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In their article "Conflicting Neo-colonialist Narratives in the Representation of Africa in Ngugi and Naipaul's Novels" Weiping Li and Xiuli Zhang analyze the conflicting neo-colonialist narratives by comparing the different representations of the post-independent Africa between Ngugi's Petals of Blood and Naipaul's A Bend in the River. The multiple narrators in Petals of Blood expose imperialists' continuing domination of Africa, while the limited third person narrator in A Bend in the River blames the African people for the deterioration and chaos of the African society. One from an insider's perspective, the other from the outsider's, Ngugi and Naipaul thus form conflicting narratives on neocolonialism. With their diverse perspectives, the two writers provide not only clashing representations of African women but also opposing visions of the African future. Weiping Li and Xiuli Zhang, page 2 of 12 "Conflicting Neo-colonialist Narratives in the Representation of Africa in Ngugi and Naipaul's Novels" CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture 20.7 (2018):  Special Issue A Critical Response to Neocolonialism. Ed. Guoqiang Qiao Weiping LI and Xiuli ZHANG Conflicting Neo-colonialist Narratives in the Representation of Africa in Ngugi and Naipaul's Novels" The ending of colonial order and independence of new African countries after WWII did not necessarily mean the relinquishment of Western colonial powers. The continuing Western influence was reflected in the flexible combinations of the economic, the political, the military, and the ideological. This new manifestation of colonialism became prominent in the 1960s and 1970s. Kwame Nkrumah in NeoColonialism, the Last Stage of imperialism (1965) coined the term neocolonialism, and argued that "In place of colonialism, as the main instrument of imperialism, we have today neo-colonialism. [...] The result of neo-colonialism is that foreign capital is used for the exploitation rather than for the development of the less developed parts of the world" (x). Writers like the Kenyan Ngugi wa Thiong'o (1938) and the British V. S. Naipaul (1932) made conflicting responses to the neo-colonialist condition in their novels Petals of Blood (1977) and A Bend in the River (1979). Set in Kenya and an unnamed African region in East Africa respectively, just after its independence, the two novels present the corruption of the new African government, its dependence on foreign powers and the deterioration of the African society. However, from different perspectives, Ngugi and Naipaul produced conflicting narratives on neo-colonialism. Ngugi criticized neo-colonialism by exposing the nature of the continuous exploitation of capitalism and imperialism, while Naipaul tended to join the western neo-colonialists in condemning the African people. The 1960s and 1970s saw a surge of academic enthusiasm towards neo-colonialism. There were many scholastic works concerning neo-colonialism. In the year 1965, Afro-Asian Solidarity Committee in the German Democratic Republic published The Neo-colonialism of the West German Federal Republic: A Documentation, in which how Federal Germany implemented its neocolonialist activities was fully presented. In the year 1967, Jack Woddis's An Introduction to Neo-colonialism was published. He analyzed the reasons, purpose and characteristics of neo-colonialism, and pointed out that national revolution would inevitably end any form of colonialism. Others like, Samir Amin's Neo-Colonialism in West Africa, Colin Leys's Underdevelopment in Kenya: The Political Economy of Neo-Colonialism, E. A. Tarabrin's Neo-Colonialism and Africa in the 1970s, William Pomeroy's American Neo-colonialism: Its Emergence in the Philippines and Asia and An American Made Tragedy: Neo-colonialism and Dictatorship in the Philippines; etc. Africa was a particular concern in this international context not only to scholars but also to literary critics and writers. For example, Sartre and Fanon expressed their resistance against the new form of imperialism in their works and through their social activities. Writers like Ngugi and Naipaul made conflicting responses in Petals of Blood and A Bend in the River written in this period. Ngugi sharply exposed the truth that imperialists were still in control of African economy, society and politics, though in indirect ways. And he believed that revolution led by peasants and working class would bring hope to Africa. Naipaul was pessimistic towards African people and their future. He attributed the postindependence failure of Africa to the deep-rooted wickedness of the African people. His educational Weiping Li and Xiuli Zhang, page 3 of 12 "Conflicting Neo-colonialist Narratives in the Representation of Africa in Ngugi and Naipaul's Novels" CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture 20.7 (2018):  Special Issue A Critical Response to Neocolonialism. Ed. Guoqiang Qiao background and intellectual orientation to some