Reader Response to Mnthali's Stranglehold of English Lit.

Mnthali is saying that young Africans being taught Jane Austen in English Literature should have looked past the technique of writing and asked why the people of her time behaved the way they did.  Although a work of fiction, Austen was limited to writing about her own life experiences; she was educated by her father, brother and the books she read.   Since these experiences were clearly different from those of young African students; he says in this way that English Literature has strangled the minds of young students leaving them unable to think independently.  Had  these students stopped to think of why the social hierarchy worked the way it did, their futures may have been different while Europe pursued the colonization of Africa.  Mnthali's angry style of writing is a tool to make one stop and listen; forcing a thought process different than what has been.   Don't allow yourself be romanticized by what you are reading; use works of Literature to contrast to your own life and ask yourself what needs to change.