Analysis of Fictional and Journalistic Intersect of Africa Positioning in Global Judicial System

Abstract

Power distribution has long been at the heart of postcolonial studies, both in literature and in mass media like newspapers.  The way that fictional and journalistic discourses intersect to place Africa within global justice has received little attention, despite the fact that scholarship has examined African responses to Western judicial authority.  Therefore, this study examines the intersect of language in literary and journalistic writing in Femi Ojo-Ade's fictional critique of judicial authority in Les paradis terrestres and the Vanguard newspaper headlines "Canadian court declares APC, PDP terrorist organisations – Soneye, PDP react." Employing Rom’s positioning theory and Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), the study explores how media and literary discourses shape African reactions to Western decisions in the act of repositioning Africa.  The findings of the study reveal that the Nigerian media portrays the Canadian decision as prejudiced, ignorant, and diplomatically destabilising, emphasising concepts of resistance and delegitimisation, while Ojo-Ade uses satire and irony to highlight Western philosophical arrogance and dramatise Africa's ruptured place in global justice. Linguistic lexicons in both headings of the Vanguard Newspaper, including the selected text, foreground that words are not merely descriptive but act as a tool for power in legitimizing and delegitimizing entire political entities  Through the integration of journalistic discourse and literary imagination, the paper illustrates how African narratives of disapproval are expressed in various registers, establishing literature as a platform for reinventing justice and independence beyond the homogenising rhetoric of the "global village" and as a mirror of resistance.

Keywords: Postcolonial Discourse, Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), Positioning Theory, Judicial Power and Legitimacy, African Resistance Narratives