Authors:
TAIWO ADEKUNLE ADEDIPE AND ANGELA CHITOO EZEKWE

Emails: adedipetaiwo@gmail.com, angychito@yahoo.com

Paper Title:
CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN AFRICA: A STUDY OF SELECTED AFRICAN NOVELS
Publised in OKO JOURNAL OF COMMUNICATION AND INFORMATION SCIENCE    (VOLUME 3 NUMBER 2 JANUARY 2021)
Abstract:

Contemporary issues in African novels are challenges facing, working against and hindering social, cultural, political and economic development of Africa at individual and society/group of individuals levels. Some of these issues/challenges are raised and discussed as re-occurring themes in African literature, especially in African novels. These challenges are presented in writers literary works through theme, characterisation, characters, plot, point of view and other elements of prose-fiction and different genres of literature. Out of the myriad of these challenges in Africa, this paper specifically focused on poverty and sex traffickingS in Ifeoma Okoye's The Fourth World and Ikechukwu Asika’s Under the Mango Tree. This paper, through literary analysis, constructively illustrates the negative impacts of poverty on an individual characterised as Akalaka and his family as a part that represents the wretched people of Kasanga avenue in the first novel. His inability to get out of poverty and forces that conspired to keep him perpetually poor, such as his lack of formal and informal education and the unequal distribution of the wealth of the nation are some of the challenges discussed in this paper. On the other hand, Chira, who doubles as his daughter and the protagonist exemplifies suggested solutions on how to get out of poverty by individual and group of individuals. The evil of sex trafficking is analysed in the second novel through critical literary analysis of the protagonist. The writer uses literary Marxism and literary feminism as theoretical tools of analysis.

Keywords: African Literature, Poverty, Sex Trafficking, Equality, Education

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