Politics and Leadership Challenges in Helon Habila’s Waiting For An Angel
Keywords:
Oppression, Corruption, Tyranny, Poverty, Sufferings, Survival, Good Governance.Abstract
Literature mirrors the society that produced it. It is about man and the happenings around him as
well as his inner conflicts. The writer draws his material from his observations and experiences.
This paper entitled “Politics and Leadership Challenges in Helon Habila’s Waiting for an Angel”,
aims at exploring the sufferings, pains, disappointments, deprivations, corruption, tyranny, and
oppression that characterizes the society in the novel as a result of leadership patterns, which is the
outcomes of politics of calumny by the ruling class. The leadership class is somehow estranged
from the people because of the despotic nature of military leadership in most African countries.
The novel also portrays the disillusionment of the people, the apathy of the rulers, and the attendant
consequences of the dejection, poverty, and miserable conditions of the people. The novelist also
exposes the political activism, which unfortunately claims many lives. The data for this research
was mainly from primary and secondary sources, while journals, books, and internet sources
formed the secondary sources. The theoretical framework is Marxism. The novelist exposes the
issues that undermine the lives and well-being of the masses and advocates honesty and good
governance.
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