consisted in book review; it discussed data collected following a post-colonial reading of the novel A Bend in the River and related critical materials to the novel, to the writer and to the socio-cultural history of Africa and Congo. Content analysis techniques helped facilitate the discussion and interpretation of data obtained from the materials. The action of these techniques was reinforced by a postcolonial perspective that borrowed substance from the theory of nationalism developed by [4]. In the end, the study established that the departure of the colonial power gave rise to an oppressive despotic African elitism whose main interest was to amass wealth upon the agony of the common man despite the sacrifices he made to liberate his nation. It was noted that the African post-independence citizen became a prey to his own leader, yet expected to uplift him from the bleak conditions left by colonisation. Ultimately, the study observed that the African liberation from European colonial powers brought nothing to the afflicted common man but an illusory world dominated by terror, the re-appropriation and embezzlements of public wealth and the marginalisation of the other that ended in an unprecedented self-destruction.