Document Type
Article
English Abstract
I begin my review of Oreva Olakpe’s book, South-South Migrations and the Law from Below: Case Studies on China and Nigeria, by observing that occasionally, a story comes along that needs to be written. One such story is Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. Achebe was a conduit by which the powerful account in Things Fall Apart was written. The story was one that had to be written at some point because it filled a gap in the bookshelf. During an interview, Achebe stated that he felt something needed to be done. At the time, European authors wrote most of the literature accounting for African culture, making it difficult for anyone to have a true sense of the trials and tribulations that several African tribes were facing. Since most of Europe was in a scramble for Africa, their literature inevitability contained some bias. Achebe set out to tell the truth through fiction.
Citation Information
Ngwaba, Uchechukwu. "Book Review - Oreva Olakpe, South-South Migrations and the Law from Below: Case Studies on China and Nigeria." The Transnational Human Rights Review 11. (2024) : 50-56. DOI: https://doi.org/10.60082/2563-4631.1111 https://digitalcommons.osgoode.yorku.ca/thr/vol11/iss1/4
References
1 Oreva Olakpe, South-South Migrations and the Law from Below: Case Studies on China and Nigeria (Oxford: Hart, 2023). https://doi.org/10.5040/9781509958214
2 Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart (Penguin Books, 1958)
3 PBS NewsHour, "Achebe Discusses Africa 50 Years After 'Things Fall Apart" (27 May 2008), online (video) .
4 See James T Gathii, "TWAIL: A Brief History of Its Origins, its Decentralized Network, and a Tentative Bibliography" (2011) 3 Trade L & Development 26 at 27; Anthony Anghie, "TWAIL: Past and Future" (2008) 10:4 Intl Community L Rev 479 https://doi.org/10.1163/187197308X36663; Seth Gordon, "Indigenous Rights in Modern International Law from a Critical Third World Perspective" (2007) 31 Am Indian L Rev 401 https://doi.org/10.2307/20070793 ; James T Gathii, "Rejoinder: Twailing International Law" (2000) 98 Mich L Rev 2066. https://doi.org/10.2307/1290274
5 Uchechukwu Ngwaba, "Taking 'Third World' Lives Seriously: Decolonising Global Health Governance to Promote Health Capabilities in the Global South" (2023) 10 Transnational Human Rights Rev 1. https://doi.org/10.60082/2563-4631.1104
6 Obiora Chinedu Okafor, "Newness, Imperialism, and International Legal Reform in Our Time: A Twail Perspective" (2005) 43:1/2 Osgoode Hall LJ 171, 176-177. https://doi.org/10.60082/2817-5069.1348
7 Land and Maritime Boundary Between Cameroon and Nigeria (Cameroon v Nigeria: Equatorial Guinea Intervening), [2002] ICJ Rep 303.
8 Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, "The Danger of a Single Story" (8 October 2009), online (video): .
9 Ibid.
10 Martha Finnemore & Kathryn Sikkink, "International Norm Dynamics and Political Change" (1998) 52(4) Intl Organizations 887. https://doi.org/10.1162/002081898550789