Ethnicity and the ethics of otherness in I.N.C. Aniebo’s The anonymity of sacrifice

Abstract

The Anonymity of Sacrifice engages the disturbing exigencies of the Nigerian experience. Its thematic concerns are deeply located in the morbid soul of the Nigerian nation. Najib Mahfuz perspicaciously posits that “art is a criticism of society and life” (Atiyya 15). This is in line with Martin Banham’s assertion that “an art form, if it is to have strength, vigour and relevance, must be seen to have purpose and to be generated by a clear sense of function “(2). Aniebo does not present a melodramatic picture of the Nigerian Civil War. He rather creates a disquieting portrait of the forces of division, disorder and destruction in such a way that the pogrom that led to the war, the war itself, and its catastrophic consequences on individuals and the nation at large are effects of forces which find expression in ethnicity and otherness. In this novel, Aniebo deeply interrogates and problematizes received notions of ethnicity and nationhood in order to provoke critical intellectual responses and attitudinal change. He graphically and solidly relates Nigeria’s socio-political instability to disruptive ethnic prejudices and myopia, and the divisive ethics of otherness.