NEGOTIATING INDIVIDUALITY UNDER CONSTRAINT: STRATEGIES OF BOYS’ IDENTITY FORMATION IN ELNATHAN JOHN’S BORN ON A TUESDAY

Abstract

This article examines how boys form their identities while navigating the cultural, religious, and political pressures of the Almajiri system. The system is a qur’anic schooling tradition that is widespread in Northern Nigeria. In this system, boys are often sent away from home at a young age to study under an Islamic teacher Malam. They frequently have to beg for food and shelter. The article examines these experiences as depicted in Elnathan John's Born on a Tuesday, a novel set in Northern Nigeria. While African literary studies have explored masculinity in depth, there has been little focus on how boys actively navigate the cultural forces that shape them. Using psychoanalytic literary theory, this study applies Sigmund Freud's ideas of repression and the ego, as well as Jacques Lacan's concepts of the Symbolic Order and the Real. It conducts a close reading of the main character, Dantala. The analysis identifies four interconnected strategies for forming identity: strategic compliance with inner dissent, language and literacy as alternative symbolic tools, friendship among boys as a way to build identity, and the negotiation of moral ambiguity in creating an ethical self. The findings show that identity in the novel arises not from rebellion or complete submission but from ongoing, internal negotiation between cultural expectations and personal identity. The study provides a way to understand boys' agency within restrictive cultural systems, with implications for teaching literature and mental health efforts focused on African boys.