CHILDREN’S LITERATURE FOR CULTURAL INTEGRATION IN NIGERIA: AN APPRAISAL OF SOME SELECTED WORKS OF FATIMA AKILU

ABSTRACT

In the Nigerian state lies the problem of unity ever since its existence. Overtime, the literary artists alongside other sectors have joined their voices in the search for an answer. The NYSC Scheme, the Unity Schools, the Federal Character Principle and State Creations are examples of some policies intended to achieve national unity. In addition to these measures, the research proposed the option of Children‟s literature because of its inherent integrating potentials. To this extent, the research employed textual analysis to examine scholarly potentials on cultural integration and Children‟s literature. In the process it specifically focuses on four of Fatima Akilu‟s Millennium Development Goals series: Timi’s Dream Comes True, Preye and the Sea of Plastics, The Red Transistor Radio and Aliyyah Learns a New Dance. The stories are fore grounded in Nigeria‟s vision 2020 project and help in advocating these governmental policies in a new aesthetic dimension through the child character. In addition, the books provide a lens through which ethnic and racial superiority can be interrogated thereby enhancing cultural integration in Nigeria which is the bedrock for unity. The research used the New Historicism theory in its analysis of the primary texts. New historicism investigates how social structures, in this case, political and cultural, are represented in literature. The theory also shows how the texts reflect the time and society within which they are produced by narrating the historical, socio-economic and other aspects of life within the society they emanate from and the multiple viewpoints embedded within the texts. However, some aspects of Reader Response criticism is deployed in the analysis to complement the short comings of the New Historicism theory. The research concludes that a major cure for ethnicity and tribalism in a heterogeneous society like Nigeria is a medication of cultural integration injected in Children‟s literature.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1         Background to the Study

Some rulers in Africa have built their nations, managed their economies and expanded their territories independent of the western world. Despite the aforementioned, when the western world came in contact with what is called „Africa‟ in trying to define the colour of the black man‟s skin , Europeans assumed superiority and view Africans as „primitive‟, „savage‟ and a „backward‟ race. Taiwo(1976)had traced African contact with the West towards the end of the 15^th century when the Portuguese explorer Vasco Da Gama called into a few harbors along the West African coast. However, it was the subsequent slave trade which started on a large scale about a century later that was the first great phenomenon which shook Africa out of centuries of quietude and isolation and began a period of many wars and conflicts. According to Barkindo, Omolewa, &Maduakor(1992), from the second half of the first century, Africans had been sold as slaves to work on large plantations in America and the West Indies. The trade brought fortune and wealth to many European buyers. Their African sellers were also beneficiaries who had acquired money, intoxicant drinks, clothing materials, guns and other worthless glittering gifts from the proceeds of the trade.

However, the industrial revolution which began in the 18^th century taking place in far away Western Europe became the prime mover of the trend of events in Africa and shaped the destiny of many African states, further asserts Barkindo, Omolewa&Maduakor(1992). For it was largely responsible for bringing to an end the trans Atlantic slave trade and also the introduction of the so called legitimate trade with its attendant competition and rivalry among European trading companies (the scramble). In order to avoid a possible military confrontation, the rivalry culminated in the partition of Africa at the Berlin Conference of 1884-1885. What is called Nigeria was taken over by the British.

Hitherto, Nigeria wascomposed of scattered states, chiefdoms, empires, principalities and smaller communities which were further translated into Hausa States, Borno Empire, Nupe and Jukun kingdoms in the North, Yoruba Kingdoms, and Benin Empires in the South West, the Igbo societies in the south east amongst others. These states and kingdoms had different historical backgrounds, religions and levels of development, until colonialism forced a merging in 1914 when Lord Lugard amalgamated the Northern and Southern Protectorates. In 1960, Nigeria got her independence.After independence, there was the need to integrate the divergent ethnic nationalities, cultures and people of the country, Nigeria. The National Youth Service Corps Scheme, the Unity Schools, the Federal Character Principle and state creations are examples of policies intended to achieve this goal. However, it is clear that the outcome of the integration policies and programmes in Nigeria have to some extent fallen far below expectation as ethnic loyalties are still deep-seated. Nigerians often times cannot engage in meaningful collective activities without the glimpse of ethnic or tribal instinct materialising. Nigerians remain in Omotosho‟s (1998:334) assertion, „Strange bed fellows‟ . Hence, there is a need of transforming Nigeria, in the words of Chief ObafemiAwolowo, „from a mere geographical expression into a cultural expression,‟ and this can be achieved through deliberate attempts of literature and imaginary works of cultural integration in Children‟s literature.

Literatureinfacthas played great roles in uniting people and mobilizing them for collective action. “According to Kermode (2007:111) “the great virtue of literary fiction is that it is able by engagingthe imagination of those who study itto lead themto discovery  and  recognition   by   an   unexpected  and   instructive   route‟‟.  Gordimer (2007:115) adds that:

Morals have bedded with storytelling since the magic of the imaginative capacity developed in the human brain, the harsh lessons of daily existence, co-existence between human and human, with animals and nature could be made sense of in the ordering of properties by the transforming imagination. It is little wonder that Arnold (1864) defines literature as „the best that is thought and said on the world, human culture complete in all its sides ….‟ This means that anyone who engages in the study of literature is supposed to acquire the most decent values as

well as imbibes the very best of culture. To this end Akuso, (2012:11) concludes that“where the creative spirit of a society is weak, development cannot be easily enhanced”.Therefore, Akuso, For the literature plays the role of educating, shaping, influencing, developing and above all humansing those who study it. Speaking  about  the  viability of  Children‟s  literature.  Chambers  (1985:16) opines that:

• I hold that in Children’s literature we find our best experience of the human imaginations and the most useful means by which we come to grips with ideas about ourselves and what we are.

