The Significance Of Abiku In The Famished Road By Wole Soyinka

Mother, who sees her child steadily wasting away without clear cause, winds up that an Abiku has entered it, or, as the natives regularly convey it, that she has given birth to an Abiku, and that it is being famished because the Abiku is stealing all its food. To get rid of the indwelling Abiku, and its companions outside, the anxious mother offers a sacrifice of food; and while the Abikus are supposed to be devouring the spiritual part of the food, and to have their concentration unfocused, she attaches iron rings and small bells to the ankles of the child, and hangs iron chains round his neck. The rattling of the iron and the tinkling of the bells is supposed to keep the Abikus at a distance, hence the number of children that are to be seen

It offers a socio-political reading based on traditional West African world view. The abiku motif has attracted many writers who are engaged in various agendas of cultural nationalism and identity formation, and how a close reading of their work points to their aesthetic and ideological

First and foremost feature is that dreams relating to rivers, streams, sprits, tigers, lions, crocodiles and masquerade. Speaking to unseen forces in dreams and the speaking is loud waking up people but, the speaker doesn't wake up no matter the noise of the around people. The central theme of The Famished Road is maturation. In the world of spirit which has been referred as the land of origins where Abiku spirits and unborn, or spirit-children, are presided over by the king of the unborn, Azaro, who is still a spirit at this point, explains that their King, many times, has become a man and woman. On the other hand other Abikus and Azaro are making oaths with each other to return from life at their first opportunity, and thus never become man; the reader is presented with the contrary example of their