International Journal of Linguistics & Communication

Extractive Institutions in the African Novel: A Study of Chukwuemeka Ike’s the Chicken Chasers
Anyanwu Patricia Ngozi1 (Ph.D.)

Abstract
The goal of this study is to examine how the African novel tells of issues that affect the continent as a community of people with common history, who are in need of moral and cultural renaissance. It begins by arguing that the many years of decolonization which has failed to impact positively on the lives of the people of the continent is occasioned by the greed, selfishness and irresponsibility of native leaders who inherited power at independence and avers that this unfortunate situation has continued to incite the creative impetus of African novelists, including Chukwuemeka Vincent Ike. In this study, we have argued that in The Chicken Chasers, Ike engages the technical form of the novel genre in order to expose and lampoon the few men and women in leadership positions -“extractive institutions”, whose words and actions negate the promises of independence, particularly the need to right the wrongs of cultural misrepresentation which characterized colonial period in Africa.

Full Text: PDF     DOI: 10.15640/ijlc.v5n1a7