LITERATURE

  Image Credit: Pinterest Joy Olu-Ajayi  Have you ever struggled to say how you truly feel, and then suddenly a song says it perfectly for you? Instead of long explanations, you just send a link, press play, and somehow, everything is understood. Lovers do this all the time, sharing songs with each other to express feelings they cannot easily put into words. In that moment, the song becomes your voice, carrying emotions you could not fully express on your own. This is the quiet but powerful role music plays in our everyday lives, it steps in where words fail and gives shape to feelings that are often difficult to explain. Music captures the full range of human emotion in ways that feel immediate, present and real from love and friendship to pain and longing. A single line can hold so much meaning and a simple melody or rhythm can make that meaning even stronger. This is why people turn to songs during important moments, when they are falling in love, celebrating milestones or ...

  Image Credit: Pinterest Joy Olu-Ajayi Music is one of the most powerful ways to communicate ideas to people. It is not just for entertainment; it can also serve as a form of literature, using words, rhythm and emotion to tell stories, share experiences and teach lessons. When lyrics are meaningful and carefully arranged, they function like poetry or prose. They reflect society, expose problems and encourage change. In this way, music becomes literature in sound, reaching both the mind and the emotions of listeners. Many musicians use their songs to highlight social ills such as corruption, injustice, insecurity and poor leadership. These songs do not only entertain as earlier stated; they make people think deeply about the reality of their society. Even more interesting is the fact that many of these songs were written years ago, yet the issues they address are still present today. This shows that music can record truth and preserve it over time, just like written literature. One...

Image credit: Facebook Adewale Amoo Literature has been in all three major genres including poetry, drama, and prose, a means of reflecting the issues affecting society. Literature is believed to serve as an intermediary between writers and readers (society), in which it creatively renders a painstaking commentary on the deficiencies, or sometimes eulogises, the leaders and the led. As we believe, no society can be free from anomalies, and it is the responsibility of writers to hold leaders accountable. Through this, literature has surpassed the belief of acting for its own sake to acting for the sake of humans. Literature cannot emanate from a vacuum, but it has to be generated from human activities. Hence, it deals with various dimensions such as socio-political, socio-economic, cultural and historical realities. As it is, literature has different definitions, and many scholars and students of literature have various definitions for it because literature is dynamic in terms of its su...

  FRIENDSHIP AS A SHELTERING TREE IN “WE WERE ONCE GIRLS” Adegoke Suliat Bamidele  Friendship is one of life’s most powerful games when played with love, commitment, and honesty. It never goes wrong. It's a relationship we often undervalue, placing romantic connections above it. But to be truthful, romance isn’t eternal, friendship is. In fact, friendship sustains a relationship far more deeply than romance ever will. This is explicitly captured in Aiwanose Odafen’s narrative entitled “We Were Once Girls.” From the characters of Zino and Zina, for example. No one would have predicted their journey into parenthood together. Their bond wasn’t born out of romance but out of a total understanding of each other (of their friendship, the value placed on it, and the trust they both share). Their friendship is what grounded and truly solidified their relationship. Then there are the beautiful characters of Ego, Zina, and Eriife, (of which Ego is my favourite) who embody the messy, raw...

 MIGRATION AND BORDER-CROSSING IN NIGERIAN NOVELS Photo by bymuratdeniz on iStock   Zenas Olanipekun   The notion of border-crossing stretches back to humanity’s earliest migrations, but “migration” and “border-crossing” are not exact synonyms. Migration refers to any movement from one place to another, encompassing a wide spectrum of crossings which can be geographic, cultural, social and beyond. In contrast, border-crossing is more specific: it signifies the act of traversing a boundary that demarcates difference, whether literal or symbolic. Collyer and de Haas (2012) define contemporary migration as “dynamic,” with individuals continually crossing not only geographic borders, but also shifting legal, social and cultural categories throughout their journeys. Thus, a “border crossing” encapsulates these varied transformations. People do more than physically relocate; they negotiate legal statuses, adjust to new cultural norms, and reshape their identities. In this sens...