samson O. Eguavoen

This study interrogates the notion of recodification as an act of resistance in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart and Chigozie Obioma’s An Orchestra of Minorities. Though separated by decades, both novels converge thematically in their defiance of cultural erasure and their reclamation of Igbo indigenous identity through narrative innovation. The research analyses how Achebe and Obioma adapt, bend, and blend language employing proverbs, idioms, myth, cosmology, and oral tradition not merely as stylistic choices but as deliberate strategies of epistemic and cultural resistance against colonial and neo-colonial forces. Using a qualitative, interpretive methodology grounded in close reading and informed by postcolonial theory and cultural studies, the study examines narrative structure, symbolic representation, and linguistic hybridity to uncover how both authors recode English to carry Igbo rhythms, ontologies, and worldviews. Building on the works of Said, Bhabha, Spivak, Ngũgĩ, and Hall, the analysis demonstrates that recodification functions as a decolonial praxis a recentering of African epistemologies within global literary discourse. The thesis argues that both Achebe’s Things Fall Apart and Obioma’s An Orchestra of Minorities use recodification through the adaptation, bending, and blending of language, myth, and oral tradition as tools for resisting colonial and modern dislocation, rewriting identity, and reclaiming cultural power.

Homophobia is investigated within Tendai Huchu’s The Hairdresser of Harare and Chinelo
Okparanta’s Under the Udala Tree in a bid to unravel the reality, roots, and results of homophobia presented in both texts. Utilizing the qualitative research methodology, textual, critical, and comparative methods of data analysis, as well as queer literary theory, various characters as well as their experiences are examined. Focusing on specific instances from both novels illuminate the fact that homophobia is indeed a reality conditioned by the society, with adverse effects on both queer and heterosexual characters. This study therefore concludes that although not inherent, homophobia is truly a reality that can be exhibited by both queer and heterosexual characters, it is conditioned by various societal factors, and it unfavorably affects both queer and heterosexual characters.