NARRATIVES OF CURE: LITERARY REPRESENTATIONS OF TRADITIONAL HEALING PRACTICES IN CONTEMPORARY NIGERIAN FICTION

Abstract

This paper examines how contemporary Nigerian fiction represents traditional healing practices as both thematic and structural components of literary narrative. Through close readings of Ben Okri's The Famished Road, Buchi Emecheta’s The Joys of Motherhood, and Sefi Atta's Everything Good Will Come, the study reveals how traditional medicine is used as a narrative strategy to articulate indigenous knowledge systems, relate gendered experiences of health, and oppose colonial epistemologies. By focusing on the connection between cultural memory, medical pluralism, and the symbolic dimensions of healing, the paper situates literature as an important field for the preservation, criticism, and rediscovery of traditional African healing practices. The findings contribute to ongoing dialogue in literary studies, medical humanities, and postcolonial theory, calling for a more expansive understanding of narrative healing within African settings.