JOURNALS

ABSTRACT

Literature whether oral or written has, since its’ origin, served as a vehicle for the diffusion of language, world-view, culture and belief of any given community. It evolves alongside these phenomena in order to fulfill its’ function among the populace. The Nigerian society, thanks to her distinguished authors, has had her cultures and traditional beliefs projected to the lime light. Elechi Amadi is one of such authors who, through his works, has effortlessly disseminated the Igbo beliefs with regards to human activities and future as they are controlled by the gods. In his novel The Concubine, he postulates that human destiny is not subject to change; thereby, subtly re-enacting the doctrine of determinism. An ideology which suggests that man’s destiny, actions and indeed all events of life have been predestined by powers from beyond. Without laying undue emphasis on the aforementioned ideology, the principal focus of this paper is to explore the destiny of four major characters as they are portrayed in this epic novel. The paper also casts a cursory glance on the culture, worldview of the Igbo society, the extramundane powers and the control which they exercise on human beings even against their will. Since the Igbo society is of a very high interest to this work, using destiny as our theoretical frame work, an expository and analytical method are applied in the study of the society and characters as they are presented in the novel.