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- ItemOpen AccessRacial Tension and Identity Conflict in Diasporic Fictions of Uwem Akpan, Helen Oyeyemi, Chika Unigwe and Duker(JAAR Publishing Center, 2018-09) Awelewa, A.Contemporary African literature is marked by movement of authors from their original homelands to new spaces and creation of a new genre known as diasporic African fiction. Studies in this area are developmental. Selected for this paper are Uwem Akpan, Helen Oyeyemi, Chika Unigwe and Ekow Duker, whose works: Say You’re One of Them, The Icarus Girl, On Black Sisters’ Street and White Wahala, respectively reflect racial tension and identity conflict in the new diasporic African setting and circumstances that give birth to them. Applying postcolonial and psychoanalytic theories, this paper examines how the different nations of Africa and the social classes in the “imagined communities” portrayed in the texts have fared in their responses to the challenges of “arrested decolonization” in postcolonial Africa. The paper discovers that racial tension and identity conflict in Africa are a common problematic concern that arises due to colonial and postcolonial dynamics and that authors of African origin are worried, hence the commitment nature of their fiction, which tends to be psychotherapeutic. It concludes that diasporic African literature serves as a custodian of African consciousness.
- ItemOpen AccessWho is this ignorant soldier?: A post-colonial reading of Ken Saro-Wiwa’s Sozaboy(Department of English, University of Lagos, 2021-07) Awelewa, A.This paper is an attempt at a postcolonial reading of Ken Saro-Wiwa’s novel, Sozaboy, which in his own words is written in “’rotten English’, a mixture of Nigerian pidgin English, broken English and occasional flashes of good, even idiomatic English” (Author’s Note, Sozaboy, 1994). In this piece, I identify SaroWiwa’s novel as an indifferent account of the historical happening in Nigeria between 1967 and 1970. The novel emphasises “the rule of darkness” where “some peoples were the imperialists and others the imperialized in history” (Brantlinger 857), a situation that led to the amalgamation of the Northern and Southern Protectorates of Nigeria in 1914. Applying A. T. George’s theory of anomaly, the paper considers the characterization of Mene (herein referred to as Sozaboy) as a deliberate attempt to re-create history from the point of view of a partisan judge, the author. The perennial struggle for relevance by perceived minority ethnic groups of Nigeria brought under the control of three main or dominant groups by a colonial fiat remains a major concern in post-independence Nigeria. The paper also examines the role of colonisation and the discovery of oil in the Niger Delta area of the country towards the end of colonial rule as major factors that contributed to the struggle for supremacy among the people of Nigeria in the early years of independence. It also examines the incursion of the military into governance of the newly-independent state as a catalyst for internal struggle, political instability, corruption, mutual hatred and wanton destruction of life and property. The new country witnessed these in the early years, leading unavoidably to the Nigerian-Biafran War. It is argued that Sozaboy, though not a true canon for the post-colonial rendition of Nigeria’s history, is “anti-war,” and provides adequate inspiration for retooling Nigeria.
- ItemOpen AccessThe Archetypal Search for Kainene: Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun, Nigerian State and the Lost Biafran Dream(Centre for African Studies (LUCAS), 2017-03-03) Awelewa, A.Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s progress as a writer is remarkable. I begin with a meditation on authorial self-presentation via the signature. Her transformation from “Amanda” to “Chimamanda” is reflective of the desire of someone who suddenly discovers a missing cultural link in her personality and quickly backtracks to find this cultural link with a view to reintegrating the lost elements within the existing corpus. The author finds more in the full complement of deep expression and cultural reinterpretation conveyed by the full name – Chimamanda – which the mutant, Amanda, might never have been able to project. The presence of “Ngozi,” which translates to “blessing” in Igbo is a meaningful portrayal of Adichie’s re-emergence on the Nigerian literary scene, having previously tried her hand at poetry and drama at the onset of her publishing career. The career “makeover” of Adichie is worthy of note in the sense that the less famous poet and playwright Amanda suddenly gives way to the world-acclaimed and award-winning Chimamanda, the novelist.
- ItemOpen AccessSuicide and the Question of Leadership in Ngugi's Devil on the Cross and Okey Ndibe's Arrows of Rain(Department of English, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, 2019) Awelewa, A.Suicide is the act of deliberately killing oneself or doing something against one’s interest while leadership is the ability to provide guidance for a people. When the leadership fails in its bid to dispense its duties justifiably, the people are pushed to such an extent that they contemplate the termination of their lives. Africa has suffered more of leadership problems than any other continent, and it is not surprising that writers from this region have devoted their artistry to painting the gloomy situations. As we shall see in the selected novels, suicide is a direct response to the failure of African leadership. Ngugi wa Thiong’o and Okey Ndibe show through a Marxist Existentialist postulation that life is an unending struggle. The paper considers their art from the perspective of a bildungsroman, and extends it to a hagiography in the case of Wariinga in Ngugi’s novel. It raises questions concerning the meaning of life, and concludes that if the leaders would truly lead and forsake their greed, less and less more people would find meanings for their existence; they would want to live and not commit suicide, for there would not be any social, economic, political or personal reason to do so.
- ItemOpen AccessTo End the War: A Global Agenda of Focu-Feminism(Canadian Academy of Oriental and Occidental Culture, 2021-10-26) Chukwu, N.; Awelewa, A.Most gender inclined theories are aimed at awareness creation on experiences of women in order to promote their welfare. However, there is contention about the practicability of some of them because of their insensitivity to race and class. The controversy arises from the fact that none of them has the capability to completely tackle oppression against women, because, one which is applicable to a particular woman’s situation in a certain cultural background, might be totally unfeasible to another in a different cultural environment. This contention is what this study perceives as an intra theoretical war, which focu-feminism emerges to end. Focu-feminism argues that women’s oppression varies from one circumstance to another and from one cultural background to another; each woman, therefore, requires to focus on herself and employ an approach she considers most suitable to overcoming oppression of any kind. The aim of this study is to investigate the global feasibility of focu-feminism with a view to ascertaining its applicability to the situation of the African woman. Mariama Ba’s So Long a Letter is used for this investigation.