Staff Profile

Abba Abba

Research Interests

Abba A Abba

Academic

Lecturer 1

Dr Abba A. Abba is a lecturer in the Department of English and Literary Studies, Federal University, Lokoja. He received his BA in English and Literary Studies at Imo State University, Owerri as well as his MA and PhD degrees in Comparative Literature at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. He is currently on AHP Postdoctoral Fellowship for the 2021-2022 research year, working on his project titled: Biafra's Self-Cannonization: Subverting Postcolonial Myths in Selected Nigeria-Biafra War Novels and Memoirs. He had earlier completed his DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) funded postdoctoral research fellowship at the Institute for Asian and African Studies, Humboldt University, Berlin-Germany in 2018 (on the project; Resisting Subalternity: Resuscitating Resistance Struggles in the Trenches of Nigeria-Biafra War Narratives). He was the Winner of the NLNG Prize for Literary Criticism 2019 with his 2017 article titled “Reinventing the Primordial: Human Blood Ritual and the Lure of Power in Esiaba Irobi's Nwokedi” published in Journal of Language, Literature and Culture 64:3. He also won the ANA/Maria Ajima Prize for Literary Criticism 2019, with his 2018 article titled “Birth, Death and Re-birth: The Trope of Eternal Rejuvenation in Isidore Diala’s The Lure of Ash” published in Journal of Commonwealth Literature 54.3. He is the corresponding Editor of Critical Engagements in African Literature: An Offering to Isidore Diala (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Uk, 2019). Abba’s published creative works include the novel, The Ugly Queen (2002) and the plays, Lunatic on the Throne (2003) and The Blood Price (2018). Many of his articles have been published in Research in African Literatures (RAL), Journal of commonwealth Literature, Journal of Literature and Culture, Matatu, Okike and many more. He has served as the University Orator as well as the Head, Department of English and Literary Studies, Edwin Clark University, Kiagbodo, Delta State.



  • Abba A. Abba (2021). Remediating Biafra: Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun as a Symbolic Vehicle of Postwar Reconciliation.. Research in African Literatures, vol. 51. 4.

  • Abba A Abba (2020). Human Suffering and Tragic Contradictions in in Akwanya’s Pilgrim Foot. Published online Jun 6, 2020, pp. 1- 17.. Journal of Commonwealth Literature

  • Abba A Abba, Nkiru Onyemachi (2020). (2020). Weeping in the Face of Fortune: Eco-Alienation in the Niger-Delta Ecopoetics.. Humanities, 9.3: 54.

  • Abba A Abba (2020). Biafra’s Resistance to Subalternity in Achebe’s Writing.. Lokoja Journal of English and Literature, vol. 1. No.1

  • Abba A Abba (2020). Rethinking the Slave as a Tragic Redeemer in Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. The Griot: Journal of the West African Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies 1:1, pp. 134-149.

  • Abba A Abba (2019). Achebe’s Postwar Writing and the inscription of Biafra as a Forbidden Discourse. In A.N. Akwanya (ed.), The Dance of the Future is Born: Chinua Achebe and Us.. Enugu: Prize Publishers.

  • Abba A Abba (2019). Interrogating the Counter-discursive Ideation in Achebe’s Postcolonial Writing. In Critical Engagements on African Literature: An Offering to Professor Isidore Diala. Eds. Abba A. Abba and Bennedictus Nwachukwu.. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, pp. 170-178.

  • Abba A Abba, Bennedictus Nwachukwu (2019). (Ed) Critical Engagements on African Literature: An Offering to Professor Isidore Diala. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars. 430 pp.

  • Abba A Abba (2018). Birth, Death and Re-birth: The Trope of Eternal Rejuvenation in Isidore Diala’s The Lure of Ash.. Journal of Commonwealth Literature 56.2

  • Abba A Abba (2018). Okigbo’s Pilgrimage to Martyrdom and Dignified Ancestor-hood.. OKIGBO: An International Journal of African poetry and Criticism. Vol. 1. 1. Pp. 104-120.

  • Abba A Abba (2018). The Blood Price (A Play).. Onitsha: New Era Media

  • Abba A Abba (2017). Reinventing the Primordial: Human Blood Ritual and the Lure of Power in Esiaba Irobi's Nwokedi. (NLNG Award winner). Journal of Language, Literature and Culture 64:3. Pp. 183-194.

