The Literary Cartography of East Africa in Abdulrazak Gurnah’s Paradise: A Study through Critical Cartography and Postcolonial Spatial Theory
Abstract
The relationship of literature and geography has emerged as an important area for understanding how colonial powers mapped and controlled territories, yet limited research examines how postcolonial literature functions as counter-cartography, challenging imperial spatial epistemologies. Gurnah's Paradise offers a compelling analysis of literary cartography, reconstructing late nineteenth-century East African trade networks that European colonialism systematically erased. This study employs qualitative literary analysis grounded in critical cartography, postcolonial spatial theory, and literary cartography to examine how the novel maps pre-colonial caravan routes, documents German railway infrastructure as spatial violence, and preserves indigenous geographic knowledge through placenames, stopping stations, and merchant navigation strategies. These frameworks interrogate maps as instruments of power, analyse colonial spatial restructuring, and examine how literary texts preserve and contest geographic knowledge. Close textual reading identifies explicit cartographic elements, including route descriptions, directional movements, and geographic terminology. Findings reveal that Paradise functions as a modern counter-mapping preserving African spatial agency. Future research should examine other postcolonial literary cartographies recovering marginalised geographic epistemologies across diverse colonial contexts.
Keywords: Literary Cartography, Postcolonial Spatial Theory, East African Trade Routes, Counter-Mapping, German Colonialism.
