Who is this ignorant soldier boy?: A postcolonial reading of Ken Saro-Wiwa’s Sozaboy
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Date
2016-03-17
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Abstract
This paper is an attempt at a postcolonial reading of Ken Saro-Wiwa’s novel, Sozaboy, which in the author’s 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 Saro-Wiwa’s novel as an indifferent account of the historical happening in Nigeria between 1967 and 1970. I also consider 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. My reason for these strong views is foregrounded in the inherent and 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 through Lord Lugard in 1914. The three major groups identified by their languages are: Hausa/Fulani, Yoruba and Igbo. Nigeria, being a country of as many as two hundred and fifty ethnic groups, is currently credited with a population of about 170 million people and regarded as the most populous black nation on earth.
This paper also considers the role of colonization 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 that the new country witnessed in the early years, leading unavoidably to the civil war, otherwise known as Nigeria-Biafra War.
I conclude that Sozaboy is not a true canon for the postcolonial rendition of Nigeria’s history, and if it must be considered for its “anti-war” flavours, there is need to make it walk alongside other ‘reliable’ fictional accounts of events of that era.
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postcolonial, Nigerian pidgin English, idiomatic English, colonization