The Prophetic Role of the Church and Postcolonial Portrait of Nigeria in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus

Abstract

Abstract This article brings together Christian theology, creative literature and history in the current spirit of interdisciplinary scholarship. It endeavours to unveil, in the first place, the image painted of Nigeria as a post-colonial entity in the novel, Purple Hibiscus, by the award-winning writer, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Through the events, characters and realities employed by her in painting the above-mentioned image of Nigeria, it is evident that the historical period captured is most likely located in the military regimes of Ibrahim Babangida (1985–93) and Sani Abacha (1993–98). The article then considers the role that the Catholic Church in Nigeria, especially its hierarchy, played during the period and what that performance of such has to say to the same church leaders in Nigeria, today. These reflections stand inside the emerging tradition of a public theology in Nigeria.