At face value, Ken Saro-Wiwa’s novel Sozaboy shows the Nigerian Civil war from July 6th 1967 to January 13th 1970, from the naive viewpoint of a disadvantaged young man named Mene. Yet the novel not only touches on this anti-war point, but it also underlines crucial issues of identity, which often heavily effect people involved in political turmoil. These issues of identity seem to focus on how war can change and develop a person’s identity; it is also shown how a place can be part of an identity. These discourses linking place and identity, and subsequent issues evolving from these concepts, are illuminated through the character of Mene. Mene is pulled into the life of a young soldier, unaware of situations outside his understanding, which stems from his lacked of educational opportunities; these lack of educational opportunities are intimately connected to how his personality and emotions are shaped, and thus is a significant factor in shaping his identity. On Mene’s level, the reason for him becoming a soldier was to impress his new wife and show other men that he was not a little boy. Yet this need to impress is not simply about Mene’s desire for importance; it is about wanting to change his identity from a boy to that of a soldier. Alongside this identity as a soldier, Mene desires to have the respect that is fostered alongside the identity of ‘soldier’.

At the beginning of the novel, Mene’s identity is that of a boy who is part of a small, tight-knit community; his lack of education does not seem to be that big of a deal. However, at the start of the War, Meme, alongside a great number of other young men, are attracted to the power and demanded respect of a soldier. This attraction has many tragic consequences for him, as he loses his part of the small community and the identity he had within it. At the same time, Meme fails to settle as a soldier due to the horrific circumstances it puts him under. Therefore, this leaves Mene as an outsider, with no defined and absolute identity. Shunned by both his old community and other soldiers in the war, his identity now lies in-between these two communities, adding to the horrors he has been through.

The novel is able to combine the concepts of anti-war assertions and questions of personal identity. These two points are brought to the reader with a high impact; the reader is really able to feel his identity changing and become something unknown. This identity is further explored and redefined by the use of Rotten English, adding to the idea that Mene’s identity is something undefined and unique, similar to the language used. The concept of personal identity is one in which Mene is strongly connected to in the novel, as he wished to change his identity but only seems to lose it. The relationship between personal identity and place is also shaped by political turmoil for Mene; this is because he loses his home, which his previous identity was strongly connected to. Overall the novel Sozaboy is extremely successful at showing the reality of war in the post-colonial Nigeria while driving home the point of how war can change and even damage a person’s identity, leaving them as an outsider.

Saro-Wiwa, Ken. Sozaboy. Port Harcourt, Nigeria: Saros International, 1985. Print.

-Rachel Mackay