Multiculturalism and Transculturalism in Buchi Emecheta’s The Rape of Shavi

Abstract

Multiculturalism means the preservation of different cultures or cultural identities within the unified society, as a state or nation. In The Rape of Shavi two cultures mingle with each, other the culture of the West and the culture of the East, or the civilized and the uncivilized, or the innocent and the wicked. The “albino aliens” come to Shavi as their “bird of fire” crashes there. The people of Shavi have not seen the fire of bird till that time. So they look at the albino people as “Only that I have my doubts as to whether those figures are human or not” (14). In The Rape of Shavi, Buchi Emecheta has given an account of the mingling of two cultures;
Oh, Father, I’ve watched them closely whilst standing behind that egbo tree, and I’m convinced that they’ve had a very bad accident. It even looks as if one or two of them dead already. They feel pain, they talk, and they walk on two feet. What other evidence do you want them to produce to show them that they’re human?”(14).