Academic Paper from the year 2014 in the subject African Studies - Literature, , language: English, abstract: This paper attempts reading Ola Rotimi’s "The Gods are not to blame" against the backdrop of the Nigerian dilemma in the contemporary times. The play first performed in the year 1968, in the heat of the Nigerian civil war is still relevant today. Many scholars viewed the work as a transplantation of Sophocle’s Oedipus Rex and underplay its powerful political message to the nascent Nigerian political class then and now. The paper examined the role of Odewale in the shaping of the Destiny of his society and how albeit with stint of tyranny champions the welfare of the state, taking blames for the decadence and the breakdown of law and cosmic order when found culpable. On the other hand, the contemporary Nigerian leaders are antithetical of Odewale, blame-games and outright refusal to be accountable, or step-down when found wanting; misappropriation, mismanagement of state and human resources are institutionalized on local and national scale. The paper above all, adumbrated some of the conundrums of Nigeria and proffered a number of useful ways by which the Odewale examples could be integrated into the Nigerian political morality, and the pitfalls to be avoided in a bid to move ahead into the state dreamt of on the 1st of October, 1960.

Academic Paper from the year 2014 in the subject African Studies, language: English, comment: This paper is a scholarly criticism of the nigerian politics in the context of the Nigerian drama. And it is concluded that Nigerian politicians are the cause of the cataclysmic malaise bedeviling Nigeria today., abstract: This paper attempts reading Ola Rotimi's "The Gods are not to blame" against the backdrop of the Nigerian dilemma in the contemporary times. The play first performed in the year 1968, in the heat of the Nigerian civil war is still relevant today. Many scholars viewed the work as a transplantation of Sophocle's Oedipus Rex and underplay its powerful political message to the nascent Nigerian political class then and now. The paper examined the role of Odewale in the shaping of the Destiny of his society and how albeit with stint of tyranny champions the welfare of the state, taking blames for the decadence and the breakdown of law and cosmic order when found culpable. On the other hand, the contemporary Nigerian leaders are antithetical of Odewale, blame-games and outright refusal to be accountable, or step-down when found wanting; misappropriation, mismanagement of state and human resources are institutionalized on local and national scale. The paper above all, adumbrated some of the conundrums of Nigeria and proffered a number of useful ways by which the Odewale examples could be integrated into the Nigerian political morality, and the pitfalls to be avoided in a bid to move ahead into the state dreamt of on the 1st of October, 1960.

An adaptation of the Greek classic Oedipus Rex, the story centres on Odewale, who is lured into a false sense of security, only to somehow get caught up in a somewhat consanguineous trail of events by the gods of the land.

Amadi’s masterpiece of African literature captures village life and practices not yet touched by the white man. The novel’s beautiful, hardworking protagonist, Ihouma, is admired by all in her village. Yet those who express their love for her meet with mysterious tragedy, leaving her devastated. This enticing odyssey, where exemplary attributes go unrewarded and the boundaries between myth and reality are muted, outwits readers with unexpected twists that make them want to keep turning the page.

From the legendary author of Things Fall Apart—a long-awaited memoir of coming of age in a fragile new nation, and its destruction in a tragic civil war For more than forty years, Chinua Achebe maintained a considered silence on the events of the Nigerian civil war, also known as the Biafran War, of 1967–1970, addressing them only obliquely through his poetry. Decades in the making, There Was a Country is a towering account of one of modern Africa’s most disastrous events, from a writer whose words and courage left an enduring stamp on world literature. A marriage of history and memoir, vivid firsthand observation and decades of research and reflection, There Was a Country is a work whose wisdom and compassion remind us of Chinua Achebe’s place as one of the great literary and moral voices of our age.