Human Rights Abuse and Leadership Irresponsibility as Obstacles to Peace in Chimamanda N. Adichie’s Short Stories

Abstract

This paper explores Chimamanda N. Adichie’s two short stories to show how the writer portrays human rights abuse and political irresponsibility as obstacles to peace and raises her fellow Africans’ awareness on the conditions to meet to foster conflict mitigation and nation-building efforts. Drawing on postcolonial theory, the study has found that Adichie implicitly interrogates the causes of constant conflicts in Nigeria and suggests that a sound social justice, political accountability, and respect of human rights constitute viable passes to peace in Nigeria and Africa as a whole.