Therefore, Children‟s literature could be seen as a realm of discovery for the young mind  and  nurturance  for  the  young  spirit.  By  facilitating  the  magical  encounter between children and books of diverse human experiences, we foster their contact with diversity of realities and nurture their appreciation for ways of life different from their own (Ada, 2011). These literatures would build understanding, tolerance and

harmony, as they tell the stories from the perspective of unity in diversity, and a child embedded with the spirit of such cultural integration grows forgetting all bias and differences. This is exemplified in Fatima Akilu‟s Millennium Development Goalsseries of Children‟s literature books 1-8 which the research examines. The research examines the subtle but laudable issue of cultural integration projected in some of Akilu‟s works which includesNgozi Comes to Town,Timi‟s Dream Comes True, Kitwa Plays the Drum, The Red Transistor Radio, Yinka Washes His Hands,The Yellow Mosquitoes Net,Preye and The Sea of Plastics and Aliyyah Learns a New Dance.

Obviously, Akilu has the Nigerian child at heart,hence her setting as well as her characters are a symbolic representation of various geographical regions of the Nigerian state. This is to make more familiar the immediate environment of her target audience and to imbibe the spirit of cultural nationalism in them. Hence, from the various locations in the South-South is the setting of Timi‟s Dream Comes True, Preye and The Sea of Plastics and Ngozi Comes to Town. Yinka Washes His Hands has a modern yoruba setting (South West) with characters such as Olu, Yemisi and Aunt Bisi. In The Red Transistor Radiothe reader witnesses a Hausa cultural setting with khalida, Aunty Safina, Habiba, Halima, Mama and Baba as characters from the North East. Kitwa, Ogaga, Isioma and Ugo hail from the South East region, the setting for Kitwa Plays the Drums. Grace, Kemi, Ada and Zara are characters dwelling in the North Central region in The Yellow Mosquitoes Net. Then of course the deliberate choice of the Fulani regions in the North Eastern parts (the most cultural hybrids of all ethnic tribes in Nigeria and known wanderers), in Aliyyah Learns a New Dance, to buttress the point of cultural integration that is binding all the eight books. In other words, a reading of the eight stories carries the child on a guided travel tour as a tourist around the landscapes of Nigeria. Delight, wonder, pleasure and inspiration are likely to be the child‟s experiences even though themes of social, economic and political relevance abound in the texts.

The Nigerian government has put these goals at the heart of its vision to ensure the betterment of the lives of its citizens. Akilu is making use of these goals in an attempt to create positive change in the psyche of the Nigerian child towards national development and the advancement of governmental policies. The research further looks at these texts as instruments for curbing the menace of ethnic loyalty and tribalism in the Nigerian state. For the purpose of this research, four selected texts are chosen from the series to examine the subtle but laudable issue of cultural integration in Akilus works; Timi’s Dream Comes True, The Red Transistor Radio, Preye and the Sea of Plastics andAliyyah Learns a New Dance.The texts demonstrate strong social ties and brotherhood in its characters that are from a heterogeneous Nigeria. The characters work in teams, in the process building unity, tolerance and a society with a solid foundation upon the values of national and cultural identity.

1.1.1    Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)

Millennium Development Goals are eight international goals that were officially established following the Millennium Summit of the United Nations General Assembly in September 2000, as well as the adoption of the United Nation Millennium Declaration. It was agreed upon by a record of 189 countries and 23 international organizations at the Assembly. Nigeria was an enthusiastic signatory to the MDG and has claimed to pursue the goals vigorously (Vintagesam, 2013).

The aim of the MDG‟s, Vintagesam (2013) further explains, is to encourage development by improving social and economic conditions in the world‟s poorest countries. The Millennium Declaration proclaimed by the United Nations asserts that every individual has the right to dignity, freedom, equality, and a basic standard of living that includes freedom from hunger and violence, and encourages tolerance and solidarity. The MDG‟s were made to operationalize these ideas by setting targets and indicators for poverty reduction in order to achieve the set goals in fifteen years.

There are eight set goals which include:

Eradicating extreme poverty and hunger.

Achieving universal primary education. Promoting gender equality and women empowerment.

Reducing child mortality.

Improving maternal health.

Combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases.

Ensuring environmental sustainability. Developing a global partnership for development.

Each goal has specific targets and dates for achieving those targets.To accelerate progress, the G8 Finance Ministers agreed in June 2005, to provide enough funds to the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the African Development Bank (ADB), to cancel forty to fifty five billion dollars in debt owed by members of the heavily indebted poor countries, to allow them to redirect resources to the programme. The United Nation Conference in September, 2010, reviewed progress and concluded with the adoption of a global plan to achieve the eight goals by their target dates. New commitment targeted women‟s and children‟s health and new initiatives in the worldwide battle against poverty, hunger and disease. However, by 2013, progress towards the goals was uneven. Some countries achieved many goals, while others were not on track to realize any. In Nigeria, there seems to be little or no progress. The research makes use of the goals of achieving universal primary education, improving maternal health, ensuring environmental sustainability and developing a global partnership for development to key in the focus of the thesis.

