Postmodern Resistance and Sacred Language in Amiri Baraka’s “Ka’ba”

This article investigates “Ka’ba” by Amiri Baraka through a postmodern theoretical framework, emphasizing fragmented subjectivity, the destabilization of physical and symbolic space, and the reconstitution of sacred language as a form of cultural resistance. Drawing on Jean-François Lyotard’s critique of grand narratives, Jacques Derrida’s theory of différance, and postcolonial approaches to identity and cultural memory, the study argues that “Ka’ba” functions as a postmodern poetic manifesto of Black consciousness. The poem dismantles Enlightenment rationalism and linear historiography while reconstructing collective identity through African memory, orality, and performative linguistic rituals. The findings demonstrate that Baraka’s postmodernism is not nihilistic but regenerative, fusing aesthetic experimentation with political and spiritual urgency.