Culture and The Contemporary Nigerian Novel: An Examination of Akachi-Ezeigbo's Trafficked

Abstract

There has been a renewed cultural onslaught in the country through the influx of foreign norms and ideals vide the internet. There is therefore equally a renewed imperative for Nigerian writers to come to the rescue of their cultures by projecting them in their works to create consciousness about them. There are however conflicting critical submissions over the depiction of indigenous Nigerian cultures in the contemporary Nigerian novel. This paper therefore critically examines the depiction of culture in Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo's Trafficked using the postcolonial literary theory. The purpose is to gain insight into how contemporary Nigerian novelists have been promoting and preserving their cultures by depicting them in their works. The author shows an in-depth knowledge of the cultures and oral traditions of the country in the selected work by showcasing the close relationship between literature and culture. She reveals several cultural practices of Nigerians relating to marriage, inheritance, naming, death, burial and reincarnation, etc. The study reveals that recent Nigerian novelists, like their predecessors, are equally concerned with the preservation of their cultures, especially in the face of the current onslaught on the cultures of third world countries by the west, especially, through the internet and have therefore been depicting them in their works.