The Nigerian Marxist critic F. Odun Balogun is right in describing Kole Omotoso as &dquo;a unique phenomenon in contemporary African literature. &dquo;’ Omotoso has consistently challenged various forms of closure within the cultural debate in Africa. He recently published a work which contests the boundary between fiction and fact: Just Before Dawn uses historical persons, some of whom are still living, as characters in a narrative that spans colonial and post-colonial Nigeria. One of the personages, who appears as a character in the novel, has been in no doubt as to the novel’s historical veracity. General Obasanjo threatened to sue the author for libel. However, the matter has been settled out of court, costing the author a considerable fraction of his royalties. The novel has also broken a literary record in Nigeria by being the first work to be reprinted within six months of publication. Just Before Dawn has attracted a diverse readership as can be seen from a statement from

Mpalive-Hangson Msiska

Papers

Cultural Dislocation and Gender Ideology in Kole Omotoso's The Edifice