ABSTRACT
This chapter offers the theoretical framework of the book. It positions Achebe and Beti in postcolonial cultural and literary theory, through which it demonstrates how the writings of Achebe and Beti form a part of the counter-narratives one finds in most African postcolonial texts. In this respect, the nature of this resistance is discussed by referring to the ideas of the leading postcolonial theorists and critics including Edward W. Said, Homi Bhabha, Gayatri C. Spivak and Frantz Fanon, which greatly help in understanding the native African-European, colonized-colonizer, missionary-African relationships. In addition, Bhabha’s concept of mimicry is conflated with Ibn Khaldun’s notion of imitation in order to interpret the convert characters in the select novels of Achebe and Beti.
