Igbo Struggle for Survival: Textual and Contextual Discourse
Conference: The 23rd Annual International Conference of the Igbo Studies Association (ISA) (2026)
Presenter(s): Ifeoma Nwosu-Okoli
Presentation Date: May 14, 2026 @ 18:25 PM
Tags: Alex Ekwueme Federal University
Abstract
This study examines the enduring struggle of the Igbo people of Nigeria through textual and contextual analyses of the political, cultural, and economic consequences of colonialism and imperialism, as shaped by environmental influences. Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo's The Last of the Strong Ones and Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart provide the primary textual foundations for the analysis. At the same time, the contextual inquiry draws on the lived realities of the Igbo people in their ongoing quest for identity, survival, and self-definition. The study engages critically with issues rooted in Igbo literary experiences, cultural landscapes, and the broader totality of Igbo social life. Within this artistic and intellectual engagement, Achebe emerges as a pioneering figure in modern African literature, whose works interrogate cultural autonomy, ecological consciousness, and the collective welfare of the Igbo people. Through close textual explication and contextual examination of relevant literary and environmental factors, the study explores how literature articulates resistance, resilience, and cultural regeneration. Adopting a combined postcolonial and social constructivist theoretical framework, this research is grounded in the assumption that perceptions of reality are shaped through social interaction and cultural context. By bridging literary analysis and sociolinguistic inquiry, the study offers a nuanced understanding of how Igbo identity, survival, and agency are constructed, contested, and reimagined in postcolonial discourse.
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