Narrativising Peace and its Significance in Multicultural Resource Conflicts: The Example of Emmanuel Egya Sule’s Makwala

Abstract

Several studies have shown how artworks reflect the magnitude of human disaster on the environment, and well-being due to the exploitation of natural resources such as oil, gas, and timber by capitalist multinational companies. However, these researchers have not paid due attention to the fundamental role of Nigerian fiction in communicating peace in a natural resource and multicultural setting. Drawing from Emmanuel Egya Sule’s novel Makwala (2018), this paper delineates how abundant natural resources bound to certain regions in Nigeria are causing a specific type of natural resource conflict, friction, and diverse unrest. In this light, natural resource conflicts are skirmishes triggered by the unfavourable manner in which resources are harnessed. The presence of natural resources has created deep-seated disgruntlement because the resource barely trickles down to the common people. Consequently, this paper explores how conflict disrupts, thereby creating dissonance, hence the dire need to communicate peace. Using the theoretical tool of Non-Violent Communication (NVC) by Marshal Rosenberg to reframe resource conflicts, NVC’s emphasis on authentic dialogue, empathy, and unmet needs offers a pathway to transform conflicts into collaborative peacebuilding. This study, therefore, proposes that communicating peace amidst natural resource conflict is imperative to forestall anarchy in Northern Nigeria’s multicultural setting.