1.1.2      Biosketch of Fatima Akilu

Fatima Akilu has been working at a very senior level in the field of psychology and health for more than two decades. Her work has spanned three continents; Africa, Europe and the United States. She has been both an educator holding teaching position in various Universities and an advocate for a number of marginalized groups such as the homeless, the mentally ill, prisoners, victims of HIV/Aids and the developmentally disabled.

Akilu has had extensive experience working with forensic dually diagnosed mentally retarded women, violent offenders, as well as sex offenders. She has been working as part of a behaviour change process, strategically communicating through research and advocacy to groups needing change and working with those in position to effect the changes. The result has been far reaching change for many groups both statutory and voluntary.

In addition to holding a full time job as a Director in the office of the National Security Adviser, Akilu also sees patients on a private basis. Previously, Head of Communication for the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Millennium Development Goals, she is currently Chairman Editorial Board, Leadership Newspaper. Akilu is also a children‟s literature writer and ehosts a weekly radio show “Radio Psyche,” which discusses socio-psychological issues.

Akilu was until recently the Director of Behavioural Analyses and Strategic Communication that has developed a multi pronged programme that consists of a prison- de radicalisation programme; a counter radicalisation programme geared as stemming the tide of radicalisation and building community resilience, as well as strategic communication. The programme now has a public diplomacy arm and a messaging component. She is also involved in driving policy changes in areas of education and mental health through the provision of post traumatic stress disorder counseling.

DrAkilu‟s book,Preye and the Sea of Plastics was in 2011 winner of Association of Nigerian Authors/AtikuAbubakar price for Children‟s Literature. Her book Zahra and Coco also won the American Children Book Award in 2012. Fatima Akilu holds a Bachelor Degree in English and an MSC in Research Methods in Psychology and a Ph.D in Psychology from Reading University.

Fatima Akilu has written eight books captioned under the “Millennium Development Goals Series of Children‟s Literature Books 1-8”. The research examinesAkilu‟s contribution towards cultural integration in Children‟s literature. Akilu presents literature for children in Nigeria by displaying topical ideas and themes, that explain the MDGs in a language children can understand, with good illustrations that would enhance comprehension. Each of these goals is reflected in a book. Thus, eradication of extreme hunger and poverty in Ngozi Comes To Town, achieving Universal Primary Education in Timi’s Dream Comes True, promoting gender equality and empowering women in Kitwa Plays The Drums, reducing child mortality in Yinka Washes his Hands, improving maternal Health in The Red Transistor Radio, combating HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other diseases in The Yellow MosquitoNet, ensuring environmental sustainability in Preye and the Sea of Plastics and developing a global partnership for development in Aliyyah Learns a New Dance. Through the four selected stories, readers would find out how in Timi’s Dream Comes True,Timiwho comes from a family of fishermen, dreams of being a teacher.Then Aminu offers to create a school for Timi‟s village. Could this be Timi‟s chance of fulfilling his dream? Khalida does not know what to write about for her science class story until Aunty Safina tells her about Mama‟s very special radio in The Red Transistor Radio. In Preye and the Sea of Plastics, Preye and his friends gather up to clean the plastic bags and rubbish that are cluttering their neighbourhood, but can a group of children really making a difference.Aliyyah is thrilled to be representing Nigeria at the African regional dance competition, even with her brother, Ashraf‟s help, will she ever learn all the moves? Find outin the chaming story, Aliyyah Learns a new Dance.

1.1.3     Children’s Literature:From Infancy to Maturation

The earliest of what came to be regarded as Children‟s literature was first meant for adults. Among these ancient body of oral literature were myths and legends created to explain the natural phenomena of night and day and the changing seasons. Ballads, epic tales and sagas were told by the fireside or in courts to an audience of adults and children eager to hear of the adventures of heroes. Many of these tales Piskunov (2013) traces to some writings of Children‟s literature that are enjoyed by children today.

The first literature written specifically for children was intended to instruct them. During the Middle Ages, the venerable Bede, Aelfric, St. Anslem and St. Aldhelm all wrote school texts in Latin, some of which were later used in schools in England and Colonial America (Piskunov, 2013). With the new printing facilities in the mid 15^th century, books could be printed and read and before anyone seemed to think of books specifically for children, in 1484 William Caxton published Aesop’s Fables and Sir Thomas Malory published

Morte ‘d Arthur (1485) with lively woodcuts, Children may have seen and enjoyed it but it was originally intended for adults. Printed books were far too costly to be available to most children thus an inexpensive substitute called the Hornbook came into general use in Britain and British Colonies in America in the 17^th and 18^th centuries (Americana Encyclopedia, 561: n.date).

