VIOLENCE, PAINS AND DEPRESSIONS IN NIGERIAN CIVIL WAR: A STUDY OF CHUKWUEMEKA IKE’S SUNSET AT DAWN AND ADEWALE ADEMOYEGA’S WHY WE STRUCK

Abstract

Wars bring heavy casualties to man. This makes wars destructive events. The First and Second World Wars, and the Nigeria-Biafra Civil War all made man suffer casualties. This is because people suffered pains, violence and depression over the killings and injuries they experienced in those wars. This study focuses on how these casualties appeared in Nigerian literature and analyses the factual account on war from different perspectives and presentations of these two writers: Chukwuemeka Ike’s Sunset at Dawn and Adewale Ademoyega’s Why We Struck. The study uses the post-colonial theoretical framework to analyse war issues. It also uses trauma theory to explore the impact of trauma in literature and society. This study shows how these writers have used their characters to highlight the psychological, political, economic and social unrest and sufferings of people during the civil war. The study concludes that in as much as it deals with fact and fiction, no one of these writers has any positive thing to say about war. All their claims point to the negativity of war to man and humanity. The totality of casualties faced by man during war.