This paper shall examine the concept of historical cycles and myths in the works of Chinua Achebe and George Lamming by juxtaposing their first two works; which include: Things Fall Apart (1958) and Arrow of God (1964) for Achebe, as well as In the Castle of My Skin (1953) and The Emigrants (1955) for Lamming. A side-by-side juxtaposition of these works reveal that cycles of history and the mythic form of literature are vehicles both writers use to achieve their grand purposes of extricating, re-assembling and re-rendering of the histories of their people. In the novels under our study, both Achebe and Lamming have explored the symbiotic relationship between history and literature as well as their correlation with their peoples’ experiences to make their assertions on the life and times of their people. Using the tools of historical, post-colonialism and comparison theories, this paper attempts to establish how each writer fares when the narratives of his novels are put to the historical test. A recourse to secondary materials and deep textual analysis of these works would allow us form a conclusion that Jean Starobinksi puts succinctly when he stated that: “the past can never be evoked except with reference to a present” (74).

Male virility in colonial and postcolonial African literature was the object of social disintegration. The conditions and representation of historical male heroes shows a difference in narration, style and characterisation between African myths, legends and epics. The Ghanaian writer Ayi Kwei Armah and the Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe have not failed to address the issue of orality in their novels. This article assesses the extent to which the concept of male virility lost its prestige drastically during the British colonial hegemony. It also examines how these changes persist in an African society confronted with cultural irregularity in the texts of the two authors, which focus on the circumstances that have led the man to such an uncomfortable position as to lose his dignity in his society. He argues that revising certain African socio-cultural beliefs would be a significant asset for a more realistic vision of orality and help them be more effective in the decolonisation procedure and cultural reconstitution. As well as, it would prevent the victimisation of man by man in his society. The paper argues that the British colonial regime imposed its rule in Ghana and Nigeria through economic exploitation and the destruction of pre-existing cultures and that some defective cultures and traditional norms jeopardised the condition of man in his social milieu, which is out of step with Armah’s idealistic representation of pre-colonial Africa.

The objective of this study is to analyze the influence of the psycho-sociological aspects of Ivorian single-parent families on the academic success of adolescents in secondary school II in the city of Man. A quota sample was used on 97 students, including 62 from Ivorian matrix single-parent families and 35 from Ivorian patricentric single-parent families. Three methods were used: the comparative method, the functionalism and the systemic method. Three well-known techniques in the practice of psychological investigations were used: documentary research, questionnaire survey and interview. The quantitative and qualitative results of the study generally show that the Ivorian family environment plays a decisive role in the academic success of adolescents in secondary school II in the city of Man. The results also indicate that Ivorian adolescents living in matrix single-parent families obtain better school results than those from Ivorian patricentric single-parent families. On the other hand, adolescents from patricentric single-parent families are more at risk of obtaining low school results than those from matrixentric single-parent families. Also, the socio-professional category of single parents and the study conditions of adolescents are not linked to the academic success of adolescents. This is why all education stakeholders need to better know and understand this phenomenon in order to adapt strategies likely to prevent or remedy it.

The purpose of African orality is to educate while entertaining, with short stories, riddles and songs accompanied by traditional dances and fairy tales, all of which are cognitive activities. They are the bearers of a moral code that is very useful for the education of youths in society. In their fight for Cultural Renaissance, some post-colonial African writers are involved in a more realistic oral literature that meets the needs of Africans. Ayi Kwei Armah is one of these visionary artists who have developed a new structure of orality through various approaches in the Myth, Legend and Epic literary genres. This innovation has provoked polemics from critics. This paper examines Armah’s perception of gender equity while showing the historically awkward aspect of gender inequality in African literature. He also outlines the challenges and constraints associated with African writers’ deconstruction of the traditional African novel. The gender issue is explored in his historical novels as best fitting his vision of equity in cultural remodelling. Its effectiveness will depend on inclusive strategy of socio- political and economic empowerment. We have adopted gender theories and a Marxist approach to outline the problem and balance the roles of men and women to be more effective. In the end, the author’s work on gender shows the particularity of his texts that highlight a new form of literature, which has considerably contributed to the development of orality in terms of new strategies and cultural improvement.

The study examined collaborative learning and academic outcomes of university-based Business Education students in Delta State, Nigeria. Three research questions and three null hypotheses were developed to guide the study. The study adopted a quasi-experimental design. The sample was 106 years II students of Business Education at Delta State University, Abraka (experimental group) and University of Delta, Agbor, Delta State (control group). The instrument for data collection was an office management achievement test containing 60 questions and multiple-choice objective answers. The instrument was validated by three experts in Business Education, University of Benin while the reliability of the instrument was achieved using the Kuder Richardson 21 (KR-21) reliability technique which yielded a KR-21 reliability coefficient of 0.89. The pre-test and post-test data for both the experimental and control groups were collected through the administration of tests. The data (scores) collected were analyzed using mean and standard deviation to answer the research questions while Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was used for testing the hypothesis at a 0.05 level of significance. The result of the study showed that students taught with collaborative learning had significantly higher mean academic learning outcomes than those taught with the lecturer method. The study also found that the gender of the students had no significant (p<0.05) interaction effects with the treatments as both male and female students had higher academic outcomes from the effects of the collaborative learning. Based on the findings, the study among others recommended that teachers, lecturers and instructors in Nigerian tertiary institutions should be encouraged to adopt the use of collaborative learning strategies for instructional delivery to their students for improved academic learning outcomes of the students.