EDITORIAL ARTICLE: War in African Literature: Literary Harvests, Human Tragedies
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 April 2013
Summary
In an excellent introduction to his anthology, A Harvest From Tragedy: Critical Perspectives on Nigerian Civil War Literature (an important text which deserves more exposure and circulation than it has so far received), Chinyere Nwahunanya (1997), using the Nigerian civil war as premise, highlights the cumulative value of the corpus of literature inspired by war and its concomitant catastrophes on geo-political African realities. He states:
In its re-creation and interpretation of history, Nigerian war literature has enriched the existing body of historical writing from Africa, especially historical fiction. In this way, the writers have made literature continue to function as the mirror of society. In the process of mirroring society and criticizing its pitfalls, the war literature also serves as a compass for social re-direction. A didactic function emerges in the process, especially in the portrayal of death, devastation, avoidable mistakes and sufferings engendered by the war. The ultimate intention of course is to see whether these records of a sour historical moment will enable the modern African to see the futility of wars as a solution to national problems which could be solved without a recourse to war, carnage and bloodshed. The suggested mistakes of the war initiators and administrators portrayed in these writings thus become invaluable guides to meaningful national growth and a stable and progressive society. If this lesson comes through, then African nations (and indeed the world) would have gained immensely from this harvest of tragedy. (14)
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- War in African Literature Today , pp. xi - xivPublisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2008