Sozaboy: Anti-War Narrative and Rotten English in Saro-Wiwa

Introduction: Sozaboy as Anti-War Paradox

Sozaboy paradoxically decodes the despair and alienation of war into a brighter future for humanity. It is a subliminal lesson that, by making the impact that it does, entrenches itself in the reader's unconscious and helps the reader understand the moral and political implications of war on humanity in general, and the effect of the Nigerian Civil War on minority areas within the Biafran population in particular.

The Role of 'Rotten English' as Narrative Vehicle

Sozaboy is a powerful book intended to serve as an anti-war harangue. This is best detected through the language — "rotten English" — which serves as the vehicle for decoding the disorder and brutality of war. The language itself is a corruption of the regular, harmonious way of speaking English. It is fractured, uncouth, incomplete, and rough. At rare times, the author lapses into "regular" English, and these moments seem to occur when order appears to be present. For instance, at the advent of the war, the author describes his fascination with soldiers in very lucid English (p. 72).

Plot Structure and the Disorderliness of War

The plot itself reflects the disorderliness and hollowness of war. The book starts with Mene's dreams of raising a family and becoming a professional driver. He has recently married and is heartily in love. There seems to be a new government on the horizon, promising propitious results for the village:

"…the new government of Soza and police has come. Everybody was saying that everything will be good in Dukana because of new government. They were saying that Kotuma ashbottom from Bori cannot take bribe from people in Dukana again. They were saying too that all those policemen who used to chop big bribe from people who get case will not chop again" (p. 1).

The village clearly needs invigoration. Mene's first experiences of war, however, are disorienting and perplexing:

"After the plane has disappeared, then I got up from where I was hiding. Oh Jesus Christ son of God, the thing wey I see my mouth no fit talk am. Oh God our father way dey for up, why you make man wicked like this to his own brother?… I can never forget what I saw that morning." (p. 11)

In powerful terms, Mene goes on to describe his experiences:

"True true these men were not looking like the people that I have known before. If you see how all their eyes have gone inside their head, and all their hair have become palm oil colour and they have dirty rag shirt and all their bones are shaking inside their body, I am telling you, if you see all these things, and you think about them very well, you will know at once that war is a very bad and stupid game." (p. 151)

Conclusion: Trauma as a Lesson for Humanity

War was unavoidable. It occurred. But trauma can either eternally destruct or, when engaged constructively, result in a lesson for further generations. Turning to the reader — who is unscarred by war — Saro-Wiwa has Mene relate the facts of his trauma in as raw and immediate a sense as possible, so that readers can, through instruction in his horror, come face to face with the savageness of the phenomenon. In that way, the novel serves as a decoding for the present and for all time: such horror must never again be repeated.

Ultimately, Sozaboy becomes a paradox where despair and alienation are transformed into a warning and a lesson. Through its fractured language, its shattered plot, and its portrait of a man stripped of everything he loves, the novel insists that the devastation of Biafra and the suffering of Nigeria's minority peoples must be understood — and must never be forgotten.

Reference

Saro-Wiwa, K. (1985). Sozaboy. Port-Harcourt: Saros International Publishers.