Waiting for an Angel

Helon Habila’s debut novel Waiting for an Angel is a literary endeavor to capture a sliver of Nigeria’s postcolonial history. Following a journalist and poet living in the country following the colonial period, Habila utilizes historical moments to anchor the novel in the era of military dictatorships during the 1980s and 1990s. Separated into seven stories via multiple narrators and absent of linear chronology, Habila’s novel creates a sense of placelessness, signifying the struggle of living in a decolonizing society. Waiting for an Angel illuminates the experiences of Nigerians caught in oppressive military regimes, a postcolonial echo of colonial power structures.