. Introduction
Realism and the African novel have become holistically married on the platform which is the African novel. However, in the process of this unification, the novel has been infused with African traditional aesthetics and factual experiences of the African society. This adaptation generates the possibility of employing the African novel as an acclaimed tool for the examination and cross-examination of Africans. Critical self-examination comes right after the African novel is employed as a tool for rehabilitating the African culture, due to the collapse it suffered in the hands of the colonial masters. However, it serves as the only literary measure to be engaged, since the colonialist left Africans with options of activities, which if engage in, would unveil various magnitudes of disillusionments.
The extent to which the African novel is real, cannot be overemphasized. The portrayal of Africans and their activities in the African novel has become so much that it is seen as a moderator of the activities of Africans. However, it also serves as a platform for stating the ills in the African society as in Yellow-yellow and proffering solutions to them as in The Moto-Boy.
The oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary defines realism as "a style in art or literature that shows things and people as they are in real life (971). On the other hand, Agho Jude in his book ; The Novel in Africa and Selected Discourses defines the African novel as "any extended narrative, not only written by an African, but which must be about Africa and Africans, conceived from an African point-of-view and reflecting an African world view" (4). In this light, this research essay takes a look at the operations of Africans as portrayed in the African novel. Also, in defining realism and the African novel, it is therefore defined as: any long extended narrative which portrays Africans as they are real in life, bringing to light their ways of life, stating their challenges and probably helping to proffer solutions.
-Literture review
Encyclopedia Encarta states that realism in Africa is often expressed as a concern with the authentic and full representation of African cognitive, experience, historical and cultural reality, focusing on the "fundamental nature of African identity as expressed in it's thought, art and culture". Realism according to Wikipedia is part of the realist movement beginning with mid-nineteenth-century French Literature (stendhal) and Russian Literature (Alexander Pushkin) and extending to the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Literary realism, in contrast to "idealism" attempts to represent familiar things as they are. Realist authors choose to depict every day and banal activities and experiences, instead of using a romanticized or similar stylized presentation. Literary critic, I am Watt, however, dates the origin of realism to early 18th century novel. Subsequent related developments in the "Arts" are naturalism social realism and socialist realism in the 1930s.
Wikipedia also defines realism as "the faithful representation of reality". Realism in Arts is the attempt to represent subject matter truthfully, without artificiality and avoiding artistic conventions, implausible, exotic and super-natural elements. Realism has been prevalent in the "Arts" at many periods and is in large part a matter of technique and training and the avoidance of stylization in the visual arts, illusionistic realism is the accurate depiction of life-forms, perspective and the details of light and colour. Realist work of art may emphasize the ugly or sordid, such as works of realism, regionalism, or kitchen Sink realism.
However, Hugh Webb in his book, African Literature states that "a large proportion of modern African works of fiction can be defines as realist novels". This however owed to the actual portrayal of Africa in such works. Though what precisely, is a realist novel? As Stephen Health has lucidly expressed it, "the realist is a process of significant fiction (that is, not substantial but formal) and it may be described as the resemblance of the society" (19).
Mineke schipper in his paper, "Towards a Definition of Realism in the African Context", states that:
Realism does not just mean true to the hard fact. It is quantitatively in the sense of the more facts in a text, the more realistic the text will be. What is true is not always probable (in the sense of credible) and therefore realistic in the eyes of the reader who uses his own experience of reality as a touch stone (1).
The realistic writer destroys certain norms of his time (and his social group) in writing more truthfully than his predecessors. Therefore Harry Levin calls the literary realist "a professional iconoclast, bent on shattering the false images of his days (248). Also, in line with Mineke Schipper's view, sometimes the destruction of norms in the realistic novel only strikes the literary system, but in many cases it also touches the social and political systems. A concrete historical situation, a datable and locatable frame are conditions for the realization of realism features as well.
