Contesting Notions of Cultural Purity: Analysis of Yvonne Owuor’s Dust and The Dragonfly Sea

Abstract

There is usually a pronounced tendency to venerate one's ethnic or communal culture and to abominate any perceived intrusions of other people's cultures. Trumpeting the pristineness of communal roots, traditionalists spread the belief in the mythic purity of their past and the intolerance of anyone or anything foreign that threatens its further existence. They feel duty-bound to protect the traditional culture from foreign influences. They do not appreciate mixed ethnic and cultural heritage; they think of themselves as pure in their ethnic and cultural origins. They are not open to borrowing foreign ideas and institutions that are considered the basis of contemporary cultures. Yet, there is always a masked recognition of mixed heritage. Cultural debates cannot be divorced from foreign influences. This study explores the contestation of the notions of cultural purity in Owuor's Dust and The Dragonfly Sea. Through the construction of narratives of experience, the lived and told stories re-imagined in the two literary works emphasize the diversity of cultural identities that are negotiated within personal, historical, and situational contexts. The study acknowledges that literature is a mirror of society, and contemporary literary works not only provide a lens through which the question of cultural construction can be understood. This study examines Yvonne Owuor's two novels to explore her representation of these post-colonial debates on cultural purity. The objective of this study is to demonstrate how notions of cultural purity are contested in Dust and Dragonfly Sea. The study employs the post-colonial literary theory. The main characters' experiences in Owuor's Dust and The Dragonfly Sea demonstrate that cultural purity is a mirage. The phrase 'cultural purity' is in itself oxymoronic. No culture can be divorced completely from other cultures. A culture contains many influences from other cultures. Even that which is considered a traditional or single culture has adopted a trait or practice from another in the past. Resistance to change, as exhibited in some traditional cultures emanating from the fear of extinction, are misgivings that hardly last for long. These so-called traditional cultures do not lose all their characteristics; rather, they borrow things from other cultures and evolve to accommodate new realities. The results of this study will be particularly significant because it will serve as a key reference point for post-colonial scholars with biases towards cultural fluidity.