Trauma

This study explores the representation of trauma and identity crisis in Okey Ndibe’s Arrows of Rain and Richard Wright’s Native Son. It examines how both authors employ narrative technique to portray the psychological fragmentation of individuals struggling under repressive sociopolitical structures. In Arrows of Rain, Ndibe situates trauma within the postcolonial African landscape, exposing how state violence, corruption, and moral decay deform both personal and collective consciousness. Conversely, Wright’s Native Son situates trauma in a racially stratified America, where systemic oppression and poverty shape the disintegration of Black identity. Through close textual analysis, the research reveals that both authors transform narrative into a means of resistance— employing silence, symbolism, memory, and stream of consciousness to articulate suffering that language itself often fails to express. The study concludes that literature serves not merely as an artistic mirror of pain but as an act of reclaiming voice and agency within a world structured to silence the oppressed.

This study examines the impact of war on the family as reflected in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun and Sefi Atta’s Everything Good Will Come. It explores how war and political instability destroy family ties, distort affection, and transform domestic life into a site of suffering and endurance. Both writers reveal that conflict extends beyond the battlefield, invading personal spaces and reshaping identity and human relationships. Through the Postcolonial Theory, the study interprets how historical oppression, power struggle, and the search for belonging continue to influence the African social order. It analyses the themes, characterisation, and dialogue of the two novels to show how war breeds trauma, silence, and loss within homes. The findings show that both Adichie and Atta represent the family as a mirror of the nation. In Half of a Yellow Sun, the Biafran War dismembers homes and leaves emotional ruins that reflect the nation’s tragedy. In Everything Good Will Come, dictatorship, social inequality, and moral repression recreate a form of domestic war that stifles growth and love. The research concludes that African women writers use the family setting as a platform for recording the psychological aftermath of national crises. It contributes to scholarship by revealing that the true cost of war is not only in the number of the dead but in the brokenness that lingers within the living.

This study explores the influence of trauma on mental health in the Ekosodin community, focusing on how traumatic experiences shape individuals’ psychological well-being. Trauma, often resulting from violence, abuse, displacement, and other distressing events, has been identified as a significant factor affecting mental health. The research employs a descriptive survey design, utilizing structured questionnaires to collect data from residents of Ekosodin. The analysis includes frequency distributions, percentage calculations, cumulative percentages, and hypothesis testing using the Chi-square method to determine the significance of observed patterns. Findings reveal that trauma has a profound impact on mental health, contributing to conditions such as anxiety, depression, and emotional instability, with youths and women being particularly affected. Based on the findings, the study recommends increased mental health awareness, improved access to psychological support services, and community-based interventions to mitigate the effects of trauma. These insights aim to guide policymakers, mental health practitioners, and community