Joyfully, Huck and Kuhn (1968:63) assert that with the invention of the Hornbook, children were able to handle their own books; it is a sheet of paper printed with the alphabets, vowels, the Lord‟s prayer and Roman numerals fastened to a small board about 2¾ by 5 inches. The parchment was covered with transparent horn and bound with strips of brass. Sometimes a hole in the handle made it possible for the child to carry the book on a cord around his neck or waist. Meanwhile, itinerant peddlers or chapbooks and battledore‟s added to printed materials (American Encyclopedia, n.date:561). These were often very small, inexpensive paper booklets sold by peddlers or chapmen. In a collection published in 1680s according to Huck (1968:60) is Tom Thumb, Guy of Warwick and Jack The Giant Killer. Despite poor writting, crude illustration, miserable printing on dingy paper, chap books were sold and bought by thousands and were often the only family reading material other than the Bible. Much later, New England Primer was published in (1689) in the American Colonies (American Encyclopedia, n.date:561). Even while chapbook circulation was swelling, the religious favour of the puritans was sweeping through 17^th century England. Warnings of hell and damnation prevailed in several of the first books for children, such as John Cotton‟s catechism, Spiritual Milk for Boston Babes (1646) and James Janeway‟sA token for Children (1671). Both include morbid commentaries on death and eternal torment. Pilgrim’s Progress (1678) by John Bunyan came out of this same gloomy atmosphere. Although written for adults, it became popular with children who may have sensed in certain sections, the same good story-telling style they knew in the chapbooks which Bunyan himself had read (American Encyclopedia, n.date: 561). In 1697, an extraordinary little book was published in France, Stories or Tales of Long Ago with Morals. It consisted of eight stories including the Sleeping Beauty, Little Red Riding Hood, Puss in Boots and Cinderella. Tales ofMother Goose, was the title and it was thought to be authored by Charles Perrault, a member of the French Academy who wrote simply and gracefully with only the gentlest morality for each story. The book became immensely popular with English children (American Encyclopedia,n.date: 562). Later works written for adults but adapted for children were Daniel Defoe‟s Robinson Crusoe (1719) and Jonathan Swift‟s Gulliver’s Travels (1726). In the 18^th Century John Newberry became established as a writer, printer and children‟s book publisher in London, where he must surely have been aware of the great Juvenile market for chapbooks and Perrault‟s tales. In 1744, Newberry published A Little Pocket-Book Intended for the Instruction and Amusement of Little Master Tommy and Pretty Miss Polly, in covers of gilt and flowered paper which he advertised was intended for instruction and amusement. It included rhyming fables, letters from “Jack the Giant killer” and 163 rules for children behaviours. The pocket book was so successful that Newberry brought out numerous juvenile titles, many of them old chapbooks favourites. One of the most famous was The History of Little Goody Two-shoes (1765). This is thought to be the first book of fiction written especially for children, with illustrations made expressly (Americana Encyclopedia, n.date:562). In the last half of the 18^th century, on a new dimension, Huck and Kuhn (1968:

• posit that women writers entered the field of Juvenile literature with the purpose of teaching through stories. Sarah Fielding published MrsTeachem’s School for Girls,MrsBarbauld published Easy Lessons for Children and Sarah Trimmer‟s Fable

Fabulous Histories. The books emphasized character development. As 18^th century drew to a close, the influence of Locke and Rousseau was felt in Children‟s literature. Following Rousseau‟s theory of accompanying the child in his natural search for knowledge, parents, relatives or teachers always seize upon every comment made by a child or call attention to objects of interest so that the incident might be used as a means of instruction. Books frequently contained dialogue and conversations instead of long list of rules, the lessons were now concealed in didactic tales and juvenile biographies. As evidenced in the sober, uplifting books of such authors as Thomas Day, Mary Sherwood and Maria Edgeworth in England and in the United States by Samuel Goodrich and Martha Finley who wrote the Famous Elsie DinsmoreSeries.

Huck and Kuhn (1968:66) further give insight to the nineteenth century which brought tremendous changes to the western world as powerful nations arose. The use of agricultural machinery and improved communication and transportation brought technological changes that influenced man‟s values and attitudes. Teaching children through objects in nature was emphasised. Experimental schools were based on the idea of the child as the centre of the school curriculum. Dewey‟s new philosophy held that education was a social process, the child‟s interest is significant and should be channeled, thinking was viewed as problem solving. Children were considered individuals with unique rights. The attitudes towards religion gave way to secularism and to recognition of play as an acceptable part of child‟s life. Each type of book reflected these social, political and economic changes. By the end of the century, there was a growing body of literature specifically written for children on religion and morals, instruction, folk-tale collections, stories of family life, stories of adventure, animal stories, books of humour and fantasy, books of games and sports, and magazines. Thus, the steady decline of Puritanism, and by the end of the century, literature was expressly designed for children to give them happiness rather than moral lectures only.

Also, the Romantic wave that swept through Europe in the early 19^th century affected Children‟s literature. This era produced a body of literature that genuinely belonged to children. For the first time, children books contained fantasy and realism, fun and adventure, and many of the books written at that time are still popular today. William Blake and William Wordsworth provided the first example of literature concerned with the essential goodness of children. They portrayed childhood as a happy and virtuous time and considered growing up to be a saddening and complicated process.