This constitutes a latent threat to the existing order and the rulling authority. Censorship, personification or imprisonments are there to prove that the writer's realism can be effective, that this verbalized reality has been recognized (but not accepted) by the authorities. This is not a phenomenon of the past, as it appears from the numerous cases of dissident and imprisoned writers in our own time, throughout the world, who describe their contemporary reality so realistically, that, the political authorities experience their writings as too recognizable and therefore as threatening. There are the many bans on realistic black writers in south Africa and the well-know case of Ngugi Thiongo's imprisonment in Kenya.
Post-independence African writing is particularly rich in content and diversity. Through analysis of the traditional role of realism in this period, this however is an exploration of how literary developments interact with socio-economic, political and philosophical climates.
This Paul Uwomba states in his proposal for a PhD thesis titled: "Strange Truths of African Realism: communists, identity and Resistance in the literature of independence" In 2000, states that contemporary corruption in Africa was becoming impossible to understand through conventional forms of story-telling" (1), suggesting a need for writing to adapt to new complexities. Ben okri, whose magical realism is one example of how genre can be used to rewrite a nation's history and portray its realism say: “to poison a nation, poison its stories. Implicit here is a claim that stories may also provide an antidote. However, realism and its radical revision have been crucial in shaping the discursive matrices of contemporary African literature, and the performative reshaping of genres constitutes a form of societal activism.
Critically, particular area of debate has been the negative assessment of African art, such as the claim that the category of realism does not apply to African art. William Abraham argues, when critics like Gombrich say that the "the African artists are incapable of realistic representation; they quite miss the point of African Art" (52). If they seek life-like representation, they should turn to "secular art", the art which was produced for decorative purposes or the purpose of records rather than moral arts, the arts whose inspiration is the intuition of a world force. Ernst Gomrich (1909-2001) looked at one particular African art form and proceeded to make inferences about the general character of African art. Abraham observes: "the Ashanti wooden maidens, who epitomize the Ashanti ideal of female beauty were reasonably life-like" (111).
Chinua Achebe's fiction is regarded as the supreme example of African literary realism, especially his novel Things Fall Apart (1958). Achebe's fiction can also be described as historical realism, especially when he seeks to recover African past from its suppression in colonial discourse. For Abiola Irele:
It is this concern with historical and sociological reality that makes African literature a more accurate and comprehensive account of contemporary African reality than sociological or political documents (25).
According to Onoge, realism in African literature can be further subdivided into critical realism and socialist realism. The first which is evident in the work of Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka and a host of other African writers is principally characterized by an accurate description of the condition of modern Africa, but without proffering a clear solution to the problems identified.
However, the continent as a matter of historical and political necessity and as the only way in which the legacy of colonial and imperial capitalism and neocolonial manifestations can be eradicated in order to create an alternative political and economic formation. Writers such as Sembene Ousmane, Ngugi wa Thiong'o and Femi Osofisan are examples of social realists. George Gugelberger advises against using the term, given its negative connotations arising out of its association with the propagandist writing produced in the 1930s in the Soviet Union.
The African realist novel is a depiction of the socialist literature. The emergent literary and critical works show the dawn of a new literary phenomenon. Deconstructive critics such as Kwame Appiah argue that realism is the artistic expression of African nationalism's superficial resolution of the underlying difficulties facing Africa. What Appiah describes as post realist is also part of the general trend referred to broadly as non-realist modes of representation, but more specifically as magical realism, the best example of which is Ben Okri's The Farmished Road (1990).
This type of writing, involves the deliberate violation of the conventions of realism, for instance the transgression of the boundary between the real and the fantastic. Some critics feel uncomfortable about this label as it suggests African writing imitating alien forms. Others argue that the worldview depicted in such texts is inherent in contemporary African writings in which the elements of traditional African culture coexists with those of modernity. It is a way of emphasizing the indigeneity of the form that Harry Garuba substitutes it with the term; "animist realism".
-Texual analysis of The Moto-boy
The Moto-Boy is a Nigerian, West-African and Post-colonial novel. As such, it bears the aesthetical trappings of Nigeria and Africa, a feature that adds to its realism. Above all, it is a realist novel, one which paints the Nigerian state in words, employing Nigerian names, settings, culture, characters, problems and activities.
