another test..

Peter Barry identifies as one of the major aims of Postcolonial criticism the rejection of "the claims to universalism made on behalf of canonical Western literature" and more specifically "to show its limitations of outlook, especially its general inability to empathize across boundaries of cultural and ethnic difference" (198). Although Bâ's intentions are not primarily anti-colonial, her novel So Long a Letter exemplifies how African literature provides a different perspective of their culture, and despite not fitting the model of the English canon, is valuable and significant on its own terms. Bâ is not writing in defence of Africa. She is writing about Africa, and gender and class are much more fundamental to her work than race. It can be argued that rather than writing back to Empire, she is writing back to African male authors on behalf of African women, reclaiming the voice that has been previously denied to them.