  • Abba A Abba (2017). Okigbo’s Poetics and the Politics of Canonization. Matatu 49.2. pp. 260 - 269.

  • Abba A Abba, Nkechi Ezenwammadu (2016). The World as a Dancing Mask: Rethinking the Imperative of Change in Achebe’s Postcolonial Novels.. Cross-Abroad Multidisciplinary Journal of Research 1.3. pp.152-163.

  • Abba A Abba, Chibuzo Onunkwo (2016). Demarginalizing African Indigenous Deities in an Age of Terror.. Global Journal of Applied, Management and Social Sciences, Vol.13. pp. 95 –103.

  • Abba A Abba, Nkechi Ezenwammadu (2016). Weaving Cultural Bridges: The Spider, Folklore and Intercultural Communication. Nigerian Journal of Folklore Research, vol. 2.1. pp 8 -19.

  • Abba A abba (2015). Technicians of Terror: Deconstructing the Boundary between the Authoritarian and the Revolutionary in Soyinka’s Season of Anomy. Okike: An African Journal of New Writing 53:1. Pp. 47-59.

  • Abba A Abba (2015). Beyond the Tragic Abyss: Transcending Absurdist Limits in Albert Camus’s The Plague. NSU Journal of Language and Literary Studies 1: 2. Pp. 83- 90.

  • Abba A Abba (2015). Cosmic Terrorism and Human Wilfulness: A Re-reading of Camus’s The Plague.. Cross Abroad Multidisciplinary International Journal of Research 1. 2. Pp. 38- 45.

  • Abba a Abba (2015). Societal Outcasts and the Quest for Reconciliation in Achebe’s Things Fall Apart and Arrow of God. ANSU Journal of Arts and Humanities 2. 2. Pp. 178- 184.

  • Abba a abba (2014). From Heroism to Madness: Tragic injustice in Achebe's Arrow of God. Okike: An African Journal of New Writing 52:1. Pp. 120-136.

  • Abba A Abba (2014). Misreading of Revolutionary Violence in Esiaba Irobi’s Hangmen Also Die. Cross Abroad Multidisciplinary International Journal of Research 1. 1. Pp. 113- 121.

  • Abba A Abba (2013). Achebe: Searching for Truths Beyond the Abyss. Okike: An African Journal of New Writing 50. 1. Pp. 15-17 (poetry)

  • Abba A Abba (2003). A Lunatic on the Throne. (A play). Onitsha: Abbot Books.

  • Abba A Abba (2002). The Ugly Queen. (A novel). Onitsha: Abbot Books.


  • 2021 ACLS - AHP Postdoctoral Research Fellowship
  • 2019 Winner, Winner, Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) Prize for Literary Criticism
  • 2019 Winner, Association of Nigerian Authors/Maria Ajima Prize for Literary Criticism
  • 2018 DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) Postdoctoral Fellowship
  • 2010 Creative Youth Award (in honour of my novel, The Ugly Queen), Anambra 
State Government

  • 2000 Best Graduating Student of English and Literary Studies, Imo State University, Owerri
  • 1985 Principal’s Best Student Scholarship, Spencer Sec. School, Uli.

SN TITLE YEAR TYPE
1 “Man and Choice in Ayobami Adebayo’s Stay with Me and Jude Idada’s Boom Boom” – BA project by Blessing Osigbodi Ayodele 2019 Ongoing
2 “Sexual Exploitation of the Female Child in Kaine Agary’s Yellow Yellow and Amma Darko’s Faceless.” BA project by Bennedicta Mercy Christopher 2019 Ongoing
3 Trauma and Defiance in Jude Idada’s Boom Boom and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus". BA project by Umihani Ohuneme Abdulsalam 2019 Ongoing
4 Resistance and Environmental Degradation in Tanure Ojaide’s “The Goat Song”, and Nnimmo Bassey’s “We Thought It Was Oil But It Was Blood.” BA project by Tolulokpe Oluwatoyosi Olugbemi 2019 Ongoing


  1. Google Scholar:https://scholar.google.com/citationsuser=hlItYAYAAAAJ&hl=en
  2. linkedin:www.linkedin.com/in/abbaaabba
  3. ORCID iD:https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0320-360X
  4. ResearchGate:https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Abba_Abba
  5. Web of Science ResearcherID:Web of Science ResearcherID AAO-7383-2020

Academic Staff Offices Complex Department of English and Literary studies, Federal University, Lokoja

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