ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the postcolonial theory, as the study focuses on how Africans are portrayed in contemporary realistic fiction. Postcolonialism in this case becomes "the critical study of those literary and non-literary writings which were produced within the period and context of British Imperialism, and the effect of colonialism and colonial text on current societies". Africa is not a country but a continent that includes more than fifty countries. Often it is depicted in media and children's literature as a region that is plagued by hunger, AIDS and genocide, diseases and violence that conjure images of the "Darkest Africa", a natural state. The chapter discuss the different identities of the African Muslim characters as constructed by the authors and illustrators and their overall significance in this era of globalization. As it notes in recent article, "Muslim women within literature for children are characteristically represented as abject subjects, comprising a discomfiting mixture of the dehumanized, oppressed, and exotic".
