Historiographic Metafiction in Okey Ndibe’s Arrow of Rain

Abstract

Postmodernism is concerned with untold, retold, or not told history. History as it never was histories that have been altered, erased, concealed, forgotten, and deemed inconsequential. It has to do with not viewing history as linear. Many critics view African literary works as social chronicles that address the continent's politics and culture. Nigerian novels, especially those written in the realist style, are said to be part of this heritage. The author's responses to modern society's frequently harsh socio-political realities are frequently reflected in the fictional scenarios they explore. Colonial concerns were handled in the 1960s and before independence. More recently, Nigerian literature has addressed the complex issues of corruption, ethnic chauvinism, leadership crises, and dictatorial governance. This paper looks at how Okey Ndibe confronts the ills of the most recent iteration of military power and its civilian allies in ‘Arrows of Rain’. This demonstrates a change in focus and concern from the earlier emphasis on the effects of colonization and the historical past to an analysis of the current sociopolitical issues of the ruling elite's abuse of power, as well as pervasive, blatant corruption and social inequality in modern-day Nigeria. It's all about the military tyranny and the years of philistine governance. Ndibe is a serious novelist who revisits the metanarratives of the Nigerian past and zeroes in on the Historical necessity and faithfulness of the concrete situations in Nigeria.