Suicide and the Question of Leadership in Ngugi's Devil on the Cross and Okey Ndibe's Arrows of Rain
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Date
2019
Authors
Awelewa, A.
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Department of English, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife
Abstract
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.
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Awelewa, A. (2019). Suicide and the Question of Leadership in Ngugi's Devil on the Cross and Okey Ndibe's Arrows of Rain. Papers in English and Linguistics (PEL), 20(3 & 4), 119-132