INTRODUCTION

1.1       Background to the Study

Some rulers in Africa have built their nations, managed their economies and

expanded their territories independent of the western world. Despite the

aforementioned, when the western world came in contact with what is called „Africa‟

in trying to define the colour of the black man‟s skin , Europeans assumed superiority

and view Africans as „primitive‟, „savage‟ and a „backward‟ race. Taiwo(1976)had

traced African contact with the West towards the end of the 15th century when the

Portuguese explorer Vasco Da Gama called into a few harbors along the West African

coast. However, it was the subsequent slave trade which started on a large scale about

a century later that was the first great phenomenon which shook Africa out of

centuries of quietude and isolation and began a period of many wars and conflicts.

According to Barkindo, Omolewa, &Maduakor(1992), from the second half of the

first century, Africans had been sold as slaves to work on large plantations in America

and the West Indies. The trade brought fortune and wealth to many European buyers.

Their African sellers were also beneficiaries who had acquired money, intoxicant

drinks, clothing materials, guns and other worthless glittering gifts from the proceeds

of the trade.

However, the industrial revolution which began in the 18th century taking

place in far away Western Europe became the prime mover of the trend of events in

Africa and shaped the destiny of many African states, further asserts Barkindo,

Omolewa&Maduakor(1992). For it was largely responsible for bringing to an end the

trans Atlantic slave trade and also the introduction of the so called legitimate trade

with its attendant competition and rivalry among European trading companies (the

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scramble). In order to avoid a possible military confrontation, the rivalry culminated

in the partition of Africa at the Berlin Conference of 1884-1885. What is called

Nigeria was taken over by the British.

Hitherto, Nigeria wascomposed of scattered states, chiefdoms, empires,

principalities and smaller communities which were further translated into Hausa

States, Borno Empire, Nupe and Jukun kingdoms in the North, Yoruba Kingdoms,

and Benin Empires in the South West, the Igbo societies in the south east amongst

others. These states and kingdoms had different historical backgrounds, religions and

levels of development, until colonialism forced a merging in 1914 when Lord Lugard

amalgamated the Northern and Southern Protectorates. In 1960, Nigeria got her

independence.After independence, there was the need to integrate the divergent ethnic

nationalities, cultures and people of the country, Nigeria. The National Youth Service

Corps Scheme, the Unity Schools, the Federal Character Principle and state creations

are examples of policies intended to achieve this goal. However, it is clear that the

outcome of the integration policies and programmes in Nigeria have to some extent

fallen far below expectation as ethnic loyalties are still deep-seated. Nigerians often

times cannot engage in meaningful collective activities without the glimpse of ethnic

or tribal instinct materialising. Nigerians remain in Omotosho‟s (1998:334) assertion,

„Strange bed fellows‟ . Hence, there is a need of transforming Nigeria, in the words of

Chief ObafemiAwolowo, „from a mere geographical expression into a cultural

expression,‟ and this can be achieved through deliberate attempts of literature and

imaginary works of cultural integration in Children‟s literature.

Literatureinfacthas played great roles in uniting people and mobilizing them

for collective action. “According to Kermode (2007:111) “the great virtue of literary

fiction is that it is able by engagingthe imagination of those who study itto lead themto

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discovery and recognition by an unexpected and instructive route‟‟. Gordimer

(2007:115) adds that:

Morals have bedded with     storytelling     since the magic of the imaginative capaci