Arts/Literary
Expose Of Nigerian Literary Themes
Nigerian literature covers a wide range of literary works written in Nigeria or written by a Nigerian in any language. For a work to be declared Nigerian literature it is expected to have certain features some of which include, being written by a Nigerian, must have its setting in Nigeria and should tell a Nigerian experience at its thematic preoccupation and should be centred in Nigerian lifestyle and day to day happenings in Nigeria.
Nigerian literary authors from the first generation set of writers to the present day attempt to imitate the Nigerian society with the consideration of the lives of Nigerians during that period. One key factor that has largely influenced the thematic focus of Nigerian literature is the common history shared by most Nigerians.
First generation writers took advantage of the various experiences that happened during the colonial era to put down their stories. While some wrote fictional events of the experience, some writers wrote a real recount of the period the events that happened between the precolonial and colonial era have been adapted by many writers in their works.
The precolonial era refers to events that happened during the period before the advent of colonialists in Nigeria, it deal with the history, lifestyle, culture and tradition of Nigerians in their ruled one another without influence of the British colonialists. Some writers adapted the events that happened during this period into their work.
An example of a precolonial text is Ola Rotimi’s ‘OvonrainwenNogbaisi’. It is a historical play as the characters and events portrayed in the play are actual happenings and have a link with the Benin history. The eponymous character ruled the Benin kingdom between 1888-1897 before he was dethroned and exiled to Calabar by the British colonialists.
Another work that was set during this period is AkachiEzeigbo’s “The last of the Strong Ones”. The novel depicts the centrality of women in the love of omega traditional existence before the coming of the White man.
The colonial era in Nigerian history deals with events that happened during the British rule on Nigerian soil. The events between the British entry and 1960 when Nigeria gained independence constitute the event of the colonial era. This period witnessed Nigeria’s indirect rule, external government and loss of identity, some of the works set in this period include Chinua Achebe’s “Arrow of God”,andWole Soyinka’s “ Death And The King’s Horseman”, though these works were not written by their writers within the colonial period, the works were set during this period, therefore recreating memories of what happened during this period.
Chinua Achebe tries to show how the British colonialists and missionaries destroyed the culture and belief of the natives. Through the character of Ezeulu, the priest of Uhu, Achebe shows how the priest becomes useless when the missionaries brought their religion and system of government. The novel was set in southern Nigeria with a predominantly Igbo population.
Wole Soyinka’s “Death And The King’s Horseman” shows the trial of the major character Eleshin, who as the custom permits, should sacrifice himself 30days after the death of the king. The Eleshin is hindered from performing his duty by the colonial powers.
The post colonial Era in Nigerian history started in 1960 after Nigeria gained independence from Great Britain. After a seemingly unending number of years, Nigeria’s dream of becoming free has come forth. Aspirations were high, the new government was expected to do a whole lot of things, happiness was on the air, the spirit of freedom grew tense amidst Nigerians, literary writers in this period captured the society and events that happened at post independence. The work, the pain and aftermath of colonialism and excesses of military government. ChimamamandaAdichies’s “Half of A Yellow Sun” is a post colonial text that talks about the Nigerian civil war and how the Genesis can be traced back to colonization and military shortcomings. The play however, uses the immediate family as its case study. The concurrent repetition of colonisation in many Nigerian texts qualifies the theme to be one of the thematic focuses of Nigerian literature.
In Nigeria’s history, one of the key factors that shaped the lives of Nigerians is the Nigerian civil war of 1967-1970. Other clashes, battle and wars also played significant roles in the making of Nigeria. As expected, these events also influenced the writings of some Nigerian writers, thus was and conflict becomes a major theme in Nigeria literature.
Leading the lists of conflicts in the Nigerian which has been adopted as a muse for many writers some of whom wrote in support of Biafra, others against Biafra. Christopher Okigbo, a Nigerian poet was notable for fighting the course of Biafra. He wrote the poems “path of thunder” and “Last Testament” where he seemed to prophesies his own death.
Other works that discussed the Nigerian civil war include: Chinua Achebe’s “There Was A Country” and “Half of a yellow sun (2006)” by ChimamandaAdichie. She tries to show the effects of the war on the Nigerian society with emphasis on immediate family. IsidoreOpkewho in his poem “casualties” (1970) also described the effects of the civil war and those at the receiving end of the effects.
War and conflicts have thus become a major theme of Nigeria lias many other works have been published with war and conflict as major themes, some are fictional, while others are non fictional. Examples of non fictional are: IsidoreOpkewho “ The Last Deity” and Femi Osifisan’s “Women of Owu” and “Moroun Rodin” which adapted its storyline from the Agbekoya uprising of 1965.
