REBELLION

This study explored the literary representation of schizophrenia not merely as a mental condition, but as a symbolic and subversive form of rebellion in selected African short stories: “The Madman” by Chinua Achebe, “The Beauty of Madness” by Adekunle Mamudu, and “Angwo Tanda” by Chiweizu. Drawing from postcolonial theory and psychoanalytic criticism, the research analyzed how madness was employed as a metaphorical tool to challenge socio-political oppression, cultural expectations, and personal alienation. The protagonists in these stories exhibited both conscious and unconscious forms of rebellion: through silence, spectacle, retreat, and disruption, their perceived insanity became a means of reclaiming voice, agency, and resistance in postcolonial African society. Ultimately, the paper argued that schizophrenia, within these texts, transcended pathology to serve as a mirror reflecting fractured systems and a weapon wielded—whether knowingly or not —against normative structures that silenced dissent.

This study examines the challenges of women in Stella Dia Oyedepo’s The Rebellion of The Bumpy Chested and Brain Has No Gender and how they are able to tackle them. The essay focuses on gender inequality and how women find the voice to resist it. The academic documentation that birthed the women socialist movement and resistance to the perceived oppression can be dated to the late 1880s. The term feminism is used extensively and interchangeably as “gender” to advance the struggle for equality, between both sexes and its first appearance in literature is through Hunburtine Auclert in a fresh Journal entitled as “La Citoyenne la feminite” to criticize the male domination of the society and make claims for women right as promised by the then French revolution. The Merriam Webster Dictionary therefore defines feminism “to mean, the theory of the political, economic and social equality of the sexes and organized activity of women’s right and interest. While, “Mairi Robinson” and “George Davidson” define feminism as a belief or movement advocating the cause of women’s rights and opportunities particularly having equal rights with men by challenging the equalities between the sexes in the society (481), “Zava Huda” summarized it to mean a discuss of set of activities that represent the suffering, in addition to their dream for equal opportunities in societies controlled by men, which include the subjugated powers, rules, wishes and orders.