The Corruption of Indigenous African Culture through the Use of English: An Assessment of Ayi Kwei Armah’s <i>The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born</i>

Abstract

Certain aspects of indigenous culture and sensibilities cannot be clearly expressed through a foreign language. Similarly, some alien ideas and norms cannot be clearly articulated through a local language. Although the English language has facilitated communication and correspondence among various people in Africa and in the rest of the world, it has also abused or enveloped local cultures and altered intentions and applications. This has resulted in the alienation of some people in their ancestral lands. In Ayi Kwei Armah’s The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born, the unravelling corruption in post colonial Ghana connives to foster a rotten form of expression in English that is completely new and strange.