Postcolonial Alienation and The Search for Self in Selected Nigerian Novels

This study interrogates postcolonial alienation and the search for self in Tanure Ojaide’sThe Activist and Helon Habila Oil on Water. The study employs Femi Osofisan’spost-Negritude variant of postcolonialism to show how alienation is represented through marginalization of individuals and communities in the Niger Delta. In The Activist, Ojaide presents a landscape of ecological devastation and social injustice where characters are estranged from their land, history, and sense of belonging. Similarly, Habila’s Oil on Water depicts the human and environmental cost of oil exploration, showing how oil related violence and exploration produce emotional dislocation and moral uncertainty. In both texts, alienation is not only social but also psychological, as characters search for identity in a world shaped by exploitation and broken promises. The paper contends that the search for self in these novels is closely linked to resistance, and recovery of human dignity. While characters experience loss and displacement, their struggles also reveal a desire for agency, ethical renewal and communal restoration. The study concludes that Ojaide and Habila use their works illustrate that selfhood can be reimagined through resistance, solidarity and environmental justice.