Violence and its Linguistic Framing: An Ex-ploration of Boubacar Boris Diop’s Murambi, The Book of Bones and Uwem Akpan’s Say You’re One of Them

Abstract

Several existing studies have investigated the aesthetics of genocide literature. However, there are few studies on genocide literatures from Nigeria especially as there is still a debate on what constitutes genocide in Nigerian literatures. A comparative study of genocide literature from Rwanda and the arguable genocide narratives from Nigeria will further the discourse of what constitutes genocide in Nigerian literature. This study delves into the examination of the use of violent language in Boubacar Boris Diop’s documentation of the Rwandan genocide in Murambi and Uwem Akpan’s Say You’re One of Them and how this replicates the genocide experiences in the two contexts. The study asserts that the convention of measuring and defining genocide based on the scale of killings subverts the reality of the victims of genocides. It further establishes that Akpan’s recreation of ethno-religious killings in Nigeria is in sync with the deployment of language in other established instances of genocide literature.

Opsomming

 In talle studies word die estetika van volksmoordliteratuur ondersoek. Min studies handel egter oor die volksmoordliterature van Nigerië vanweë die debat oor wat volksmoord in Nigeriese literature behels. 'n Vergelykende studie van die volksmoord-literatuur van Rwanda en die betwiste volksmoordvertellings van Nigerië lewer 'n  bydrae tot die diskoers oor wat volksmoord in Nigeriese literature uitmaak. Hierdie studie ondersoek die gebruik van gewelddadige taal in Boubacar Boris Diop se optekening van die Rwandese volksmoord in Murambi en Uwem Akpan se Say You’re One of Them en hoe dit die belewenis van volksmoord in die twee kontekste uitbeeld. In hierdie studie word beweer dat die konvensie om volksmoord op grond van 'n dodetal te meet en te omskryf, die werklikheid van die slagoffers daarvan ondermyn. Daar word voorts aangevoer dat Akpan se taalaanwending in sy herskepping van godsdiens-en-volksmoorde in Nigerië ooreenstemming toon met dié in gevestigde voorbeelde van volksmoordliteratuur.