THE SCALE

Authors: Oga, Uwaifo

Abstract: Nigerian writers have continued to address social, economic and political problems of Nigeria in
the gamut of creative works produced in the country. Therefore, the current revolutionary pivot of
the novel is an expression of writers’ dissatisfaction and disaffection with the debilitating social,
economic and political structures of the Nigerian nation, especially after independence from the
colonial masters. So, with its focus on the oppressed in the Nigerian society, this paper aims at
exploring the various facets of oppression as explored in the Nigerian novel. The novels under
study, Tanure Ojaide’s, ‘The Activist’ and Helon Habila’s, ‘Waiting for an Angel’, are peopled
with oppressed personas and groups in each setting. The discussion of the texts is anchored on
sociological criticism. The paper concludes that the future of the Nigerian society is not totally
bleak, but that hope reverberates within the individual and that those Nigerians who are truly after
the betterment of Nigeria can still take back Nigeria from those who are currently perpetrating the
stagnancy and destruction of Nigeria. The novelists studied in this paper, therefore, foreshadow
the triumph of good over evil.

Keywords: Nigeria, Nigerians, Oppression, Sociological criticism.

Volume: Volume3

Issue/Number: 1

Year: 2024

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