BACKGROUND OF THE AUTHOR
Festus Iyayi was born in Ugbegun in the year 1947 in Esanland, died 12 November 2013) was a Nigerian writer known for his radical and sometimes tough stance on social and political issues. Iyayi employed a realistic style of writing, depicting the social, political and moral environment and system both the rich and poor live and work in. he was also a former president of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASSU). He died in a ghastly motor accident caused by a reckless convoy of Kogi State. Governor Idris Wada while on his way to Kano State to attain an ASSU (Academic Staff Union of Universities) NEC meeting concerning a four-month strike embarked upon by the union. Iyayi was a member of different Nigerian literary organization and worked in the private sector as a consultant.
Analysis of Violence
The novel Violence by Festus is a social and political novel that portrays and economic situation of the individuals and the social class system that prevails in the society. The effects of the Nigerian civil war and the political situation that dislocates the societal structures and values are exposed in the novel. Iyayi uses it to depict the problem of corruption and misplaced priority of gout as well as the attitude of the rich towards the poor. In the novel, Idemudia is presented as a boy from a poor family who could not finish his secondary school because of the ability of the father to pay his fees.
Moreover, the mother could not do anything to help Idemudia secure a job because she depended on the definition of a traditional medicine man who demanded money and goat and other items to peace the gods and also drives away the evil intention of the enemies. Idemudia’s father could not provide the goats and other items, instead, he quarrels with the mother of Idemudia’s and beat the woman in the process Idemudia moves to the town but his situation does not change because of lack of good certificate and a good job.
Queen, a very rich woman, Contract Idemudia to offload 500 bags cement at a very low price of N5.80 it is through the labour of Idemudia that Idemudia discovers how the rich throwaway food as the observe the remnants of food thrown into the dustbin from the hotel customers. Before this time, Queen’s car stopped in the plot water could not be removed until Idemudia helped her to push the car out of the water alone. But the woman did not show any appreciation or gratitude to Idemudia. Instead she food Idemudia to her hotel and ordered him to offload the cement whole paying him very little. At the end of the labour Idemudia became sick and could not be treated with the little money he made. The hospital that he was taken to which is the 39 overflows with patients so that two patient with dissimilar sickness sleep in one bed while others on the floor. Yet there is a section in the hospital that is reserved for the rich but there are so empty spaces or bed not being occupied. In this way, the class system in society prevails even in hospitals. While the rich section has enough space, the poor section is filled with an outrageous number of patients. Iyayi observes how the patients in the poor section are treated and how the nurses worked. To his OBS the welfare patients are mother given any drug or any palative mayor given to them to survive. The man in question recounts his predicaments and traces it to the adverse effects of the Nigeria Biafra civil war which lead to the death of his only prominent son thereby render him without any help.
In Iyayi’s observation, the man is infected and this leads to his eventual death too, whereas the Government of the day is busy spending money on hotels where the rich can use to entertain themselves. Iyayi condemns the Government attitude of not taking care of the poor as it is seen from what happened to the poor patients in the hospital Iyayi takes a look at. Idemudia’s portrayed as a boy full of ambition who is determined to succeed in life and also take good care of the wife Adisa equally, Adisa is seen as a mother, wife who respects the husband and is determined to be faithful to him irrespective of the poverty status of the husband. She tolerates idem’s poverty because of love in spite of the fact that even the only room that they loved has not furniture neither is it built properly. The worst is the lack of food for Adisa and Idem to eat. This becomes a source of friction between the wife and the husband so that Idem who had earlier promise not to beat his wife has to beat her almost mercilessly and to show that he loves her, he decided to apologize.
Unfortunately, she had nobody to help so when she accidentally to Obufun, the rich husband to Queen. When the economic situation of Idem and the wife became so bad and Obufun offers to help Adisa’s love. At first, Adisa rejected and revolted him, but when they became hot that Idem will neither survive sickness because of lack of drugs nor can be discharged without the payment of hospital bills. The wife succumbs to the temptation because she wanted her husband to be alive and sound in health. So Adisa was seduced by Obufun in his hotel but she did not like at although this open door for her to start trading on liquor thereby making money to save the husband. It is observed that the downfall of Adisa is directly causing by her love for the husband in spite of the fact that Adisa Aunt wanted her to part from Idem because of Idem’s poverty. Even went Idem eventually discovers without her, he could have died like other poor people.
