ABSTRACT
This study is set out to analysis the issues of poverty, class stratification and social injustice in Olu Obafemi’s Wheels and Festus Iyayi’s Violence.
The purpose is to enlighten Africans on the need to fight against all
forms of social injustice. The Marxist theory is adopted for the
analysis of this study. The result is that the quest for a classless
society is the only way for a better living.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE
1.0 Introduction
1.1 Statement of Research Problem
1.2 Purpose of the Study
1.3 Scope and Limitation
1.4 Justification
1.5 Research Methodology
1.6 Authors’ Background
CHAPTER TWO
2.0 Literature Review
CHAPTER THREE
3.0 POVERTY, CLASS STRATIFICATION AND SOCIAL INJUSTICE IN OLU OBAFEMI’S WHEELS
CHAPTER FOUR
4.0 POVERTY, CLASS STRATIFICATION AND SOCIAL INJUSTICE IN FESTUS IYAYI’S VIOLENCE
CHAPTER FIVE
5.0 FINDINGS, SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
CHAPTER ONE
1.0 INTRODUCTION
A writer is supposed to perform certain duties to the upliftment of
his society. Perhaps this accounts for various roles that both writers
and critics have ascribed to modern African writers. Ngugi says:
I believe that Africa intellectual must align themselves with the
struggle national idea… perhaps in a small way, the African writer can
help in articulating the feelings behind this struggle. (Ngugi, 1975:50)
Nigerian writers have pursued different themes amongst which are
cross-cultural conflicts, the African past, corruption in politics,
social injustice, which also include; poverty, exploitation, oppression,
marginalization, class struggle and class stratification. Achebe argues
that the novel is a:
Form of fiction has seized the imagination of many African writers
and they will use it according to their differing abilities,
sensibilities and vision without seeking anyone’s permission. I believe
it will grow and prosper. I believe it has great future. (Achebe,
1981:54)
Apparently, the events of the Nigerian political system have caused
Nigerian writing to shift in themes. Therefore, a writer who tries to
avoid the big social and political issues of contemporary African
society will end up completely irrelevant because his work would have no
impact on the people and society.
Such work becomes irrelevant like the writer himself to the society
and the people because he has failed to address any of the important
issues at stake. Therefore art should not just be for the purpose of
exploring its beauty just as the formalist school of thought posits. It
should contemplate the society and expose the ills in the society and as
well define a solution for these ills just as the Marxist would argue.
The Marxist concern emerges out of the need to find a lasting
solution to class stratification and a society free of oppression.
Fortunately, this quest is not in vain as a good number of writers in
Africa are involved in various ways in the struggle for the negation of
the neo-colonialism and the alienating effect of capitalist lordship in
African countries. Among these African writers are Olu Obafemi and
Festus Iyayi. Olu Obafemi uses his novel Wheels to mirror the society and as well fight for the cause of the poor, just as Festus Iyayi has done in his novel Violence.
He uses his protagonist Idemudia to narrate the plight of the poor who
suffer from social injustice and are placed in the lower cadre of the
society.
Marxism, like every other modern theory of writing is universal and
since it can be used in quest of freeing the society from corrupt
practices, Africans should then, not be left out as the decisive
development of African literature. Marxism consists of the rise of a
tradition of radical thinking in general, and with strongest ideological
alignment.
At the level of general theory of development in question, it is a
vindication of the generalization that in a class society, literary
movements are inevitable, if not automatic outgrowth of class society
and political directions.
1.1 Statement of Research Problem
Every research work poses as a problem that needs to be resolved,
which bring about the questions as to how these problems that arises
will be solved. The sole aim of the researcher is to find answers that
will best solve these problems. Therefore this research will by the end
have answered questions like:
- What is Marxism?
- How has the gap between the rich and the poor evolved?
- What is poverty and class stratification and why is it regarded as social injustice?
In an attempt to provide appropriate answers to these questions the
researcher will carry out thorough investigations on the Marxist theory
thereby making references to the work of other researchers and scholars
who have worked on Marxism. Also the works of Festus Iyayi and Olu
Obafemi, as earlier stated, will be used as well.
1.2 Purpose of Study
The purpose of this study is to shed more light on the issues of
class stratification, social injustice, and poverty and how African
writers like Olu Obafemi, Festus Iyayi, Ayi Kwei Armah, Isidore Okpewho,
Ngugi wa Thiong’o have used literature as a tool for the eradication of
poverty and to breach the gap between the rich and the poor.
Also, in the light of these issues been faced in Africa, the aim of
this study is to also bring to the reader’s notice the importance of
fighting to get out of poverty in a dignifying manner and not allowing
the oppression and exploitation of the bourgeois just as Festus Iyayi
uses the character, Idemudia, in Violence to explain this, as well as how Olu Obafemi explores these issues in Wheels.
