The Great Lakes Looming Crisis as Displayed in Elechi Amadi’s the Great Ponds: A Discourse Analysis Perspective

Abstract

The issue addressed in the present work attempts to decipher the Great Lakes’ crisis which has caused a disastrous situation not only in this area; but it has also affected the entire Africa. Due to her ecologic and economic position, the Democratic Republic of the Congo has undergone an endless and cruel situation of war. Instigators of the war resort to subjugation and neocolonialism to subdue and exploit the Congolese natural resources freely through multinationals and NGOs. Consequently, the population is preyed on violence, massacre, rape, kidnappings… To reach the goal assigned to this study, discourse analysis through the re-contextualization of the situation in the novel The Great Ponds (hereinafter it is [15]), was of paramount importance. That means, the events set in the novel were compared with what really happens in the Great Lakes region to identify similarities and dissimilarities. It has been found that Westerners often intrude in the African matters as pretenders who would like to rescue Africa from disasters whereas it is a strategy for them to foster the conflicts through propagandas and usurious loans. In addition, the war between the so-called superpowers has been transplanted in the powerless countries but leads Africa nowhere. Thus, the Erekwi people, i.e. the wrong third party in peace negotiation (see novel) together with the belligerent factions should stop their war, for it profits nothing for Africans but to an invisible hand.