Structural Dysfunctionality and Human Trafficking: A Study on Nigerian Human Trafficking Narratives

Human trafficking or sex slavery has been a global social phenomenon in dire need of prompt actions and as a social menace it has attracted interventions from many disciplines, Literature inclusive. This wide intervention is so because of the distressing and disastrous consequences victims and survivours are faced with. Writers’ response, as the voice of society, has led to the emergence of the sub-genre of Nigerian Literature: human trafficking narratives. This paper uses four human trafficking narratives to investigate the fissures in societal structures that are instrumental to the phenomenon of human trafficking and sex slavery. It adopts the theory of Structural functionalism to investigate and expose the systemic defects which perpetuate and sustain human trafficking in Nigeria. These defects include amongst others, poor security architecture and political instability, corruption in public institutions, abject poverty, excessive materialism and patriarchy.

Keywords: Structural Dysfunctionality Human Trafficking Narratives

Authors

• Effiok Bassey Uwatt
  Department of English, University of Abuja, Nigeria
  effiokuwatt@uniabuja.edu.ng
• Chioma Anaesthesia Onugba
  Department of English, University of Abuja, Nigeria