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Abstract
Through a discussion of Ken Saro-Wiwa’s Sozaboy (2005) and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun (2006), this article argues that the creative remembrance of the Nigerian Civil War and the re-visioning of the nation state has tended to focus on the Hausa and Igbos, excluding other ethnic minorities, especially the Ogoni of the Niger Delta. Adichie and Saro-Wiwa remember and creatively evoke the war differently, and this difference facilitates the production of more complex histories. This, in turn, enables us better to comprehend the conflict’s historical wounds; it reveals that a refashioning of this history through minority narratives can produce deeper understanding. Through such historical reconstruction, the tragic past is evoked without losing sight of current realities or indulging in misplaced optimism regarding the future. Moreover, I argue, to create narratives that enable genuine healing, engagement with both peripheral and central viewpoints is crucial; what is needed are narratives that assist in the dismantling of ethnic hegemonic structures.
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 See Hansen (Citation1998) and Hansen (Citation2000) for more about the culture and history of pre-colonial Nigeria.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Sadia Zulfiqar
Sadia Zulfiqar holds an MLitt and PhD in English Literature from the University of Glasgow, Scotland, UK. She teaches courses on African Women Novelists, African-American Literature, Harem Literature and Slave Narratives at Lahore University of Management Sciences, LUMS, Pakistan. Her publications include African Women Writers and the Politics of Gender (2016), Islam and the West: A Love Story? (2014) with Sumita Mukherjee, and ‘“Sharing a Husband”: The Representation of Polygamy in Buchi Emecheta's The Joys of Motherhood (1979).’ Research in African Literatures, vol. 52 no. 4, 2022, p. 100–115.