Title:   THE DISCOURSE OF NATIONALITY AND CITIZENSHIP IN PITA NWANA’S OMENUKO AND THE CRISES OF INDIGENEITY IN NIGERIA

Abstract
Pita Nwana’s Omenuko is one of the first literary texts that was written and published in black Africa. However, because it was in the indigenous Igbo language, it was not accessible to global readership, until it was translated into the English language in 2014; yet, not much literary critical essays had been written on it. This study intends to investigate the issues of nationality and citizenship as a result of migration of some literary characters in the fictive world of the novel with appropriate legal framework of statutory and constitutional provisions and qualitative research methodology. The study’s findings include that the problems of indigeneity, which has polarized and fragmented the country into ethno-religious-based warring entities in Nigeria are as a result of the policies of the British colonization. Moreover, the terrorist and militant groups that maim and kill citizens in every nook and cranny of the country today are the offshoots of what the novelist, as a prophet, Pita Nwana foresees almost a hundred years ago in his canonical novel. Finally, the study recommends that there is no way the country can experience democratic governance with its outcomes as long as these divisive colonial legacies that survive political decolonization of the country operate, without the governments at all levels making unrelenting efforts to enforce the rights and freedoms of the citizens as provided in the constitution and other municipal, regional and international laws and statutes.

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Publication Date: 2023-04-06