Clash of culture is another major thematic forma of Nigerian literature, the inability of one culture to surrender to another or the inability of one culture to consent to the fact that another culture is superior to its own is major theme in many Nigerian texts.
Notable texts where this theme is present are Wole Soyinka’s “Death and the kings Horseman” (1975) Chinua Achebe’s “Arrow of God” (1964), Hope Egbagha’s “Death Not A Redeemer (1998) and Ahmed Yerima’s “ Abobuki (2015).
Arrow of God by Achebe treats the issue of clash of religion, Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe also discussed clash of culture. “The Trail of Brother Hero by Wole Soyinka is a social satire which centred its scope on religion as a tool for exploitation. In this drama, Soyinka mocks Christianity and how some of the sacrosanct merely use religion to enrich themselves or to disguise.
Elnathan John’s “ Born on a Tuesday” (2016) discusses explicitly the idea of religious intolerance, sects and religious fanatic using Islam. The text set in Northern Nigeria portrayed how violence can be erupted within a particular religion.
Politics as a general term for anything that concerns government is also part of Nigeria that cannot be thrown out. As expected, writer have taken this opportunity to air their voices in Nigeria’s political makeup. While some writers emphasised on excesses of government and power tussle, others laid emphasis on those at the receiving end of government policies and Leeds.
Chinua Achebe in Anthills of the Savanna discussed the quest for power, military and dictatorship in Nigeria’s political system. Helen Habila in his novel “Oil in water” portrayed the flaws f government and how it affects the society and its people.
Niyi Osundare’s poem “My Lord Tell me Where to keep your Bible”? and P.o.cUmeh’s “ Ambassadors of poverty” are satirical poems that discuss the excesses of government and government official. To lay emphasis on this satirical topic, ZickyKofomorola’s “Chambers of cockroaches” personified politicians and government office holders as cockroaches. This is to show what extent Nigerian politicians are filthy and the end result of their greed.
In discussing Nigerian literature, the status quo of gender in the society is an inevitable subject of consideration. In the Nigerian society, sex and gender characterisation is very important, considering the patriarchal nature of people, the societal makeup, marriage,ratio of Boy Girl education and the status of feminism in Nigeria, how writers portray gender in their literary works thus becomes a dominant thematic preoccupation in Nigerian literature.
Nigerian writers have different opinions, views and ideologies about gender. A number of Nigerian writers have been characterized as been patriarchal in their characterisation. These set of male gender is dominant and superior in the social hierarchy and decision making process.
Examples of writers who share this philosophy include Wole Soyinka, Chinua Achebe. Critics believe that Chinua Achebe is charactrischaracterisationofchiclo as a goddess in Things Fall Apart is to the extent a way of balancing gender, but most of his works portray a typical African society where patriarchy remains the order of the day.
Contrarily, some other writers try to balance gender of portray the feminine gender as superior to the male gender as opposed to what we found in Achebe and Soyinka. Writes like BuchiEmecheta, ChimamandaAchichie, Zaynab Alkali and Sefi Attach tried to bridge the gender gap in the African societies in their works as they support the idea of frminiy, the struggle for recognition of women right and gender equality.Source:- SarayiJibree: Thematic focus of Nigerian literature.
By: Jacob Obinna
It is the idea of God that family should exit. Children form part of the family. God loves family so much that Jesus was born into the family of Joseph.
Everyone’s family is good and important. Children should not look down on their family whether they are rich or poor.
Children should respect and honour their family and foster love among their siblings. They should work together and make peace in the family. They should always stand in the gap. It is good for family members to carry all along since everyone may not be doing well.
The Christianity that children learn is practised in family. Faith-based organisations do a great job in moulding children’s character. Those are the behaviours that children exhibit towards siblings in family.
Every child born in a family is there for a purpose. A baby born into a family is supplying something. It may be joy, wealth and so on. Everyone is important in a family.
Adolescents who have graduated from school but may not be contributing financially can do one or two things at home. You can engage in preparing meals at home while parents are away for a job or business. Contributing in house chores will go a long way to relieve parents of stress after a day’s job.
What do you contribute to your family, especially during holidays both in nuclear and extended family?
The family you were born is constant but friends are temporary. You can decide not to continue in friendship but you cannot cut off your family. No matter how bad you think your family is and you decide to leave home, you must surely return. Your friends can harbour you for a while.
The child’s first identity comes from the family. What the child learns first comes from the family.
Family is the centre of love and care. People have started playing down on marriage because of neglect on basics of family. Marriage starts today and and the next few months, it is threatened. Respect for family plays a crucial role in marriage.
No child grows without parental control and influence. If a child refuses to grow without taking instructions from parents, he may grow up being wild. There are consequences when children do not obey their parents. There are those who want to be rebellious against their parents. They should know that their length of days are tied to their parents.
