Socio-political Preoccupation in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and Nkemngong Nkengasong’s God Was African.

This paper explores the concept of sociopolitical preoccupation in Joseph Conrad‘s 1902 novel Heart of Darkness and Nkemngong Nkengasong‘s 2014 novel God Was African to project the Scramble for Africa as the root cause of the social and political wrongs these writers denounce. The objective is to demonstrate that although Conrad is European and Nkengasong is African, both converge on the critique and denunciation of colonialism and its nihilistic effects in general and in the Congo and Cameroon in particular. Using the concepts of biography, history and culture of the literary theory New Historicism, the study demonstrates that Conrad and Nkengasong are both victims of colonialism and thus their Eurocentric and Afrocentric critique is born of their real life experiences. Colonialism is nihilistic as it strips man from his inherent dignity as a free and responsible being. This paper is therefore significant in that it projects these authors‘ vision for truth, restraint, respect for the dignity of others, and that differences in colour, race, culture or sex should be celebrated and not used by others as a tool for manipulation, exploitation and oppression. Literature thus portrays the writer as the voice of conscience.