Pain of Loss and Separation in Selected African War Novels: A Study of Uzodinma Iweala’s Beasts of No Nation and Veronique Tadjo’s The Shadow of Imana

Abstract

War comes with loss and separation and these cause various forms and degrees of pain to war victims. Africa is one continent where this phenomenon has become a unifying factor and many literary artists have reconstructed this experience in various literary genres. Some critics, however, have asserted that pain, a foremost product of war, is understudied in African Literature. This paper investigates and analyses the portrayal of pain of loss and separation in Uzodinma Iweala’s Beasts of No Nationand Veronique Tadjo’s The Shadow of Imana. It examines the psychological pain experienced by the victims of violence as a result of various forms of loss and separation they encounter. With the use of psychoanalytic and postcolonial theories, the analysis of the texts was done. Through the exploration of characters and incidents in the novels, it is discovered that loss of loved ones; loss of freedom; loss of childhood innocence and identity, as well as physical separation from loved ones cause traumatic pain in individuals. The presentations of characters whose lives are affected by pain of loss and separation also point to the novelists' protests against colonialism. The experiences of these characters are so presented to symbolically represent the state of the postcolonial African nations. This study advocates for a peaceful co-existence among tribes and nations so as to avoid occasions that can trigger violence of any kind and its resultant outcome, pain.