1.3 Scope and Limitation of Study
The major preoccupation of this study is to bring to limelight the
issues of class stratification, social injustice and the eradication of
poverty in the African society and how African literary writers have
been able to expose these ills with the intention of eradicating it from
the society. In order to achieve this, the research work shall be
limited to using Festus Iyayi’s Violence and Olu Obafemi’s Wheels as the data for the analysis of these issues.
1.4 Justification
Many scholars and writers have examined class stratification as a
component of social stratification, perhaps, why it exists. Also
‘poverty’ has been examined as one of the major issues in Africa and how
it has become difficult to eradicate.
Though scholars and writers have examined these motifs, sometimes as a
single entity and at other times collectively, readers don’t yet seem
to understand that poverty is what leads to class stratification and
social injustice. That is what Obafemi and Iyayi pointed out in their
novels, Wheels and Violence.
These novels were the primary sources of reference as they capture
the political experiences of the people. Both novelists unfold the
nature of the instruments of power which were meant for effective
governance is misused on the governed especially the poor.
1.5 Research Methodology
The methodology approach to be used for the effective analysis of
this study is the Marxist theory. This is because the Marxist theorist
view the society (especially capitalist society) as politically locked
down and hold the freedom of the people. They portray the suffering of
the masses in their literary texts and form their analysis and view
point, that the masses suffer as a result of corruption and
stratification which our leaders seem to always follow.
As most literary texts written now discuss more on the political
state of a society and how political climate affects the economic
structure of the society, which is depreciating as a result of class
stratification, poverty and social injustice, the best approach pays
more attention to the exploitation, the oppressed and stratified and
explains the labour complexities been faced, which is the Marxist
theory.
The use of Marxist approach is justified as the two novelists whose
work shall be used as the data for analysis share the same ideological
approach which is Marxism.
1.6 FESTUS IYAYI ‘S BACKGROUND
Festus Iyayi, born 1947, in Benin City is a Nigerian writer known for
his radical and sometimes tough stance on social and political issues.
Iyayi employs a radical style of writing, depicting the socio-political
and environmental system in which both the rich and poor live.
He was born in Edo state, Nigeria. His family was from a humble
background, but instilled in him strong moral lessons about life. Iyayi
started his education at Annunciation Catholic College in the old Bendel
state popularly known as ACC. On graduation in 1966; and in 1967 he
went to Government College Ughelli, graduating in 1968. In that same
year he became a zonal winner in a Kennedy Essay competition organise by
the United States Embassy in Nigeria. He left the shores of Nigeria to
pursue his higher education, obtaining M.Sc in Industrial Economics from
the Kiev institute of Economics, in the former USSR and then his PhD
from the University of Bradford, England. In 1980, he came back to Benin
and became a lecturer in the Department of Business Administration at
the university, he became interested in radical social issues, and a few
years after his employment, He became the president of the local branch
of the Academic staff union of universities (ASUU), a radical unionist
known for his upfront style on academic and national issues. He rose to
the position of president of the national organisation of ASUU in 1986,
but in 1988, the union was briefly banned and Iyayi was detained. In
that same year he won the commonwealth prize for Literature for his book
Heroes. He was later removed from his faculty position. Today,
Iyayi is a member of different Nigeria literary organisations and works
in the private sector as a consultant.
His creative include Violence (1979), The Contract (1982), Heroes (1986), Awaiting Court Material, (1996).
1.7 OLU OBAFEMI ‘S BACKGROUND
Olu Obafemi was born on April 4, 1950 in Akutupa-Bunu, Kogi State,
Nigeria. He read English at the Ahmadu Bello University Zaria. He is a
Professor of English and dramatic literature in the University of
Ilorin, Ilorin, Nigeria. He teaches literary criticism, theory and
creative writing in the university. He is a dramatist, poet, novelist a
foremost Nigerian scholar. Many of his published plays have been
performed to audiences in Nigerian and to African and international
audiences in Kenya, Cameroon, England and the United States.
Obafemi has won many academic fellowships and awards. He was awarded
the DAAD study visit to the University of Bayreuth, Germany in 1993,
1994 and 1995. He was resident, and Professor of English in Tennessee
University of Technology, USA from February to March, 2005. Professor
Obafemi is a fellow of Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) as well as a
fellow of the Nigeria Academy of Letters.
Obafemi has produced over thirty plays through his university based
theatre outfit, Ajon Players and the university theatre workshop in
Leeds. Some of his plays are Nights of a Mystical, Beast, Suicide Syndrome, Naira Has No Gender and Dark Times are over. He is also the author of Songs of Hope, a collection of poems, and a novel titled Wheels. His scholarly works include Nigerian Writers and the Nigerian Civil War and Contemporary Nigerian Theatre.