Saints and sinners: protest in waiting for angel

Helon Habila’s Waiting for an Angel tackles headlong the evils of military rulers and their civilian collaborators in Nigeria, between 1990 and 1998. This orchestrates a shift of theme and concern, with the impact of colonization and historical past towards an examination of current socio-political problems of abuse of power by the ruling elite, corruption and widespread social inequality and justice in Nigeria’s political landscape. This paper examines how Helon Habila in Waiting for an Angel portrays Nigerian society in a manner that utilizes its status as faction. It takes contemporary facts and analyses them from the perspectives of different characters in order to bring out their deeper meanings for society. The versatility with words and keen insight in the novel’s central character enable him to delineate society in such a way that the arbitrariness of historical interpretation of events becomes clear.

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Waiting for Angel ,

Helon Habila ,

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