WAR TRAUMA AND OTHER SIDES OF PAIN AND VIOLENCE IN ADAOKEREAGBASIMALO’STHEFOREST DAMES AND ALEXANDER MADIEBO’STHE NIGERIAN REVOLUTION AND THE BIAFRAN WAR

Abstract

Most of the Nigerian fiction and non-fiction writings on war have depicted the violence andpains of war from various perspectives which are in consonance with the recurring tragicexperiences the war goes with. During the bloody Civil War of 1967–1970, individuals wereforced to experience different sorts of violence and pains which include sickness, death andkillings to mention but a few and this defining historical moment has remained the most topicalissue in Nigerian literature both from the fictional and non-fictional perspectives. This studyinvestigates how both fiction and non-fictional works of AdaOkereAgbasimalo’sThe ForestDames and Alexander Madiebo’sThe Nigerian Revolution and the Biafran War portrayed thewar trauma and other agonizing shades of the war. The aim is to portray the pains and violenceas regards to fact and fiction of the war. The study adopted Psychoanalytic theoreticalframework as a suitable theory to query and investigate the trauma and psychologicalimbalances in the characters capable of triggering depression and neurosis with loss of life atthe very peak of its repressive effect. The study adopted a textual analysis of the two textsfrom a fictional and non-fictional perspective. The study discovered that from AdaOkere’sperspectives, individuals suffered terribly during the war. Madiebo, in his own account,presented a real life narrative of the war while tracing its remote and immediate causes. Thestudy concluded on the overall impact of the violence, pains and traumatic situations of the wargleaned from the selected works which have continued to serve as great materials for writerson both historical and fictional sides of the war literatures and narratives.