ABSTRACT
The following article investigates the thematic and aesthetic aspects of Ayi Kwei Armah’s Fragments (1969), one of the classics in modern African literature in English. More specifically, it explores the transposition of elements from popular Ghanaian culture like the Anansesem (folktales in Akan Language), rituals, myths and other anthropological matter such as cargo cults into the dialogic form of the novel with the aim of reflecting and refracting post-colonial disillusionment and the disintegration of the Ghanaian nation. Taking our bearings from an interdisciplinary approach, it argues that Fragments is marked by a high degree of linguistic and cultural hybridity arising from its polemical invocation of both African and Western forms and themes.
Keywords: Ghanaian folktales, Dirges, Love stories, Cargo cults, Carnival, Post-colonial fragmentation.