The contributions and innovations of the 19^th century continued into the 20^th century, achieving a distinct place in literature for children‟s books and spawning innumerable genres of Children‟s literature. Among fantasy written for children are L-Frank Bauni‟sWonderful Wizard of O_z (1900) and A.A. Milne‟s Winnie-The-Pooh (1997-2007). The novel for children now includes many of the literary, psychological and socially relevant elements found in its counterpart, adult literature, treating subjects like death, drug, sex, urban crisis, discrimination, the environment and women liberation, multi-cultural concerns have also become an important aspect of the new realistic tradition in Children‟s literature. We can thus gather and submit that English Children‟s literature developed in accordance with the changing attitudes of the society and changing cultural values towards children. The literature available for children reflects the attitudes of society in that period. Books for children have always been viewed as instruments for transmitting the mores of the culture and for inculcating attitudes and values

1.1.4     Children’s Literature in Nigeria

Hitherto, Nigerian children like their counterparts in Africa, read books written, edited, illustrated and published in Europe by people whose cultures differed considerably from those of their own country. Mark Twain‟s Tom Sawyer, Alice in wonderland and Hugh Lofting‟s Dr. Do Little Seriesare some books read by African children totally devoid of African background. In 1947, CyprainEkwerensi broke new ground when his book Ikolo the Wrestler and other Igbo Tales was published in London by Nelson publishers. From then onwards, Segun (1992:26) notes that African children continued to read books published in Europe and imported into the continent.

The beginning of written Nigerian Children‟s literature, according to Virginia W. Duke cited in Umaisha (2010), coincided with the attainment of independence in 1960. She observed that though a few titles like Cyprian Ekwensi‟sTheDrummer Boy and the Passport of MallamIllia were written some years earlier, they were not published until 1960. Umaisha (2010), further observed that the development of Children‟s literature was motivated by the felt need for a literature that would more adequately reflect indigenous views and realities. It was also stimulated by the rapid expansion of education and the resulting need and market for supplementary reading materials.

The early titles which concentrated on supplementary readers for the pre-adolescent age group in senior primary and junior secondary school, were produced by the African Readers Library of the African Universities Press which according to Duke, came out with 34 titles between 1962 and 1988. Other series that came up later were the Nelson Rapid Readers (1965), Longman‟s Palm Library for younger readers (1968), Oxford University Press Adventures in Africa (1968). New indigenous publishing houses like Onibonoje, also produced titles for children.Onibonje Book Industries in 1973 launched the Onibonje Book Club, the first in Black Africa, recounts Segun (1992:28). It also launched the Junior African Literature Series for young readers. Development in Children‟s literature was boosted particularly in the 1970s and the 1980s. The West African Book Publishers Ltd in Lagos published a highly illustrated series of children‟s books in English and Yoruba (the Atoka series), Fourth Dimension Publishers in Enugu published beautifully illustrated books of Chinua Achebe (The Drum and The Flute (1977)) and Mamman .J. Vatsa‟sChildren Rhymes (1978), University Press Plc with its Rainbow Series, Longman Nigeria Ltd‟s Leopard Series and the Winner Series by Macmillan Nigeria Limited (Segun 1992: 28).

These early works according to Duke, were mainly based on especially boys, who fell into danger and helped bring criminals to book. For example, Achebe‟s Chike and the River which deals with Chike‟s mindless but successful adventure in crossing the River Niger and his encounter with armed robbers and Ekwensi‟sJuju Rock which cajoles the child reader to participate in a powerful drama of imagination which he not only sees but suffers alongside the hero, experiences directly and benefits from the adventure. Some had school stories as their subject matter, with the young hero succeeding in gaining admission into school, like Eze Goes to School which unveils the story of a boy who comes from a very poor background but is determined to acquire western education. Also women writers such as ChristeeAjayi, RemiAdedeji, Teresa Meniru and Mabel Segun played some prominent roles in the promotion of Children‟s literature in Nigeria. Each of them produced over 10 books in the genre including My Father’s Daughter, My Mother’s Daughter, The Canon Boy, and The Twin’s and the Tree Spirits. Hitherto, very few books have been written for adolescents, which deal with their everyday concerns and their problems of adjustment to approaching adulthood such as problems about love, parent- child conflicts, careers and drugs, as in Joy Ikede‟sJoined by Love (1985).Today however, Teen Authorship Scheme pioneered by the Hill- Top Creative Arts Foundation Minna is flourishing. The scheme was inspired by its successful implementation in Niger state by the state chapter of Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA). Subsequently, ANA executives decided to extend the project across other ANA chapters of Abia, Taraba, Katsina, Kogi and Osun ANA Teen Authorship Scheme is interested in investing in children for the development of tomorrow‟s leadership and to ignite the spirit of creativity and the culture of reading by encouraging and mentoring young creative minds to help explore their potentials. In the words of Dzukogi (2016), allowing children to grow increativity is the only way to proffer solutions to some of the problems faced in the country. Pioneer authors of the scheme include,SaddiqDzukogi, Halima Aliyu ,ZanaibManko , Mustapha Gimba , Peter Kwange, Priscilla Adeshina , PhidelisObaseki , Victor Ugwu and AnasDubani. Subsequently, Paul Liam, Deborah Olumiuran, Fodio Ahmed amongst others joined the team of aspiring writers. In 1997, the first book of teen authors came out to the 35^th ANA Convention; Beyond Limits (An Anthology of Nigerian Teen Authors). In 2009, ANA released three national anthologies in short story (Shadows), poetry (Fireflies) and Teen Authors (Breaking the Bud). Individuals and organisations are further sponsoring the publications of Teen Authors individual progress.

