Politics, Culture and Gender Issues in the Nigerian War Novels

Africa accommodates today the most war-torn countries in the world and the roots of the evil are so intricate that the debates about the problem do not always help shed light on the reality. The literary point of view has been commendable in removing the blur that covers post-independence conflicts in Africa. Buchi Emecheta and Festus Iyayi have courageously unveiled the hidden facts that lie behind the political tensions escalating into a bloody civil war in Nigeria in 1967. The feminist perspective (Emecheta) bucked up with a Marxist representation of the war (Iyayi) concomitantly point out the post-independence leaders and, to some extent, the ‘outgoing Western coloniser’ as the sole fire-stirring agents. The work is helpful as it represents an investigation into a wide range of aspects related to the Biafra war and, by extension, the dynamics of war as well as the internal structure and functioning of state apparatuses in post-independence Africa.