Leadership Perception and Self-Construction in Autobiographical Narrative: A Study of the Autobiography of Nnamdi Azikiwes My Odyssey

Dauda Saidu | Mohamed Idris Elshami Mohamed | Khalid Osman Ahmed Mahjoub

Abstract: Autobiography has arguably become the most effective means by which Nigerian political leaders project their voices. However, while novelists, poets, and playwrights enjoy adequate critical patronage, the story is not the same with non-fiction writers such as autobiography. This study looks at the autobiographies of the former Nigerian president, namely Nnamdi Azikiwe's My Odyssey, using New Historicist method of critical analysis. The focus is on exploring the link between autobiographical writing and the process of self-construction. This is followed by an elaborate textual analysis of the Primary text. After careful analysis of the texts, the research found the autobiographical subject is constructed in a subjective teleological order of his live. The construction of the 'self' is negotiated by means of narrated selective experience. The assumption that the autobiographical subject is presented as protagonist with impressive resilience and resisting an extremely hostile social environment is fully validated in Azikiwe's My Odyssey. Finally the research concludes with the notion that the self is constructed in and through the narrative which purports to represent it.

Keywords: Autobiography, the self, self-construction, Azikiwe, Autobiographer

Edition: Volume 9 Issue 7, July 2020,

Pages: 413 - 424