CHAPTER ONE

Introduction

1.1 Background of the study

Nigeria as a multi-ethnic, cultural and linguistic nation is unified by the fact that it shares basic national, economic, political and social problems that undoubtedly affect its nation in the same manner without consideration for geo-political zone. Northern Nigerian literature like the literature of any part of the country or world reflects its society and the life of its people. However, there exists practical, religio-cultural issues that one could consider as forming the basis for difference amongst these diverse ethnic groups within the nation of Nigeria.

This study examines how through time and generations of writings, writers in Northern Nigeria have employed their religious ideology as the underlying paradigm for discussing other ideologies, depicting Northern Nigeria as a region whose ideology is massively influenced by the Islamic religion (which is the predominant religion of the region). Although Ibrahim Tahir and Abubakar Gimba explore a variety of socio-cultural, political and economic issues that permeate discourse nationwide as indicative of their affinity with other parts of the country, yet the impact of Islam on cultural diversity ignored by novels from other regions, is fully highlighted inThe Last Imam and Sacred Apples. This gives credence to Joseph Abel‟s (2006:240) assertion that‟

The Northern Nigerian novelist in English contends with a complex historical experience in his imaginative reconstruction of his reality, especially in its relationship to the larger Nigerian context. In essence; the novelist in the north is preoccupied with signifying an identity through a narrative form circumscribed by two opposing

Hegemonies! The Arab Muslim and the euro-Christian

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