A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements of the Award of the Degree "Licence en Langue et Littérature Anglaises".

RESUME

This work analyzes the way Africans experienced the European implantation in Africa. Apart from the ills inflicted to indigenous people in the early colonization. African themselves ended up with internal conflicts. Because of the European education and evangelization, the indigenes faced a serious disharmony which gave birth to new figures, amongst whom the youth, with new visions in their traditional environment.

In spite of the custodians' surveillance and attempts to protect people from the Western enticing modernization, the African youth adhered to the European ways. The youth opted for breaking the chains of their tradition which had been inculcated into their mind from generation to generation. Then the traditional cultural imprints began to lose their vigour.

This work examines the teenaged Nnanna and his lovable mother Chiaku tom apart by the difference in their interpretation of the European presence in Ibo villages. The former sees in the European ways and techniques a support to his future after his father's premature death while the latter considers them as a danger to the perpetuation of the lineage.

The work shows how Nnanna proves successful in coming back - then married and well-off - to this homeland to revive his father's lineage. The couple introduce new ways of life which influence many villagers.

Thus, this work presents the incorporation of foreign elements in one's own culture as a successful way towards life improvement.