Songs of Biafra: Contrasting Perspectives on the Igbo genocide in Chukwuemeka Ike's Sunset at Dawn: A novel of the Biafran War (1993) and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Half of a Yellow Sun (2007)
2012; Routledge; Volume: 9; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/18125980.2012.742233
ISSN1753-593X
Autores Tópico(s)Race, History, and American Society
ResumoAbstract The songs sung on the battlefront in Eastern Nigeria by Igbo people in their struggle for cultural and political autonomy from the rest of Nigeria between 1967 and 1970 have been described as ‘Biafra's powerful weapon’. The songs were used in mobilizing Biafrans to go to war, and imaginatively the songs suggested the possibility of an independent Biafra country ruled predominantly by the Igbo people, most of whom resented their discrimination in trade and civil service in the Nigeria largely controlled by Northerners. Most research on the instrumentality of war songs in forging a pan Igbo consciousness have been carried out on the sites of sociology and political tracts. Ugochukwu has argued that there are no studies that have explored the significance of songs of Biafra in the novels on the Igbo genocide. The aim of this article is, therefore, to address this scholarly gap by exploring the functions of war songs within the literary and creative interstices of two novels from Nigeria; namely Sunset at Dawn: A novel of the Biafran War (1993) written by Chukwuemeka Ike and Half of a Yellow Moon (2007) authored by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. It will be argued that the former novel embeds songs that are largely nationalistic in outlook, whereas the latter novel is restrained in its celebration of Igbo male authorized nationalism. The latter novel uses nationalist songs to subvert them through a feminist shadow narrative that reveals problems that Igbo women faced from their own men and from the Northern ‘vandals’ bombing women and children.
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