Children in War Situations: A Study of Ngugi’s Weep Not Child and Onyekwelu’s Fugitive in Biafra

Abstract

Children, the so-called future of every generation, have always been caught up in warfare. This is because they are innocent, helpless and have little choice but to experience the same horror as their parents as casualties or even combatants. Recent developments in warfare have significantly heightened the dangers for children. The past decades have recorded millions of children killed, disabled, orphaned, separated from their parents or dislocated from their homes. War and terrorism are man’s perpetrated acts of violence that have emotionally and psychologically affected generation of children and young people for the rest of their lives. In the Nigerian situation at present, same is seen in the lives of children tormented by Fulani Herdsmen and Boko Haram menace on the populace. The hope of the nation for which this menace occurs continues to be bleak. This paper explores such trauma in children as Ngugi Wa Thiong’o and Onyekwelu Manankiti in their Weep not Child and Fugitive in Biafra respectively present it.