Magical Transformations and the Subjugation of Nature in Said Ahmed Mohamed’s Ba bu Alipofufuka

Abstract

This paper examines magical transformations and the subjugation of nature in Said Ahmed Mohamed’s novel, Babu Alipofufuka. It presupposes that through magical transformations, the co-relation between magic and artistic expression is evident. When magical transformations are utilized in literary works, they foreground meaning. It is in this context that the paper seeks to analyze magical transformations in the abovementioned novel. The paper argues that the author borrows from his social perspective of magic to attempt to give an interpretation of phenomena. Specifically, it is apparent that magical transformations are utilized as a way of acknowledging other ways of seeing the world other than science in an African context. Magical transformations cannot be analyzed by examining one element, but an entire discourse of the magical phenomenon. It is in this context that the paper utilizes Critical Discourse Analysis Theory (CDA) in interpretation of meaning