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Sozaboy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2024

Ken Saro-Wiwa

Extract

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Sozaboy's language is what I call "rotten English," a mixture of Nigerian pidgin English, broken English and occasional flashes of good, even idiomatic English. This language is disordered and disorderly. Born of a mediocre education and severely limited opportunities, it borrows words, patterns and images freely from the mother-tongue and finds expressions in a very limited English vocabulary. To its speakers, it has the advantage of having no rules and no syntax. It thrives on lawlessness, and is part of the dislocated and discordant society in which Sozaboy must live, move and have not his being. (K. S.-W.)

Type
Research Article
Information
Diogenes , Volume 46 , Issue 184 , December 1998 , pp. 145 - 146
Copyright
Copyright © 1998 Fédération Internationale des Sociétés de Philosophie / International Federation of Philosophical Societies (FISP)

References

Notes

1. "Sozaboy is a war novel, the narrative of one young man's helpless and hap less journey through a terrifying African war… Sozaboy - as the hero, Mene, is dubbed (‘Soza' means ‘soldier’) - is one such uncertain conscript and he meanders through the novel in an almost permanent state of ignorance; clar ity beckoning from time to time only to be occluded promptly … The lan guage of the novel is a unique literary construct … I cannot think of another example where the English language has been so engagingly and skillfully hijacked… Sozaboy is a novel born out of harsh personal experience, but shaped with a masterful and sophisticated artistry despite its apparent rough-hewn guilelessness. With equal skill and deftness, it also carries a profound moral message that extends beyond its particular time and setting. Sozaboys are legion, and their lives are being destroyed on the planet. Sozaboy is not simply a great African novel, it is also a great anti-war novel, among the very best the twentieth century has produced." From the Introduction by William Boyd, in Sozaboy (London, 1994). The extract is from pp. 45-46 of the novel.