Between New Challenges in African Literature and Contemporary Realities:The Case Study of Opanachi's Eaters of the Living

The twenty-first century is observed to pose a number of challenges for theAfrican writer, having scaled through many thorny decades producing worksof art that has passed under diverse sledge hammers. Among which arederogatory names such as defensive literatures. More so, as the saga ofAfrica s hunger tops the list of the concerns of the Millennium DevelopmentGoals (MDG) of the United Nations; which asserts that the declared level ofAfrica s achievements might still be on paper. This challenge is comingbarely a decade or two after cases of barbaric genocides in Africa alongsideother socio-political unrests which may actually affect writers'preoccupationin Africa. The continent is sadly besieged by horrible sights andshouts of fraud which has diverted all the likely prospects of re-orientation for a new creative hope to give artistic thrust to a new world order. This paper has therefore undertaken a case-study of Idris Opanachi's concerns in Eaters of the living which a commentator says, Chronicles the consumptive defector, ravaging the land of promise against calls for a new image of the African personality to relocate her for more feasible operations in the twenty-first century. It has further challenged Charles Nnolim's critical reception; as it broadens the debate concerning the literary and cultural importance of his overture by concentrating on the explication of relevant literary works that would rather respond to socio-political realities in its milieu. Furthermore, I have demonstrated by critical evaluation of the work of a selected Nigerian poet that the impulsive response of a writer in this ageof technological innovations is not yet absolved of the traditional preoccupations of his predecessors.