The Clarion- International Multidisciplinary Journal

This paper examines Armah's The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born (1968) as a form of hidden transcript of resistance to the evils committed by post-colonial African elites. This is done by presenting selected texts from the novel and analysing it using principles of counter discourse which resists the and protests against the dominant discourse. Thus, the counter discourses have been achieved as a hidden transcript of resistance through non-euphemistic language intentionally employed to be rude and disgusting to show the intensity of the resistance and resentment at the post-colonial ills in Africa. The vehemently objected and detested conditions include moral decadence, rampant corruption and Europeanism dilemma and language has been used as a weapon of struggle and counter discourse to the empty rhetoric of the post-colonial leaders that resonated with, but empty spirits of hopes and transformations. To achieve this protest, explicit reference to and use of dirty language that are concerned with excretion, sex, blood and animal abuse are used to establish resistance through hidden transcripts. The language styles in short were deviations meant to counter deviations. The form of discourse important here is that of hidden transcript of resistance of the weak, the powerless, or the voiceless who are able to use only informal ways of protesting rather than directly and boldly confronting the pervasive moral conundrum. Analysing the use of noneuphemistic languages in the novel, it is concluded that indirect protest towards the existing post-colonial decadence, corruption, Europeanism dilemma and failed promise of African independence were reflected.