Names such as "Jiba" the protagonist, "Iyajiba" his mother and "Jejeagba" his father, are all Yoruba names, from the western part of Nigeria. However, these names help in the establishment and sustenance of the reality of these characters.
Furthermore, the polygamous family setting in which Jiba is a member is an example of a typical African family setting. The marriage of multiple women to a man is an attribute of the African culture, and in most cases, it is characterized by competition and jealousy.
These characterizations however stimulate rifts and friction amongst children of various wives and further the sight of family members as enemies. All of these are captured in the novel, when Jiba begins to envisage himself as a "Moto-Boy" (apprentice), after his primary school education and decides venturing into the sector. However, his mother sees this as a backdrop, as she sees the advancement of his secondary school education as progression. Seeing that the children of her mate kept at advancing their education, while her son Jiba opts to be a Moto-Boy, she asserts that her mate, Jiba's half mother has bewitched him in order to torture her. This also furthers the hold of Western education by Africans, in high esteem and the desire of African parents backing their children in the acquisition of education at all cost, even at the expense of their children's actual desire of career.
Moreover, it shows the influence of African parents over their children's choice of profession. Jiba eventually has his way, as Iyajiba against all expectations, concedes to her son's choice of career, as she however agrees with terms attached. She however entrusts her son under the tutelage of his maternal uncle, Mr Ademeji, the chairman of Sogunte Park in Lagos. The movement of Jiba from village to the city of Lagos typifies the movement of so many Africans from rural to Urban settings in search for greener pastures. Set in Lagos state, western part of Nigeria and a Yoruba speaking state, Lagos state is a behive of activities. One which citizens term a "no sleep state", being that it signifies the Nigerian nation as a whole, from a single section.
Due to its dense population, it embodies to a large extent, varieties of activities majorly profit making, one which the haulage business falls under. However, this business involves the transportation of goods by road. By implication, vehicles used for such operations make use of roads. The way and manner which drivers of these vehicles operate on these roads determine the safety of road users in Nigeria and Africa. However, as a matter of reality, trucks of haulage businesses contribute massively to road accidents in contemporary times. In Nigeria for example, Dangote's heavy-duty-vehicles which transport varieties of Dangote company Limited’s goods contribute to major road accidents, some of which I have witnessed. Also, The Nigerian Observer rates it as a major contributor to major road accidents in Africa.
The real attitude of a great number of African drivers is also portrayed in the novel. Expressing the nonchalant attitude of drivers towards road rules, this is basically owed to confidence these drivers bestow on diabolic pieces (charms) which they procure for the purpose of safety. However, this facet remains concrete, as witnesses of road accidents have attested severally to the disappearance of some lorry drivers when their vehicles are involved in road accidents. However, the ineffectuality of such charms is showed in the novel, when on Jiba's first trip to Kano, northern Nigeria, attached to Duduyemi, another driver named Kabiru, who has protective driving charms, is involved in an almost fatal accident. This occurrence in the novel truly expresses the absence of maintenance culture, generally in Africa and Nigeria in particular. This also holds solid, the assertion that the non-maintenance of roads by the African government contributes greatly to the occurrences of road accidents.
Jiba however functions as a momentum of change, refusing to subscribe to diabolism, as in the use of charms. He however maintains discipline and character, as a man of principle who obeys rules in order to achieve desired results. This materializes as he is never involved in any accident, showing to his colleagues the need to operate in line with road rules and standards. This actually is the real portrayal of the "change" all Africans crave for, to the extent that Nigerians voted President Muhammadu Buhari on the platform of the "change gospel".
Alufohai's use of language captures realism as an indispensible linguistic tool to x-ray the realistic view in The Moto-Boy. One of the most captivating linguistic varieties used in the novel, is how he expresses his view through the use of Pidgin-English to arrest the readers linguistic hormone. For example; "Man Must Wack" (3). This helps the reader relate with the story from the African context. He also uses native Nigerian-African names, such as; "Jiba", "Iyajiba", "Duduyemi", and lots more, to paint the African reality in realism.
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