African Onomastics and Politics: A Demystification of Àbíkú Names in Femi Osofisan’s Who’s Afraid of Solarin?

Abstract

Àbíkú names in Femi Osofisan's Who's Afraid of Solarin require reconsideration, given their onomastic (literary) significance which provides a foray into the cyclic trend of Nigerian politics. In this respect, the Yoruba myth is exploited as an instrument of blending sociocultural, literary, and political contexts through naming. To achieve this objective, this study, therefore, explores two (2) charactonyms in the selected text using Onomastic Semiosis. Besides, an oral interview was conducted with an expert in the Yoruba culture to buttress the character analysis through a crossdisciplinary approach to name, orature, culture, politics, and religion from a Nigerian context. The thrust of the work is to establish that underdevelopment in Nigeria is an outcome of recycling of political leaders.