Irony and the Politics of Nationhood in Henry Barlow’s Building the Nation: A Postcolonial Reading of Leadership and Representation in Nigeria.
This study examines Henry Barlow’s poem Building the Nation as a satirical representation of leadership, class relations, and the contradictions of nation-building in postcolonial societies, with a particular focus on Nigeria as a contextual reference point. Drawing primarily on Postcolonial Theory, complemented by insights from satire and irony as literary devices, the paper interrogates how the poem exposes the disjunction between official rhetoric and lived realities of governance. Through close textual analysis, the study reveals how Henry Barlow employs irony to critique the performative nature of public service, where political elites appear committed to national development while engaging in self-serving indulgence. Furthermore, the research explores the poem’s depiction of class disparity, symbolized by the contrast between the privileged Permanent Secretary and the working-class driver, to illustrate broader socio-economic inequalities that persist in many postcolonial African states. Nigeria is used as a reflective case to demonstrate how the thematic concerns of the poem resonate with contemporary issues of leadership, accountability, corruption and uneven development. The study argues that Building the Nation remains relevant as a literary work that challenges dominant narratives of nation-building by foregrounding the experiences of marginalized social actors. Eventually, the paper concludes that Henry Barlow’s poem uses satire not only to expose political hypocrisy but also to question who truly participates in the process of nation-building in postcolonial contexts.
Keywords: Satire, Postcolonial, Irony, Nation-building, Leadership, Class inequality, Nigeria.
