Pepetela’s Naked Revolution as an Imaginative Stride towards African Recovery

Abstract

Against the backdrop of many Africans’ demand that the African writer bring his artistic prowess to bear on the continent’s multifarious problems, this paper examines Pepetela’s “naked revolution” as enunciated in The Return of the Water Spirit as an imaginative stride towards African recovery. Unlike the Marxist-Leninist ideology and the capitalist democracy which have failed the Angolan people, naked revolution is truly organic and non-elitist. Its uniqueness lies in its originality in the African soil, a vote no doubt, for the continent to look inwards for its own salvation rather than rely on foreign “messiahs” and their questionable means, methods and modes. This, the paper contends, is the very essence of the connection with the myth of the water spirit and his uncanny exploits. Even so, the paper concludes, the revolution can only truly contribute to the African recovery if it goes beyond mere nakedness to full scale praxis like the Kianda in its operation. This way, the triumph of the water spirit becomes a metaphor for the eventual triumph of the revolution which will eventually bring about a new Angola where virtue is truly stronger because it is united.

KEY WORDS:      revolution, naked, independence, elite Africa, recovery.