Hybrid Identities and Colonial Power: Negotiating Selfhood in Abdulrazak Gurnah’s Afterlives

Abstract

This study investigates the impact of German colonial power structures on the identities of marginalised individuals in Abdulrazak Gurnah’s novel Afterlives (2020). It explores how colonial hierarchies, cultural displacement, and patriarchal oppression shaped fractured identities, while also highlighting the strategies of resilience and resistance that emerged within East African communities under German colonialism. Employing a qualitative methodology, the study applies close reading and thematic analysis, framed by Edward Said’s concept of Orientalism and Homi K. Bhabha’s theories of mimicry and hybridity. The analysis demonstrates that Ilyas’ tragic assimilation reflects the ambivalence of mimicry, Hamza’s selective retention of cultural identity illustrates the transformative potential of hybridity, and Afiya’s perseverance reveals the intersectionality of gendered oppression and agency in colonial contexts. Ultimately, the study argues that while colonial power fragmented subjectivities, it also opened possibilities for cultural reclamation and resistance, providing new insights into the psychological and cultural consequences of imperialism in postcolonial literature.

Keywords: Abdulrazak Gurnah, Afterlives, German colonialism, Orientalism, mimicry, hybridity, identity, resistance, postcolonial literature, East Africa