TITLE:
Postcolonial Influence and Cultural Reclamation: Students’ Perspectives from West Africa
AUTHORS:
Tohoro Francis Akakpo, Samuel Bewiadzi Akakpo
KEYWORDS:
Postcolonial Identity, Cultural Negotiation, Ubuntu Philosophy, Cultural Reclamation, and Gender Dynamics
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.13 No.9,
September
26,
2025
ABSTRACT: This study examines how students in a British-colonized West African nation interact with the enduring legacy of colonialism in shaping their cultural identity across academic and social contexts. Guided by postcolonial and cultural hybridity frameworks, the research explores how Western epistemologies, religious structures, and cultural paradigms intersect with indigenous worldviews to form complex identity negotiations. Utilizing qualitative methods, including open-ended interviews and narrative analysis, the study foregrounds personal reflections on ancestral values, evolving gender roles, spiritual autonomy, and symbolic practices such as weaving and agriculture. The findings reveal that colonial influence persists not only through institutional remnants but also through internalized norms that participants actively resist, reinterpret, and reconfigure. Through this process, identity emerges as a dynamic and relational construct—rooted in tradition, shaped by historical inheritance, and reimagined through communal and existential awakening.