scholarly journals Versifying History and National Trauma in Tanure Ojaide’s The Endless Song

SAGE Open ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 215824401983743
Author(s):  
Edwin Onwuka ◽  
Emmanuel Uba ◽  
Isaiah Fortress

The symbiotic relationship between literature and history is most visible in the writer’s deployment of his or her art to document experiences of the past and their impacts on the feelings and well-being of his or her people in the periods represented in the work(s). This article explores the historical content and significance of Tanure Ojaide’s The Endless Song from a new historical perspective. Most studies on Ojaide’s poetry often focus on his critique of bad leadership and his denunciation of exploitation and pillaging of Nigeria’s Niger Delta region with little attention paid to his poems as history in verse form. This article therefore contributes to criticism on the interface between literature and history. This study further highlights significant motifs in Nigeria’s history in the periods documented in The Endless Song and analyses the traumatic impacts of the events on the well-being of Nigeria and her people. These are aimed at showing that Ojaide’s The Endless Song is more than an outcry against the plundering of the Niger Delta region; it represents the spatiotemporal record of Nigeria’s turbulent history.

AIDS Care ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 494-500 ◽  
Author(s):  
Festus Abasiubong ◽  
Emem A. Bassey ◽  
Olawale O. Ogunsemi ◽  
John A. Udobang

2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 48-61
Author(s):  
Grace A. Tonye-Scent ◽  
Endurance Uzobo

Health insecurity is a major problem affecting the well-being of internally displaced persons in Nigeria. In the Niger Delta region, the situation remains virulent with attendant consequences on the displaced population. This study investigated health insecurity among the internally displaced persons. Data were sourced across three States of the Niger Delta Region, identified among areas with a high rate of internal displacement. Human Security Approach was employed as a theoretical framework. A total of 582 respondents (Bayelsa = 206, Delta = 211, and Rivers = 165) who had been displaced between the year 2012 to 2018 were randomly selected, and a questionnaire was administered. Findings indicated that 51.9% of respondents in Delta state, 50.0% in Rivers state, and 35.7% in Bayelsa state were diagnosed with diseases resulting from flood displacement. The diseases diagnosed were high blood pressure, cholera, hernia, malaria, measles, tuberculosis, and typhoid. While the diagnosis of blood pressure was high in Bayelsa (3.9%) and Delta (3.5%), the diagnosis of cholera was not recorded in Bayelsa and Delta States but Rivers state (3.4%). Those displaced by flood were 0.4 times less likely to experience abnormal health status than those displaced by other causes. The study concluded that displacement has serious implications on the health of internally displaced persons. It, therefore, recommended that medical centres should be cited in displaced camps to cater for the medical needs of the displaced population.


2017 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 250-252
Author(s):  
Chioma Opara

The media have in the past weeks been awash with the sudden demise of a great female writer, activist and publisher—Buchi Emecheta—on 25 January 2017 in London. Nigerians and, indeed, scholars all over the world have not yet recovered from their shock at the loss of two Nigerian literary giants, Elechi Amadi and Isidore Okpewho, only recently in 2016. And now another fatal blow has been dealt on the literary sphere at the dawn of a brand new year. It may be necessary to note that Buchi Emecheta passed on the heels of Isidore Okpewho’s death (an interval of just four months). Both were, incidentally, from Delta State. In fact, the three deceased writers—Amadi, Okpewho and Emecheta came originally from the oil-rich Niger Delta region of Nigeria.


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