THE PASSAGE OF CULTURAL LEGACY THROUGH LITERATURE IN THE POST-COLONIAL ERA

Abstract

Bhabha calls culture a “strategy of survival.” It is not easy to classify culture and yet
it is a notion that lies at the center of all human understanding, inherited and nurtured.
Cultures travel, take route or get dislocated and individuals internalize their experiences and
thus culture theory is created by people who live on the margins. Culture refers to people’s
way of living, their language, religious beliefs, songs, folklore, drawing, rites and
ceremonies, social and political values, and assumptions as to what is right and wrong,
appropriate and inappropriate. A Kenyan novelist Ngugi wa Thiong’o says that culture is:
a way of life fashioned by a people in their collective endeavour to live and
come to terms with their total environment. It is a some of their art, their
science, and all their social institutions, including their systems of beliefs and
rituals...[cultural] values are often expressed through the people’s songs,
dances, folklore, drawing, sculpture, rites and ceremonies.