-Chris Egharevba
Vision, according to Angmor, is “the
composite of ideas and beliefs from experiences, or from political, religious
or philosophical convictions”1. The nature of social vision projected in
African Literature “is a logical development from the historical experiences of
the African people in the modern world”2.
First is the experiences of colonialism and second is neo-colonialism so
that the vision projected in African literature is either a vision that
glorifies and vindicates the ideals of the pre-colonial period or vision that
vindicates struggle against the exploitation of the African by the colonialist
or a vision that decries “the loss of sanity in political direction and
consequent prevalent social woes”3.
From the 1970’s, we have noticed
the perversion of African sovereignty patterned on western capitalism
democracy, the perversion of material
power and privilege derived from economic advantage; we have indeed seen the
ideals of modern statehood run awry. These socio-political and economic woes of
the continent have generated a new orientation that derives its principles from
the socialist philosophies of Eastern Europe.
Thus the educated elite, both
civilian and military, have turned to the ideas of Marxian socialism for
correcting the ills that have bedeviled the African States.4
Contemporary Nigerian writings,
especially from the literature of the late 1970’s, seem to emphasize the
Marxian vision of the class consciousness and the inevitable demise of the
capitalist oriented society by a collective action of the masses (the down trodden). This type of vision is not unexpected in view
of the various socio-economic and political events that shaped the
sensibilities of the younger Nigerian writers – sensibilities that developed
through the failure of the ideals of independence due to the greed and
selfishness of leadership, to the economic hardship that arose from corruption
and mismanagement of resources, and misplaced priorities by unintelligent and
visionless leaders. These situations made writers to posit for change of the
system through collective violence. To many, of these contemporary Nigerian
writers, the leadership of the nation has perfected the act of violence against
the people therefore, violent confrontation between the oppressed class and the
government agents of coercion is necessary to restore sanity into the quagmire
that visionless leadership had brought the nation into. In other words, this
amounts to advocation of a Marxist oriented solution
However in an era where the
Marxist vision of societal development has met with serious violence as
demonstrated in the disintegration of USSR, what alternative is left for the
contemporary Nigerian writer? Will it be realistic to project the socialist
system of societal development when (given the zeal of the USSR in the experiment
with socialism) the system could not last a century?
A careful and unbiased
examination of contemporary Nigerian Literature has shown a gradual shift in
the social vision of the newer works by younger writers. There seems to be a
shift from the masses – will – overthrow works of the 1980s to either works
that question the feasibility of the Marxian philosophy in Nigeria in view of the Military factor in
our political development to an examination of the futility of the socialist
vision or downright projection of the humanistic vision of societal development
of the works of writers like Niyi Osundare, whose revolutionary vision in Songs
of Market Place becomes humanistic in The eye of the Earth and Moonsong;
Femi Osofisan who in his works inspite of the revolutionary temper, always
projects a humanistic vision for societal development. Ada Ugah’s development
also shows a movement from collective vision of Songs of the Talakawa to
the existential problem of the Nigerian nation in Colours of the Rainbow. Similarly,
in Canopy of Thunder, I highlight not only the delusion of the Marxian hero,
but question the morality, humanity and integrity of the VOT boys who aimed at
revolutionizing the society along Marxian line.
In other works, Gbadamosi is
concerned about and conscious of the advancement of the quality of human life
in the society. And humanism as seen by Corliss Lamont is the view that “considers the greater good of all
humanity on this earth….
-To be continued
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