Young adults also have the Pacesetters Series by Macmillan which future crime, espionage and love tangles such as When Love Whispers (Segun,1992:36). The tradition of young adult‟s series has continued to flourish especially with the Platinum Tales and NaniBoi Series which have published amongst many, TolulopeFabamwo‟sWhen Dreams Happen; Tade‟s dreams unexpectedly comes true and it brings pain,but there are life altering lessons to learn from the experience, most importantly, that of being able to forgive and move on and accept things that cannot be changed. The Music Competition by Divine Christian which tells the story of Mary, a highly talented sixteen year old girl who has dreams of becoming a great singer but there are obstacles in the way including the dashing eighteen year old boy, David.

1.2         Statement of the Research Problem

The impact of Children‟s literature in the growth and development of the child cannot be overemphasized. Among the many functions of Children‟s literature as identified by Segun (1992:32) is that, it arouses a child‟s imagination and extends his horizon, it gives him a knowledge of the past in relation to the present and imbues him with those ideals and values that are so necessary for national development. To this end, Nigerian children authors have written modern fantasy stories, modern realistic stories, science fiction stories, historical fictions and a few biographies with varying themes ranging from perseverance to honesty of purpose, good leadership, selflessness and so on. All in an effort to educate as well as inculcate moral and ethical values in the child. However, the aesthetic of cultural integration which is vital for national development is an area that has not been deeply explored. For, herein lies the imperative of Fatima Akilu‟s writing for children with her deliberate focus to equip the Nigerian child with knowledge on nationhood and the necessity for cultural integration at a period when so many issues are threatening co-existence in Nigeria.For if Nigeria is to imbibe healthy socio–cultural values, she must begin at an early age. Children are the hope and future leaders of any society. Their minds are very impressionable and what they are exposed to early in life helps to shape or mar them. Therefore, this research is based on the following propositions:

1. Children‟s literature as a distinctive genre of prose-fiction is an appropriate and efficient channel of elucidating human experiences and the development of children in relation to themselves and the society at large.
2. Children‟s literature is not only about morality and didactism but it also enjoinsbrotherhood love, leadership values and cultural integration.
3. Nigerian children stand the risk of misunderstanding issues of diversity and difference in the country without proper mentoring.
4. Reader Response criticism and New Historicism theory are viable platforms for evaluating the selected primary texts in response to the socio-economic, cultural, historical, political, class and gender issues embedded within the texts.

1.3         Aim and Objectives

The aim of the thesis is to uncover a new body of hidden creativity in the study of Children‟s literature.The study particularly examinesAkilu‟s efforts in her four Millennium Development Goals series which expands the frontiers of Nigerian children‟s fiction to catch the conscience of the vulnerable child at a tender age on the issue of cultural integration.

The study‟s objectives are to:

• Prove that Children‟s literature is a significant genre of prose-fiction and a choice for writers in Nigeria.
• To show how Children‟s literature is a suitable literary discursive form about the psychological growth and development of children in relation to cultural integration.

• Illustrate the aesthetics of cultural integration in Akilu‟s MDG series which could help create a lasting impression on the child.
• Demonstrate that reader response criticism and new historicism are potent theories for literary evaluation as regards the researcher‟s response to the texts as well as the multiple discourses which literature signifies.

1.4         Justification of the Study

Like many other African countries Nigeria is an artificial creation of the British. The attempt to unify all her various ethnic groups eventually materialised in 1914 with the amalgamation of Northern and Southern Protectorates and October 1, 1960, saw Nigeria becoming an independent nation. From then onwards, it became apparent that the various ethnic groups have to readjust and accommodate one another for the evolvement of a national unity and a national art. However, the decades after independence saw Nigeria go through many social upheavals especially excessive regionalism and ethnicity and majority/minority domination and dichotomy. These occurred even though strategies have been lined up to checkmate the issues of unity and harmony some of which are the National Youth Service Corps, the unity schools and state creations. The aesthetics of cultural integration has not been deeply exploredto rear, mould and nurture the Nigerian child at a tender age, to grow up with a healthy mindset devoid of ethnicity and tribalism. The study asserts that Children‟s literature could help fill this vacuum.

1.5         Significance of the Study

Human beings are always engaged in the process of development throughout their lives. An important part of one‟s personality and character is formed by what he is introduced to early in life, and reading according to researchis one of the best possible avenues to bring up children and a key to developing this skill. Children‟s literature can act as a tool in the psychological and intellectual growth of any child. It could function as a footing for structuring and steering the highly impressionable conscience of the child towards positive social and moral ideals. Children‟s literature as a repository of culture could carefully be designed to enhance unity in children at their very impregnable age. As the child subconsciously leafs through the pages in books, the stories form ideas of his life and his world and would help shape the mind and thought of the child reader on positive socio-cultural and moral ideals. Nigerian literary artistes would be doing the nation a great service if they start from the cradle to erase tribal instincts from the minds and conscience of children with literatures that depict cultural harmony and unity as exemplified in the works of Fatima Akilu. The study contributes to academic knowledge by bringing to lime light Akilu‟s MDGseries. The study shows that children‟s books in Nigeria now have the ability of integrating the child more and in the process enhancing cultural integration both locally and globally. It is hoped that this study will be of great assistance to other researchers as well as suggesting more vibrant views and perspectives on the vexed issue of Children‟s literature in Nigeria.

