THE NATIVE SONS OF NIGERIA
THE NATIVE SONS OF NIGERIA
The West African Examination Council, WAEC recently changed its literature syllabus. Among the newly introduced texts for African and non African prose are two important and interesting novels. Faceless is an African prose written by Amah Darko a Ghanaian author while Native Son is a non African prose written by Richard Wright an African American author.
However, both books deal with serious social issues which inspire this article.
While Faceless deals with vices ranging from broken home, sexual abuses, thuggery, street life and child labour among several others, Native Son deals with issues that are psychologically far worse than those aforementioned.
Native Son is the tragic story of Bigger Thomas, a poor, uneducated, twenty year old black man in 1930s Chicago, wakes up one morning in his family’s cramped apartment on the South Side of the city. Having grown up under the climate of harsh racial prejudice in 1930s America, Bigger is burdened with a powerful conviction that he has no control over his life and that he cannot aspire to anything other than menial, low-wage labour.
Anger, fear and frustration define Bigger’s daily existence as he’s forced to hide behind a facade of toughness or risk succumbing to despair.
After accepting to take up a driving job with a white rich family the Daltons who incidentally happened to be his landlord by quitting his robbery gang, he was to drive Mary Dalton the only child of the family to school on his first day on the job.
Mary is wayward and asked Bigger to drive her to meet her communist boyfriend, Jan Erlone. Eager to prove their progressive ideal and racial tolerance, Mary and Jan force Bigger to take them to a restaurant in the black settlement where the trio got drunk. Back home Mary was too drunk to make it to her room upstairs by herself and Bigger helped her but overcome by the power of alcohol and aroused by his unprecedented proximity to a young white woman, he began to kiss her and one thing led to the other Mary died accidentally due to suffocation when Bigger covered her face with a pillow to prevent her from making a sound that will give them away to her blind mother who entered the room.
Bigger on the other hand after burying the body in a fire place within the house decided to make profit from the development by writing a letter of kidnap demanding a ransom which was to be collected by his waiting girlfriend Bessie. Unfortunately, there was turn of events when the body was discovered unexpectedly and Bigger had to run away to inform Bessie of the new development but when he noticed Bessie’s reluctance he murdered her for her lack of cooperation.
Bigger is apprehended by the police and in the ensuing trial, Jan, despite the fact that Bigger tried to pin Mary’s death on him forgave him and got him the legal service of Max Boris who was also a communist party member.
Max tried to save Bigger from the death penalty by arguing that while his client (Bigger) is responsible for his crime, it important to recognise that he was a product of his environment.
Part of the blame for Bigger’s crimes belongs to the fearful, hopeless existence that he had experienced in a racist society since birth. Max warned that there will be more men like Bigger if America does not put an end to the vicious cycle of hatred and vengeance. Although, despite Max’s arguments, Bigger was sentenced to death by electrocution since he was not a traditional hero by any means.
However, Wright forces us to enter into Bigger’s mind and to understand the devastating effects of the social conditions in which he (Bigger) was raised. Bigger was not born a violent criminal. He is a “native son”: a product of American culture and the violence and racism that suffuse it.
This is the point, in Nigeria of today, there are many Bigger Thomases just like that of the 1930 America.
There is Bigger Thomas as human trafficker, Bigger Thomas as armed robber, Bigger Thomas as kidnapper or cultist. Bigger Thomas of cyber fraud, prostitute and child labour due to the poor and bad leadership that permeates African society and Nigeria as a case study.
Nigeria’s Bigger Thomases is not as a result of racism or racial discrimination and oppression but of class struggles and oppression which exist between the rich and the poor.
The Nigeria native sons are the ones you see by the roadsides picking items to sustain their bodies from hunger, they are the ones you see aimlessly roaming the streets without particular destination in mind. The Nigeria native sons are those mentally derailed individuals you meet on our public roads and places walking around naked who are supposed to be kept in an asylum.
They are the ones who attacked you in the nights to cart away your few valuables due to their failures and inabilities to handle the frustrations and aggressions of the Nigerian state and its agents.
The Nigeria native sons are those army of job seekers with no hope of greener pastures in sight.
These native sons are the people of low or second class citizens set against one another by the political class for their own selfish gain.
They are the humans subjected to inhuman treatments and strip of their selfhood and human dignity.
They are the ones you found under the bridge in the metropolis and other poverty infested ghettos.
The Nigeria native sons are originally not born violent persons or criminals, they are the products and creations of their socio-economic and political environment.
They are not foreigners or strangers, just like Bigger Thomas of the United States of America, they are native sons of Nigeria
However, both books deal with serious social issues which inspire this article.
While Faceless deals with vices ranging from broken home, sexual abuses, thuggery, street life and child labour among several others, Native Son deals with issues that are psychologically far worse than those aforementioned.
Anger, fear and frustration define Bigger’s daily existence as he’s forced to hide behind a facade of toughness or risk succumbing to despair.
Mary is wayward and asked Bigger to drive her to meet her communist boyfriend, Jan Erlone. Eager to prove their progressive ideal and racial tolerance, Mary and Jan force Bigger to take them to a restaurant in the black settlement where the trio got drunk. Back home Mary was too drunk to make it to her room upstairs by herself and Bigger helped her but overcome by the power of alcohol and aroused by his unprecedented proximity to a young white woman, he began to kiss her and one thing led to the other Mary died accidentally due to suffocation when Bigger covered her face with a pillow to prevent her from making a sound that will give them away to her blind mother who entered the room.
Bigger on the other hand after burying the body in a fire place within the house decided to make profit from the development by writing a letter of kidnap demanding a ransom which was to be collected by his waiting girlfriend Bessie. Unfortunately, there was turn of events when the body was discovered unexpectedly and Bigger had to run away to inform Bessie of the new development but when he noticed Bessie’s reluctance he murdered her for her lack of cooperation.
Bigger is apprehended by the police and in the ensuing trial, Jan, despite the fact that Bigger tried to pin Mary’s death on him forgave him and got him the legal service of Max Boris who was also a communist party member.
Part of the blame for Bigger’s crimes belongs to the fearful, hopeless existence that he had experienced in a racist society since birth. Max warned that there will be more men like Bigger if America does not put an end to the vicious cycle of hatred and vengeance. Although, despite Max’s arguments, Bigger was sentenced to death by electrocution since he was not a traditional hero by any means.
However, Wright forces us to enter into Bigger’s mind and to understand the devastating effects of the social conditions in which he (Bigger) was raised. Bigger was not born a violent criminal. He is a “native son”: a product of American culture and the violence and racism that suffuse it.
There is Bigger Thomas as human trafficker, Bigger Thomas as armed robber, Bigger Thomas as kidnapper or cultist. Bigger Thomas of cyber fraud, prostitute and child labour due to the poor and bad leadership that permeates African society and Nigeria as a case study.
Nigeria’s Bigger Thomases is not as a result of racism or racial discrimination and oppression but of class struggles and oppression which exist between the rich and the poor.
They are the ones who attacked you in the nights to cart away your few valuables due to their failures and inabilities to handle the frustrations and aggressions of the Nigerian state and its agents.
The Nigeria native sons are those army of job seekers with no hope of greener pastures in sight.
These native sons are the people of low or second class citizens set against one another by the political class for their own selfish gain.
They are the humans subjected to inhuman treatments and strip of their selfhood and human dignity.
They are the ones you found under the bridge in the metropolis and other poverty infested ghettos.
The Nigeria native sons are originally not born violent persons or criminals, they are the products and creations of their socio-economic and political environment.
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