LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 17:7 July 2017
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
         C. Subburaman, Ph.D. (Economics)
         N. Nadaraja Pillai, Ph.D.
         Renuga Devi, Ph.D.
         Soibam Rebika Devi, M.Sc., Ph.D.
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

Language in India www.languageinindia.com is included in the UGC Approved List of Journals. Serial Number 49042.

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Material Survival, Hierarchal Exploitation and Urban Space
in Ben Okri’s Converging City

Sarah Abdullah


Ben Okri
Courtesy: http://freduagyeman.blogspot.com/2012/05/25-famished-road.html

Abstract

Though Ben Okri’s acclaimed novel The Famished Road has been much under discussion, his short stories have not been processed enough by academics and researchers alike. Taking one of his short stories “Converging City”, this article explores how the urban setting of the narrative reveals the nature of post-colonial societies that only allow an individual to change his inferior position through counter-hegemonic strategies as he can not step outside the chain of exploitation that marks his place in society and thereby define his position within larger socio-political milieus.

Keywords: Ben Okri, Converging City, material survival, urban setting

Nigeria

Being Nigerian, Ben Okri’s consciousness has developed in a community where struggle of a personal and communal nature existed since the time of its independence. Nigeria has gone through many phases both turbulent and transitional. It has been under direct colonial rule from 1900 to 1960. In the initial period of that colonial era the British had an indirect rule especially in Northern Nigeria where only the co-operating chiefs were given the power to sit on the throne. Thereby only those power structures were allowed to develop that ensured the strengthening of Britain as a colonial ruler. During this time the masses resisted not only against the colonial masters but also a political hierarchy imposed upon them by the indigenous proxies. The Nigerians showed resilience in the face of these unwanted and exploitative authorities but were also deeply influenced by them. They engaged in cultural exchange with their white masters assimilating many of their religious and social beliefs. One example of such an influence was religious syncretism where people amalgamated Christianity, the religion of the colonial masters with their own indigenous belief system. They became members of the local church but also went to witch- doctors and herbalists for their physical and spiritual health. That way they were able to survive as well as develop in a state whose social and political structures were literally reconstructed by the colonizers either directly or indirectly through local governing bodies.

This situation resulted in internal conflicts between indigenous ethnic groups and destabilized the country during later years. Nigeria was a country which consisted of a variety of ethnic groups. Geographically it was divided into Southern and Northern provinces and the Lagos colony but ethnically there were as many as two hundred and fifty groups; each with its own set of customs, beliefs and language. It was the British which without taking into consideration these cultural differences merged them together under one rule. After independence these groups became increasingly estranged, with the result a civil war broke out resulting in an everlasting damage to the country’s economic and political systems.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Sarah Abdullah
Lecturer
Department of English
Lahore College for Women University (LCWU)
Lahore
Pakistan
sarah-farooq@hotmail.com

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