Another view will be that the novel is pessimistic in nature as the writer – Ayi Kwei Armah seem to insist that corruption is intrinsic to humanity, and no human action can eradicate it. One comment on The Beautyful Ones are not Yet Born is that the novel is an insult to Africa since it offers only negative images of the continent while the proper function of an African writer is to celebrate what is positive about Africa and her people. That had been the entire end of it all (Armah 126). This was what it had come to: not that the whole thing might be overturned and ended, but that a few black men might be pushed closer to their masters, to eat some of the fat into their bellies too. This was the thing for which poor men had fought and shouted. It is also demonstrated that language has been used as a weapon of struggle and counter discourse to the empty rhetoric of the post-colonial leaders that resonated with, but empty spirits of hopes and transformations. Analysing the use of noneuphemistic languages in the novel, it is concluded that indirect protest towards the existing post-colonial decadence, corruption, Europeanism dilemma and failed promise of African independence were achieved.
The language styles in short were deviations meant to counter deviations. The form of counter discourse important here is that of hidden transcript of resistance of the weak, the powerless, and the voiceless who are able to use only informal ways of protesting rather than directly and boldly confronting the pervasive moral conundrum. To achieve this protest, explicit reference to and use of dirty language that are concerned with excretion, sex, and animal abuse are used to establish resistance through hidden transcripts. The vehemently objected and detested conditions include moral decadence, rampant corruption and Europeanism dilemma. Thus, the counter discourses have been achieved as a hidden transcript of resistance through non-euphemistic language intentionally employed to be offensive and show the intensity of resistance and resentment at the post-colonial ills in Africa.
This is done by presenting selected texts from the novel and analysing it using principles of counter discourse which resists and protests against the dominant discourse. This article examines Armah’s The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born (1968) as a hidden transcript of resistance to the ills committed by post-colonial African leaders and elites.
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