Manipulation and Misuse of Power in Gurnah's Afterlives: A Subaltern Study

Abstract

This research aims to interpret the novel Afterlives through Spivak’s postcolonial theory of the Subaltern.  The novel explores the challenges faced by native Africans under German and British colonialism. The novel also represents the native Africans’ suffering not only through European domination but also through coercion mediated by colonial and local power structures. Spivak’s theory of subalternity provides a distinctive perspective to highlight the trauma of those whose voices are silenced by colonial power.  This theory further provides a lens to examine how the subaltern characters are politically, socially, and epistemically marginalized. Using qualitative textual analysis, the study examines how the characters experience otherness and marginalization as portrayed in the novel and how the characters rebuild their lives after colonial impact in the form of displacement and loss. The results show that Gurnah’s Afterlives highlights the African suffering and survival under subaltern conditions while also exposing the complex relationship between Germans and Africans.