extent determined his bias against African culture and favor of European culture. In a word, as an intellectual with strong national consciousness, Ngugi's criticism of neo-colonialism was aimed to national independence through revolution; while Naipaul's indebtedness to European culture and his disbelief of African people made his criticism of neo-colonialism not as thorough as that of Ngugi's. Concerning Ngugi and Naipaul's writings on the post-independent Africa, scholars tend to locate them in the context of post-colonialism (see Amoko and Nixon). Neo-colonialism emphasizes the continuance of colonialism, while post-colonialism conceals to a large extent the fact the colonialism still exists though in different and complex forms. With a posture of resistance, the latter occupies a commanding academic position that is prone to ignore the variations of colonialism itself. By emphasizing neocolonialism, scholars such as Eid and Nag provided a new approach to understand Ngugi and Naipaul. However, the reasons for the two writers' conflicting representations of the post-independent Africa have not been analyzed. This article is to explore the literary representations of neo-colonialism by comparing Ngugi and Naipaul's different perspectives. The divergence between Ngugi and Naipaul regarding neo-colonialism lies largely in their disparate perspectives. Although they both depicted the chaos of post-independent African society, and also the corruption of the African government, their reasons for this chaos varied because of their separate viewpoints. For Ngugi, it was the whole system of imperialism, capitalism and colonialism that brought about the current situation. On the contrary, Naipaul attributed it to the deep-rooted wickedness of the African people. Revolution for Ngugi was the only way for Africans to seek freedom from the foreign exploitation, while for Naipaul it was an irrational and barbarous act. Towards a similar society, Ngugi and Naipaul had different narrators to represent. Thus, they had different perspectives and visions. In the nationalist discourse, females were usually associated with the fertility of the land, the prosperity of the nation and its future. Taken the female figures as an example, this thesis would further expound the two writers' divergences on neo-colonialism. Firstly, Ngugi and Naipaul have different narrators that distinguish their narratives from each other. The narrators from the former were from the local, the indigenous, while that of the latter was from the outside. The insiders as narrators in Petals of Blood made a pungent criticism of the erstwhile European imperialism and of its cankerous impact on the African nation by criticizing education as agents of neocolonialism, exposing the real cause of the corruption of the African Puppy Government, and revealing petty-bourgeoisie's intermediary role in the imperialist control of the African economy. As insiders, they had no escape from the neocolonialist society but resisting or rebelling in various ways. In addition, they envisioned future by involving themselves into different social actions. However, in Naipaul's A Bend in the River, the narrator took on an outsider position. From an East African Muslim family, Salim was not indigenous. Like Naipaul himself who came from an Indian family, Salim first stood as a person between the imperialists and the colonized, but eventually became an official interpreter and defender of the imperialist discourse. In this novel, Naipaul criticized the African education, the corruption of the African government and the irresponsibility of the petti-bourgeoisie. In contrast to Ngugi, Naipaul's criticism was not directed to the imperialists, but to the wickedness of the African people. He showed his Weiping Li and Xiuli Zhang, page 4 of 12 "Conflicting Neo-colonialist Narratives in the Representation of Africa in Ngugi and Naipaul's Novels" CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture 20.7 (2018):  Special Issue A Critical Response to Neocolonialism. Ed. Guoqiang Qiao indebtedness to the European education and civilization, their effective governance and the spirit of humanity, thus secretly standing by the neocolonialists. Petals of Blood has multiple narrators. The four main characters, along with the sometimes third person omniscient narrator and sometimes third person limited narrator altogether created complex narrations. The narrative begins with first four protagonists' being taken away to the police office to be interrogated about the murder of three prominent Kenyans, Kimeria, Chui and Mzigo. This chapter was divided into five parts, with the four parts respectively presenting the scenes when Munira, Abdulla, Wanja, and Karega being taken away, and the last part an extract from a news report concerning the murder. It was narrated through a third person omniscient narrator who objectively described the circumstances of the four, their reactions to being taken away, and other people's responses. Like a camera