Realities of the Secessionist Civil War: the Case of Nigeria in Sozaboy by Ken Saro-Wiwa

Abstract

Abstract: Following the celebration of independence in many West African countries, the security challenge proved to be a major issue for them. Nigeria was disillusioned very early on with the outbreak of the secessionist civil war and its corollaries for the country. Ken Saro-Wiwa devotes his pen entirely to this sad page of Nigeria in his work Sozaboy. It focuses on the horrors of this civil war which impacted the entire society. Our analysis will consist of highlighting the effervescence and excitement of the young recruits to go and fight to defend values, then we will highlight the tragedy on the front line, then the collateral effects of the war on all parties and finally we will indicate possible solutions to achieve lasting peace and security. It is almost impossible to talk about development without stability today, hence the urgency of working as quickly as possible to materialize it and especially to preserve it. Today, the cases of Ethiopia, Sudan, Mali, etc. where there is a political-social conflagration strongly challenge us. New Historicism is the method of analysis for it accepts the necessity of making historical value judgments. Here, Texts are examined with an eye for how they reveal the economic and social realities, especially as they produce ideology and represent power or subversion. Generally, New historicism takes two forms, namely: analysis of the work in the context in which it was created and analysis of the work in the context in which it was critically evaluated. The key concepts of text, discourse, ideology and history will be highlighted. Keywords: war, soldier, youth, execution, peace.