On the other hand, Iyayi portrays the difficult nature of the rich by pointing to the action of Queen and Obafun. Although in their marital home they are not faithful to each other as Queen slept with other men. Incidentally, both of them have a hotel that is managed for each of them. So Queen, in particular, uses herself to attract favour from Government officials supplying her with poultry mat that she uses to our hotel. She even tries to seduce Idemudia but Idem objected during the strike action in her building site.
Again, Iyayi portrays the irresponsible manner that Government contracts are awarded to Prof. Engineer and Contractors. Thereby hindering the process of the completion of such contract while some of the contracts are outrightly abandoned by the contractors without proper punishment for those who collected money. In the way, Iyayi condemns the affair of the wastefulness of the Government because of nepotism and favouritism which is inherent in the entire novel is how Iyayi portrays the irresponsible attitude of the Government officials and the inability of t6he Government to give preference to the basic things that Government is supposed to do. The novel, violence, revolves around the life of Idemudia, a poor jobless man in his late twenties who faces hardship and struggles to make a living. The desperate need for Idemudia to fend for himself and his wife, Adisa after pushes him to extremes such as selling his blood. Unfortunately, all he ever gets in temporary relief as poverty refuses to release its fight grip on him. When he gets a menial job as a labourer, he clutches onto it like a drowning man would stray only to work himself into a coma. Confined to his sick bed like seems very unfair to Idemudia. He clutches that “his unfinished education, his joblessness, his hunger, his poverty, all these were different forms on violence” exerting themselves on him. Similarly, in her desperate bid to save her husband from the grip of death and offset the mounting hospital bill, Adisa commits adultery. This act of desperation threatens the depth of sacrifice both of them have had to make to survive the “violence” of forces that Queen, Obufun and the society at large have wielded on them. Though the novel portrays the life of a poor jobless man in Nigeria, it equally mirrors the struggles and hardship thousand of jobless youth face today. More importantly, it raises a few issues on business ethics and human resources management which are worth reflecting on in today’s business environment. One important issue raised in violence concerns remuneration. One may ask if there is a fair and acceptable standard for determining the wages or salaries an employer pays or an employee receives for his labour? It seems workers tend to receive only a part of what employers can or are ready to pay.
If they (Idemudia and three other labourers)
refused, she (Queen), would obviously have
to offer them more than five nairas each….
Satisfied (that they did not refuse), she went
into the novel motel to seek her husband (49).
Interesting, the reason for poor wages is provided in the novel employers capitalize on prevailing conditions like high unemployment and poverty to impoverish the workforce a worker.
….. is paid so little because he accepts it
And he accepts it because he would accept I (46).
The story, however, reveals that workers do not always accept what is dished out by employers and sometimes seek a way to negotiate more pay as happens when Idemudia and his co-workers are forced to all. Strike when all efforts to negotiate with Queen fail. The threat of a strike is met with resistance to suppress the strike. The style of human resources management is what Idemudia describes as slavery.
“A man gets a job and he cannot protest
He cannot ask for higher wages the period of
His leisure is cut-down arbitrarily and he must
Come out work he is old this was slavery” (67).
Sexually inducement and sexual gratification are ethical issues that violence highlights, in the business world, the belief that you use what you have to get what you need seems to support the unethical behaviour of businessmen and women who see sexual inducement (as frequently practiced by Queen to receive government contracts, and Obufun’s demand for sexual gratification before the (Obufun) can offer Adisa assistance in the form of whiskey to sell) as a justifiable means to end. Violence is full of suspense and had a twist at the end when Idemudia suddenly learns about Adisa’s infidelity. Furthermore, the treatment of business ethics and human resources management is thought to provoke and remains topical decades after the book was written.
Style and Language in Iyayi’sViolence
The novel Violence adopts an electric approach which draws from text linguistics, reception theory, literary stylistics, and rhetorical criticism. Though diction, parallelism, and pre grounding, Iyayi has expressed the themes of violence, suffering, exploitation, oppression, destruction, war privation, greed, chaos, corruption etc. in his novel. Moreover, through rhetorical resources of pathos, logos, and ethos, he has been able to appeal to the audience’s emotion, reason, etc. to achieve conscientization of the masses, mass mobilization, and persuasion which make apparent his Marxist ideology.
Iyayi’s language and style depict class struggle. One of the most effective passages in violence is a series of lines from a play performed at a local hospital. Iyayi utilizes this poignant and very effective device to convey his definition of violence. Idemudia witnesses this play as educated and inspired by the actor who denounces violence and advocates resistance, and then leads his co-workers in threatening to strike for better wages and conditions. Violence connotes physical abuse, but the novel itself according to the writer redefines it as a continual, demoralizing structure that eliminates hope, pride, self-esteem, health, and the ability to live independently.
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