1.6         Scope and Delimitation of the Study

Although there are other children‟s books authored in the North such as B.M. Dzukogi‟sTeacher Dangara is a Cheat, Yusuf Adamu‟sAnimals In The Neighbourhood, Ladi S. Adamu‟sAdventures of Mustapha; Fatima Pam‟s Hussaini the Adventure; Teresa Ameh‟sThe Twins Visit, and Esther Bali‟s It is Story Time, this research focuses on the writings of one northern Nigeria Children‟s literature author, Fatima Akilu, particularly her set of Books 1-8 prompted by Millennium Development Goals. This is because the books are carefully interwoven through various thematic thrusts to unify the various cultural entities in the country and across borders. Hence, the study is delimited to examining critically only some selected works of Akilu so as to identify the effect or impact made so far on Children‟s literature and cultural integration in Nigeria.

1.7         Research Methodology

The method used for this investigation is based on thematic analysis of the primary texts, using the qualitative research method. The research also utilises library and internet sources in the analysis of its primary texts. It also made extensive use of books, journals and articles from the academic field.

The researcher‟s method relies on a close reading of the texts, an explication of their contexts and biographical information about the author. The research used the reader response criticism and the new historicist (cultural poetics) theoretical approach to criticism which allows the researcher to respond to investigate on how social structures are represented in literature as well as how texts reflect the time and society within which they are produced.

1.8 Theoretical Framework

The theory used for the research is new historicism, also called cultural poetics. New historicism is a term coined by Stephen Greenblatt which began to be applied to texts in the 1970,s and early 1980‟s. Dobie (2009:175) argues that new historicism is difficult to pin down because it is still changing and developing and because it draws on widely diverse fields of Sociology, Psychology, Economics and a host of others. Despite its diverse agenda of interest and approaches, one could clearly assert that new historicism challenged and resisted the prominent position held by old historicism. The old traditional historicism has been concerned with finding out the actual happenings of a particular age. it is concerned with the actual facts of stories that objectively depict the record of the human past, so that they could establish accuracy and in the process unlock the worldview and meaning of a periods literature, art, politics and social behaviours (Dobie 2009:175-176). New historicism argues that no one can ever know an exact account of incidents at a given time and place. Rather, history is mere perception and subjective renditions in official documents, text books or other sources of investigation, coloured by the cultural context of the recorder (usually a person of power), who leaves untold the stories of those who are powerless and who could only circulate their stories as separate discourses (Dobie, 2009: 176-177). Moreso, Dobie further asserts that not only are history stories subjectively recorded, but they are also subjectively read and interpreted.Therefore, history becomes a text rather than a series of empirically verifiable events.For authentic renditions, new historicists would want to hear the narratives of dominant groups as well as those of other groups that have helped shape what and how ideologies operated and interacted to form personal and group identities. However, the new historicists do not claim to have the „truth‟ about a text or historical event, but, they are of the view that if such a thing as „truth‟ could exist, it would be “narratologically and culturally contingent” (Dobie, 2009:176). The principal concern of new historicists is therefore, “the historicity of the text and the textuality of history”, a cultural poetics that is both historicist and formalist. From this perspective, Habib (2011:204) categorically states that: New historicism called for the literary text to be situated within a super structural fabric of political and cultural discourse, it saw literary texts as a kind of discourse situated within a complex of cultural discourses  religious, political, economics, aesthetic (and so on), which shaped it and in turn were shaped by it. In other word‟s new historicism seeks a resituating of literature not only in relation to other fields and discourses but in relation to social institutions and non-discursive practices and these accounts for the diversity of new historicism. On this note, Bressler concludes that in new historicism theory, the goal of interpretative analysis is the formation of an understanding of a “poetics of culture”. In essence new historicismattempts to dissect and analyze a people through the social, economic, political, literary, environmental and other structures that produce the varying forms of the concepts of culture in a given society. In other words, the total world view of a society is embedded in the culture in which it emanates. Literary analysis of texts could stem from the relationship between the individual and the society in which he lives and which is somewhat dynamic. For, like history new historicist‟s theory sees literature as an unending dialogue between the text and the social forces that bind it. In addition, Dobie (2009:177,178) exposes the new historicists challenge to the existence of what is referred to as “the spirit of an age”, (a single, unified worldview of an age) and that history has goals. New historicist‟s claim that there are varying narratives produced by institutions and social strata that may hold contrasting bodies of belief and practices or differing modes of behaviour. The new historicists also deny that history has goals. They claim that events do not necessarily march forward connected by cause and effect, nor do they necessarily constitute progress. For progress is likely to vary from one society to another. There is also the problem that cultures wax and wane; powerful, affluent people do not stay in power forever. In a nutshell, the new historicist critic works in two directions. He seeks to understand a text by examining its cultural context, the anxieties, issues, struggles, politics and more, surrounding the era in which it is produced. He also seeks to understand the culture by looking at its literature. In particular, the new historicist is interested in understanding a cultures power structure. He sees a text as an instrument of political awareness and a statement of ideology. Like the Marxists who preceded them, these critics assume that literature addresses cultural concerns and can affect society‟s attitudes and values (Dobie 2009:179). In  relation   to  the   application   of   new   historicism    theory  to    Children‟s literatures, Myers (1988:142) asserts that: New historicism of children‟s literature would integrate text and socio-historic context, demonstrating on the one hand how extra literary cultural formations shape literary discourse and on the other, how literary practices are actions that make things happen not only by shaping the pyschi and moral consciousness of young readers but also by performing many more kinds of cultural work, from satisfying authorial fantasies to legitimating or subverting dorminant class and gender ideologies…

