Arts & Humanities Journal|IJAH

Title: THE AFRICAN WRITER AS A SOCIAL CRUSADER AGAINST SOCIAL ALIENATION IN A TRAUMATISED AFRICAN SOCIETY: INSIGHT INTO BESSIE HEAD'S A QUESTION OF POWER AND MARU
Authors: DR. PHILIP SUNDAY BAGU, DR. CHRIS K. UKANDE
Volume:3 Issue: 9
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1DR. PHILIP SUNDAY BAGU, 2DR. CHRIS K. UKANDE 1. DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH, BENUE STATE UNIVERSITY, MAKURDI 2. DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH, BENUE STATE UNIVERSITY, MAKURDI, NIGERIA
MLA 8 BAGU, DR. PHILIP SUNDAY, and DR. CHRIS K. UKANDE. "THE AFRICAN WRITER AS A SOCIAL CRUSADER AGAINST SOCIAL ALIENATION IN A TRAUMATISED AFRICAN SOCIETY: INSIGHT INTO BESSIE HEAD'S A QUESTION OF POWER AND MARU." Int. J. Arts&Humanities, vol. 3, no. 9, Sept. 2019, pp. 350-364, journal-ijah.org/more2019.php?id=26. Accessed Sept. 2019. APA BAGU, D., & UKANDE, D. (2019, September). THE AFRICAN WRITER AS A SOCIAL CRUSADER AGAINST SOCIAL ALIENATION IN A TRAUMATISED AFRICAN SOCIETY: INSIGHT INTO BESSIE HEAD'S A QUESTION OF POWER AND MARU. Int. J. Arts&Humanities, 3(9), 350-364. Retrieved from journal-ijah.org/more2019.php?id=26 Chicago BAGU, DR. PHILIP SUNDAY, and DR. CHRIS K. UKANDE. "THE AFRICAN WRITER AS A SOCIAL CRUSADER AGAINST SOCIAL ALIENATION IN A TRAUMATISED AFRICAN SOCIETY: INSIGHT INTO BESSIE HEAD'S A QUESTION OF POWER AND MARU." Int. J. Arts&Humanities 3, no. 9 (September 2019), 350-364. Accessed September, 2019. journal-ijah.org/more2019.php?id=26.
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Keywords: African writer, social crusader, social alienation, traumatised society.
Abstract: The fact that we live in the 21st century would simply have meant an improvement on the general human conditions that have in the past haunted and hunted the human species. However, the dehumanising practices are still seen rearing the Neo-Colonialists' ugly heads in the African continent of the 21st century. African writers have taken to pen and paper, to refute these dehumanising practices through their literary works. One of such writers is Bessie Head. Using the trauma theory, this paper examines two of Bessie Head's novels: A Question of Power and Maru as a traumatic critique to analyse in detail, the issues of discrimination, alienation and the dehumanised condition of the majority of Africans in the 21st century. The paper adopts primary and secondary sources in analysing the two chosen novels. The analysis shows that Bessie Head's A Question of Power and Maru are powerful expositions of the forlorn living, and the type of mental disorder that befall the people of Africa, who in their bid to live, are meant to undergo all forms of social alienation that come with much despondence and depression. The paper concludes that the author using her literary texts, makes a case for the people of Africa in particular and the world in general as she has expressly shown that Africa and the entire world would have been a better place to live and stay if not for the degrading and insensitive posture of the powers that be towards the development and growth of humans.
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