Why Is Mnthali Picking on Austen?

My first impulse about “The Stranglehold of English Lit.” by Felix Mnthali was how dare he take Jane Austen's name in such a terrible way; however, after some understanding about the environment that Jane Austen's words had been received in, I began to understand his issue with not only Jane Austen but all of English Literature. As is said in “Creating Space for a Hundred Flowers to Bloom” by Ngugi Wa Thiong'o “...if people were really to depend on European literature, even at its best, they would get a very distorted picture of the modern world, its evolution and contemporary being.” (Thiong'o 153) In context with the poem, this means that the students in Africa, the dispossessed, are not learning about their own culture's perspective on the world, but is rather learning the way that the English view the world. This is Felix Mnthali's main issue with Jane Austen in this particular poem. Instead of teaching them about the world that they are actually living in, her novels provide a female view on society in England. In Africa a woman's problem isn't only how well she needs to marry, but how she is going to deal with the racism surrounding her and other questions about Africa, not England.

I can relate to this with the novel Catcher in The Rye. Even though every teenager in the world is supposed to find a way to relate to Holden Caulfield, I couldn't find any of the questions that I have in my life in the novel. It was interesting to read and brings a new perspective to my mind as a writer, but otherwise, I couldn't find a way to relate to him. Holden wanted children to remain young forever, and I never wanted to be a child. In fact, I hated being a child. The urge to grow up, to be someone has been there my entire life and can probably explain why I skipped my senior year of high school and why no one thinks I'm actually the age that I am. Through Holden I was only learning about Holden and his world where every one should be a child, I was not learning anymore about myself because it wasn't bringing up questions that applied to me. How is Africa supposed to fix itself, when the questions that need to be asked and answered are not being addressed in school? This is the very issue that Mnthali is putting before his audience, and the very question that he so desperately needs answered. How does that involve Jane Austen? It doesn't.