Your bioligical parents know you more than every other person. There is the wisdom and knowledge your parents have that you do not so it is proper to listen to them before choosing carriers both in academics and job. A young man or woman can choose who to get married to, but a greater role in the choice of who to marry and the marriage proper comes from the parents.
They know what is best for you. No matter how modern trends will influence you and prove it wrong, parent is the key. No one can love you more than your parents because they are your blood.
A lot of parents have been traumatised due to the fact that children they nurtured and trained turned their back on them at older age. Children should not abandon their parents for any reason.
As you grow up, situations may arise in marriage when you decide it is over with your spouse, but no matter the level of provocation with your parents, they will not despise you. Parents will also play a role in that regard. Problem arises in every family but how it is handled matters a lot.
Some children honour their mentors more than their parents. Although there are parents who shy away from their responsibilities. It is important that parents take full responsibility of their children. You cannot bring a child to the planet earth and refuse to perform roles as a parent. But parents may not quantify what they spent from childhood to adolescence. That is a blessing children cannot get from another person.
There are people who have attributed their failure in life to the fact that their parents, especially mothers are witchcraft. It is wrong to feel that your mother is instrumental to your failure in life. The only way to success is hardwork.
Let money not determine the level of love for your parents. Wherever a child goes, family is constant.
Eunice Choko-Kayode
Naturally, when a child is born, it is the role of the father and mother to decide a suitable name for the child. The husband and wife normally discuss and suggest the English or vernacular name of the baby.
But sometimes, when a baby comes into a family, grandparents hearts are usually filled with joy to the extent that they want to answer present, by giving their own names not minding the fact that the biological parents have given theirs.
This happens mostly when the marriage is an inter-tribal one. It also happens even in intra-tribal marriage. Grandparents want equal representation as far as naming a child is concerned. They also have special names as a result of circumstances surrounding the birth of the child.
This is still happening till date.
A lot of people have viewed this in different ways but there is nothing wrong about it. The most important thing is that the child bears as many names as he or she can. But one thing is certain, the child must bear one name in school.
Should circumstance determine a child’s name?
Women who are more emotional are always eager to name their children considering the circumstances surrounding the child’s conception and arrival.
The issue of grandparents naming a child comes up mostly when it is the first of the family.
In naming children by some parents in the olden days, they named their children according to the days in the week in which they were born, like Sunday, Monday, Friday and so on.
You may be shocked to hear that whether a child is given 10 names by parents or grandparents, when he or she grows up, will decide to change. There are several cases where some persons decided to change especially when they feel that the names given by their parents and grandparents do not give them joy. If they are not doing well in life, they may claim that their misfortune is caused by the name their parents.
Competition among children in schools be it primary, (kindergarten) and secondary come in different forms. It can be Mathematics , debate, quiz, spelling bee,competition, from organisations like Cowbell, multi-national companies, faith-based organisations among others.
They are organised mostly for selected intelligent ones, the best among their peers to represent a class, school or group. Prizes are normally set aside for the best as well as consolation prizes for runners-up at the end of each session.
The question is, are children willing to accept defeat when they fail? As parents, guardians, can you encourage your children or wards to accept defeat instead of shouting and comparing them with others who may be performing better either in schools or outside.
Some parents may be blaming their children for not doing well in competitions. They will like to tell their children if others who may perform better have ten heads. Those group of parents blame their children for every failure.
For your children to do better in competition, the parents too must have emotional intelligence. When you continue to blame your children for failure, how intelligent are you?
Some parents always want their children to be in the 1st position and unhappy whenever they secure 2nd position. There were instances where children smashed their trophies because they never got the position they wanted to get and their parents supported them.
Children should be able to accept it whether they win or not. They should be encouraged for every performance. Discourage the issue of “shame, shame, shame, shame”.
A parent says she always tells her children to win even if they will fail. Always give them the mentality that they can win. Children should be given the impression that they can win prizes and laurels in every competition.
Parents should not isolate their children from others in the neighbourhood. Allow them to play with others. Don’t threaten your children that you may not pay their schools fees if they fail. Comparing them with others may encourage or discourage them.
Coming first or getting award as a first class student from the university sometimes does not mean that the person is the best. And if the child does not merit any award in the lower classes, does not mean that he can not merit first class also.
It should be noted that coming first in academic competition may not really mean that the competitor will be the best at work place or business.
Accepting defeat is a way to move higher. Even if a child who competed with others did not come first, there are consolation prizes for runners-up. When you advise the child to accept defeat, you are encouraging her to win in next competition.
Remember all children cannot be on the same knowledge level Their learning abilities defer.
Eunice Choko-Kayode
