Analytical Study of the Reception of Caribbean Literature at Nigerian Universities

Caribbean Anglophone literature, particularly the work of Derek Walcott, Jamaica Kincaid, and Edwidge Danticat, represents an important component of the postcolonial world literary tradition with significant comparative relevance to Nigerian literature, yet its reception and teaching at Nigerian universities has not been analytically examined. This study analytically assessed the reception of Caribbean literature at Comparative Literature and English departments at seven Nigerian universities. A reception study methodology combining syllabus analysis, structured interviews with 21 literature academics, and focus group discussions with 45 undergraduate students was employed. Syllabi analysis showed that Caribbean literature appears in fewer than 15 percent of examined literature courses and, when present, is confined primarily to Walcott's Omeros and selected poems from the broader tradition. Academic staff interviews revealed that Caribbean literature is perceived as culturally distant from Nigerian student experience by 68.6 percent of respondents, despite significant shared features of colonial experience, Atlantic diaspora identity, and postcolonial language politics. Student focus groups at the University of Port Harcourt showed the highest level of unprompted Caribbean literary awareness, attributed to the Niger Delta's geographical and ecological resonances with Caribbean landscape writing. The study argues that Caribbean literature's reception in Nigeria suffers from structural marginalisation rather than genuine cultural distance, and proposes a comparative African-Caribbean reading framework that explicitly foregrounds the shared Atlantic dimensions of both traditions. The framework is recommended for adoption in courses at universities in the South South zone.

Keywords: Caribbean literature, Nigerian universities, literary reception, postcolonial comparison, Atlantic literary tradition