ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book describes that the questions of responsibility and complicity are particularly crucial to examine in connection with representations of the postcolony in contemporary African fiction. It builds upon existing research that has focused on the criticism that Anglophone African writers, starting in the mid-1960s, have launched against political elites in their respective countries. The book connects the notion of complicity to an examination of the so-called “gray zone.” It moves away from Arendtian thinking and discusses the emergence of South African public intellectuals as political figures. The book analyzes childhood complicity in contemporary African writing. It addresses the question of ideological indoctrination by bringing it to the context of the South African apartheid regime.
