Title:   RECLAIMING HOPE IN GEOPOLITICAL DYSTOPIA: A RE-READING OF UZODINMA IWEALA’S BEASTS OF NO NATION

Abstract
Contemporary times have become remarkably marked by fear. World events like the proliferation
of terrorism, banditry, the outbreak of killer-diseases, juvenile crimes, and political tensions have
initiated a crippling sense of threat to the emotional and physical equilibrium of people. World
media have not helped matters either; in their bid to report events as objectively as could be, they
have reinforced the movement of “fear” across borders and established it as a social and collective
experience. “Fear” rules across the world and is not restrained by political borders. In Africa, “fear”
can be said to have begun with the slave trade expedition and colonial conquest. National
independences, which were once beacons of hope against a backdrop of colonial rule, brought
bitter disillusionments and despair in the face of increasing mal-governance and sectarian wars.
This article, therefore, shall undertake an investigation of “fear” as a nexus between geopolitical
dystopia and material risks. It shall also engage Uzodinma Iweala’s debut novel, Beasts of No
Nation, to argue that the prominence of fear is first, traumatic to the individual, and second, a
portrait of illness behaviours. Finally, the study shall attempt to map out practical ways to
practise hope in the face of crippling fear and uncertainties.
Keywords: fear, geopolitical, dystopia, trauma, illness behaviours

Citations:

Publication Date: 2021-07-09