Rallying against Dehumanization: Repudiating Military Brutality in Okey Ndibe’s Arrows of Rain

Abstract

Literary texts from Africa are seen by many critics as social documents concerned with the culture and politics of the continent. The Nigerian novel ostensibly belongs to this tradition, particularly those that were written in the realist mode. The fictional situations explored in them are often the writers’ response to the often-harsh socio-political realities of contemporary society. In the pre-independence period and the 1960s, issues of colonialism were addressed. In more recent times, contemporary realities are treated in Nigerian fiction – the vexed issues of corruption, ethnic chauvinism, leadership crises and autocratic rule. This paper examines how Okey Ndibe in Arrows of Rain, frontally engages the evils of the latest incarnation of military rule and its civilian collaborators. This is indicative of a shift in theme and concern from the previous emphasis on the impact of colonization and the focus on the historical past to an examination of current socio-political problems of abuse of power by the ruling elite, as well as widespread brazen corruption and social inequality in contemporary Nigeria.