Vision, themes and techniques in Ahmed Yerima’s hard ground and Arnold Udoka’s a long walk to dream: a comparative approach

Abstract

Contemporary Nigerian literature is predominant with representation the exploration of economic, political and social issues bedevilling the nation. Literary scholarship in relation to the growing interest in the Niger Delta of Nigeria is specifically gaining prominence. Creative writers, as the mouthpieces of society, attend virtually to all areas in their quest to depict what they perceive inimical to sustainable nationhood. Consequently, critics have a huge responsibility to bring these creative works to the fore. The intention of this paper is to engage the vision, themes and techniques in Ahmed Yerima's Hard Ground and Arnold Udoka's Long Walk to a Dream from the perspective of comparative approach. Yerima and Udoka exploit this medium to vividly depict the social, economic and political realities of the time, in order to achieve the much sought-after development of the region. Viewed from the critical lens of post-colonialism, the tenets of post-independence disillusionment, unhomeliness, alienation and exile are applied to the analyses of these texts. This paper dwells on articulation of the needs of the inhabitants of the region, in a literary manner, thus providing reference materials for literary scholarship on the Niger Delta as part of the corpus known as African literature.