WAR, INSURGENCY AND THE POLITICS OF SILENCING IN AKACHI ADIMORA-EZEIGBO’S ROSES AND BULLETS AND HELON HABILA’S CHIBOK GIRLS

ABSTRACT This project investigates the theme of war, insurgency, and the politics of silencing in Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo’s roses and bullets and Helon Habila’s Chibok Girls:The Boko Haram Islamist and militancy in nigeria. Both texts engage with Nigeria’s turbulent history of armed conflict and insurgency, particularly highlighting the devastation of the Nigerian civil war and the boko haram crisis. The analysis focuses on how silence whether imposed, chosen, or symbolic functions as a coping mechanism, a tool of resistance, and a marker of trauma within the narratives. Adimora-Ezeigbo’s roses and bullets explores the loss, survival, and gendered experiences of youth during the Biafran war, while Habila’s chibok girls documents the abduction of schoolgirls in northern Nigeria, foregrounding silenced voices in contemporary insurgency. By employing postcolonial and trauma theory frameworks, the study interrogates how both authors represent the intersection of violence, memory, and identity, particularly through the lens of marginalized groups such as women and children. The project argues that silence is not merely absence of speech but a powerful narrative strategy that reveals the limits of expression in the face of atrocity. Altimately, the comparative reading underscores the role of literature in giving voice to silenced histories and in challenging systems of oppression and violence in Nigerian society.