Universal Vision in the Fiction of Ben Okri

Abstract

Okri’s fiction is a mix of fantasy, realism and oral tradition of Africa. Though  the  trilogy  nearly  covers  some  fourteen  hundred  odd  pages, it  doesn’t  have  a  proper  beginning  or  end. Okri’s view of an unnamedAfrican ghetto, which is going to get independence, is presented in these novels. He is not  giving  solutions  to  the existing  problems , he  is simply  presenting  the  true nature  of  an African  state  in an elusive manner. He narrates The Famished Road through the experiences of an ‘abiku’, Azaro, a seven year old child. He uses Azaro to narrate the  chaotic  state of  affairs  in  an African  state , and  educates  Azaro  with  the  rich  African  culture in  the form  of stories  told  by his mother and  father, and shows the real  state of  Africa  in the  form of photographs taken  by the  photographer, Jeremiah. Okri’s fiction has many layers of meaning which makes the task of analysis difficult. Though several labels like magical realism, Post-colonial, post-modern text are given the trilogy defies any particular definition. After examining his Trilogy thoroughly, it seems that Okri though elusive in his writings apparently wants a new – world. The Trilogy moves in the direction of anticipating a world fine tuned to harmonious living.