1.8.1    The Key Proponents of the New Historicism Theory

Cultural   Poeticsoften  called   New   Historicism   in   America   and    Cultural Materialism in Great Britain, as a literary approach has its beginnings in the late 1970‟s and early 1980‟s with the publication of several essays and texts such as “Improvisation and Power”, Stephen Greenblatt‟s Renaissance Self Fashioning: From More to Shakespeare, and the works of Louis Montrose, Jonathan Dollimore‟sRadical Tragedy(1994), Jerome Mc Gann and others. In their view, historical methods of literary analysis were erroneous. Hitherto, many scholars believed that history served as background information for textual analysis. Historians were able to objectively reproduce a given historical period and state “how it really was”, but because of its broader concerns with culture, history, literature and a host of other factors that help determine texts meaning,new historicism study is able to present to scholars, critics, teachers, and students, a more appropriate methodology for interpreting texts(Bressler, 2003: 181-182) However, Bressler (2003:185) traces the basis for Cultural poetics concerns as well as its coherent body of assumption in the writings of the 20^th century French archaeologist, historian and philosopher, Michael Foucault. According to Bressler, Foucault begins by redefining the concept of history. Foucault declares that history is not linear, nor can history be explained as a series of causes and effects controlled by some mysterious destiny or an all powerful deity. For Foucault, history is the complex relationship of a variety of discourses; the various ways artistic, social, political structures and so on that people think and talk about their world. How these discourses interact in any given historical period is not random. Rather, the interaction is dependent on a unifying principle or pattern Foucault calls the episteme; through language and thought, each period in history develops its own perceptions concerning the nature of reality (or what is defined as truth), sets up its own acceptable and unacceptable standards of behaviour, establishes its criteria for judging what it deems good or bad and certifies what group of people articulate, protect and defend the yardstick whereby all established truths, values and actions will be deemed acceptable.

1.8.2     Basic Tenets of New Historicism

Bressler (2003:188, 189) outlines the basic tenets of New Historicism thus: Cultural poetics begin by assuming that language shapes and is shaped by the culture that uses it. Language includes discourse, writing, literature, social actions and any social relationship whereby a person or group impose their ideas or action upon another. Like history, our interaction with any text is a dynamic ongoing process that will always be somewhat incomplete. Neither can claim a complete or an objective understanding of its content or historical situation. Both are ongoing conversations with their creators, readers and cultures.

The meaning of a text resides in the cultural system composed of the interlocking discourse of its author, the text and its reader. Hence to unlock textual meaning, a cultural poetic critic investigates three areas of concern; the life of the author, the social rules and dictates found within a text, and a reflection of a works historical situation as evidenced in the text. In addition, the standard of behaviour as reflected in a society‟s rules of decorum must also be investigated because these behavioural codes simultaneously helped shape and were shaped by the text.

All narrative discourse such as history, literature and other social productions interact with, define, and are in turn shaped by their culture. Therefore there is no rigid or un-theorized distinction between literature and history, and between text and context. Cultural poetics critics view a work of art as they would any other social discourse that interacts with its culture to produce meaning. No longer is one discourse (history) superior to another, but all are necessary components that shape and are shaped by society (literature, history, anthropology, art, the sciences and other disciplines, all discourses that affect any social production). In other words the formal (textual) and the historical (non-discursive practices) are complementary, rather than opposites. The Research used the aforementioned tenets in the analysis of its primary texts. It highlights issue of culture, the social rules and dictates, the aesthetics, politicalstructures, environmental and the historical situation that abounds in the texts, the multiple narrations as well as other necessary components that shape the texts.

1.8.3     Reader Response Criticism

Some aspects of Reader Response Criticism will be deployed in the analysis to complement the short comings of the New Historicism theory. Reader Response Criticism is a theory which gained prominence in the late 1960s and which according to the Glossary of Literary Terms focuses on the reader or audience reaction to a particular text. This is in contrast to other schools and theories such as the new historicism and new criticism that focuses attention primarily on the author or the content and form or some objective meaning already present in the work being examined. Reader response criticism can be connected to post – structuralism‟s emphasis on the role of the reader in actively constructing text rather than passively consuming them. Reader response critic argues that a text has no meaning before a reader experiences or reads it. Reader response sscritics examine the scopeand variety to reader reactions and analyze the way in which different readers make meaning out of both purely personal reactions and inherited or culturally conditioned ways of reading.

1.9         Conclusion

The main focus of this research is to investigate cultural integration in Children‟s literature particularly in the work of Fatima Akilu‟s MDG series with an aim to illustrate the importance of literature to the growth and development of children. The chapter then traced the development of Children‟s literature in Europe and in Nigeria from infancy, growth and maturation.The research is hopeful that its findings would trigger more researches to ginger Nigerian authors to write more in the field of Children‟s literature, to enable the child reader more experience on the vastness of his lands and beyond and to also help curb the problem of ethnicity and tribalism.

 

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