ABSTRACT
In this paper, I seek to foreground some of the thinking on social subordination in recent African literature by examining Patrice Nganang’s (2006) award winning novel, Dog Days,1 in the light of James Scott’s (1990) work on power relations and resistance in his book, Domination and the Arts of Resistance, and Achille Mbembe’s (2001) reflections on power relations in his book, On the Postcolony. This paper will argue that, unlike earlier works of African literature that either underscore the process of victimisation of social subordinates and/or the place of resistance in their everyday acts, these more recent works exude pessimism about the willingness of subordinate subjects to engage in resistance, while affirming the necessity for, and efficacy of direct resistance as the primary antidote for social disorder. In the theory of social subordination elaborated upon in Nganang’s novel, which accords with, but also contradicts Scott’s analysis of the nature and process of resistance at particular points, acts of deference on the part of social subordinates do not necessarily conceal hidden transcripts. Furthermore, and to the extent that we occasionally encounter hidden transcripts, such transcripts are noteworthy mainly in so far as they instigate direct resistance against those who exercise power unjustly.
