Browsing by Author "Abdullahi, K. A."
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Item Critical Issues in African Fictions and Islam: An Ideological Survey(The Department of English, Faculty of Arts, University of Ilorin, Ilorin, 2018-07) Abdullahi, K. A.By employing New Historicism as a theoretical premise, this paper takes an inventory of the various ideological convergences that shaped modern African fictions. The main objective is to produce a critical picture of how Islam has substantially featured in the historical configuration of the sub Saharan African novels. By examining the dynamics between Islam and literature, the author exposes the historical formations that had shaped modern African fiction and demonstrates how African writers have precipitated a vibrant corpus of modern fictions from the multiplicity of ideological perspectives and social experiences. Thus, the essay brings into fore the social and psychological ruptures that colonialism inflicted on the landscape of African societies and shows how different writers have reacted to the phenomenon vis-à-vis the background of their religious convictions.Item ENVIRONMENTAL DISCOURSE AND REVOLUTIONARY DIALECTICS IN TANURE OJAIDE’S THE ACTIVIST(University of Ilorin, 2019) Abdullahi, K. A.Since literature cannot be divorced from pressing social events of society, contemporary African novels, in recent times, have largely explored environmental discourse as a dominant thematic preoccupation. Most of the likely eco-critically based novels explore human-environmental relations, and thus reflect ho literature mediates in canvassing eco-friendly society. This trend is nowhere more visible in Nigeria than in literary expressions of writers from the Niger-Delta region. Ojaide is a renowned African novelist whose idea is radical and militant, especially in connection with contemporary environmental discourse in Nigerian fiction. Thus, this essay studies environmental praxis, and the dimension of social vision in his The Activist. Relying on sociological criticism, the argument locates the agitation and violence in the Niger Delta in the socio-economic deprivation and poverty arising from environmental pollution and degradation. The objective of the study is to show, through the novel, how the intellectuals who champion the course of liberating the people from the shackles of poverty and environmental related crises, are grossly clueless when it comes to addressing the various challenges bedeviling their society. The study thus brings to fore the apparent challenges inhibiting the social vision that Ojaide wields as a weapon to promote social justice and change.Item From Physical Assault to Emotional Agony: Migration as Social Protest in No Violet Bulawayo’s We Need New Names.(The Department of English, Faculty of Arts, University of Ilorin, Ilorin, 2021-11) Abdullahi, K. A.; Boyinbogun, Erasmus DareThis paper focuses on migration as a social protest in Bulawayo’s We Need New Names with a view to studying the dialectics of agony at home and in exile. The specific objectives are to analyse how Bulawayo captures the uneasiness that torment the characters at home and even on arrival in exile. It also illuminates how the character’s reinvention of self in a new place confronts the protective memories of the way things were back home. The essay studies the thematic transcendence that takes the story beyond its gratuitous dark concerns to other levels of meaning. It x-rays the melancholic, funny, ferocious, joyful and defiant characterization in Bulawayo’s first person narrator in her trenchant observation of human behaviour. To achieve these objectives, the essay deploys the postcolonial theory to account for several issues raised by the novelist. The study concludes that many African Diasporas are not necessarily better in exile as mostly earlier anticipated. The finding of the study shows clearly that voluntary migration is mostly necessitated by the growing emotional trauma that most African government unleashes on her citizenry and thus making exile the painful option.Item The Short Story and Diasporic Discourse in Chinmamnda Ngozi Adichie’s The Thing Around Your Neck(Department of English, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria, 2019) Abdullahi, K. A.Within the context of postcolonial theory, this essay demonstrates the distinctive epistemological and artistic uniqueness of the short story and its contribution to the literary discourse of diaspora. The essay studies Adichie’s The Thing Around Your Neck as a sub-genre of prose-fiction dealing largely with diasporic identity in its form and characterisation. The study examines Adichie’s The Arrangers of Marriage and American Embassy from the perspective of how they contribute to the diasporic experiences of racial relation, politics and identity crisis. The argument, thus, reveals the socio-economic realities of life in diaspora contrary to the expectations of the families at home. Contrary to the common perception among the migrants that America is a paradise, Adichie presents a picture of the situations in the two worlds-the foreign nation and the homeland.Item WITHIN AND BEYOND PROLITERIAN PHILOSOPHY: OLU OBAFEMI AND THE NIGERIAN NATIONAL ORDER OF MERIT (NNOM) AWARD(The Department of English, Faculty of Arts, University of Ilorin, Ilorin, 2019-03) Abdullahi, K. A.Obafemi won the Nigerian National Order of Merit Award in Humanities for the year 2018. The award was in recognition of his tremendeous contributions to the intellectual development of Nigeria and indeed his deep entrenchment of proliterian philosophy that canvasses the core values of justice, equality, fairness and freedom as moral ideals for promoting meaningful lives and peaceful co-existence. In view of this accomplishment, this paper examined the literature of Obafemi in the episteme of an ideological philosophy of art and society. Obafemi’s ideological persuasion in its forms, dimensions and styles seek to arouse consciousness among the African masses, who are the victims of the neo-colonial oppression and exploitation. His literature appears to be a potent catalyst for the nation’s development because it instructs the readers as it mirrors society. The paper concludes that in spite of the ernomous energies that Obafemi and his other humanist/socialist writers have invested in literature and theatre, African masses are still grappling with challenges of poverty, marginalization, exploitation and endemic backwardness. The revolutionary import in their works is yet to take root in the consciousness of the masses as to engender the social change envisioned.