Journalism and the Representation of Truth in the Nigerian Postcolonial Literature

ABSTRACT

The connections between literature and journalism have remained grounds of severe contestation. The arguments border on importance and availability of connections between literature and journalism. Both sides recognise truth as their subject. However, whereas literature tells truth by reinventing its environment (defamiliarisation), journalism tells truth as it is. Literature and journalism tell about oppressions humans face, especially in postcolonial African society where both are instruments of resistance against oppression. Journalists are exceptional writers who base their writing on discovery, establishment, and projection of the true nature of things around them. However, their assignment is not one with minimum worries. This paper combines the concepts and ideas of journalism and literary studies. It is possible because while some journalists live literature, others write literature in real life. Through the novels of former journalists, Okey Ndibe's Arrows of Rain and Helon Habila's Oil on Water, this paper will locate the place of journalists in postcolonial literary works. It will look at both novels, evaluating the contributions of journalists (and journalism) in their postcolonial societies and, through them, see the challenges that journalists encounter in their duties as the mouthpieces of the ordinary and voiceless individuals, especially during state-orchestrated oppression.

KEYWORDS:

• Journalism
• postcolonial literature
• activism
• oppression
• trauma
• truth

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.