Euphemistic Framing of Political Oppression in Chuma Nwokolo's The Extinction of Menai

Abstract

This study investigates the linguistic mechanics of euphemistic framing as a deliberate strategy to mask political oppression and sustain structural hegemony in Chuma Nwokolo’s novel, The Extinction of Menai. While existing literatures explored euphemism through the benign lenses of linguistic politeness, facing-saving diplomacy, or general communicative evasion, a critical research gap persists regarding how euphemistic discourse is systematically operationalised as a primary instrument of authoritarian domination and elite manipulation, This article addresses this oversight by critically analysing purposively sampled extracts from the novel that evaluates state, military, and institutional power dynamics. Methodologically, the paper evaluates six textual extracts contextualise their broader socio-political resonance within the corporate-state complexities of the Nigerian polity. The theoretical framework integrates Micheal Halliday’s Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) - utilising the grammatical rank scale at the word, phrase, and clause complex levels to scrutinise transitivity processes and participant agency-with Marxist Literary Criticism to deconstruct class asymmetry and the subversion of state apparatuses.   The analysis reveals that the text’s ruling elite systematically sanitise severe political oppression, resource exploitation, and dictatorial control by refracting them through a polished, and seemingly innocuous register of commerce, capitalism and globalised business networking. Fundamentally, this study demonstrates that modern political hegemony secures manufactured consent not merely though overt force, but by deploying specialised economic euphemisms that insulate the oppressors from moral accountability, obscure the human costs of structural violence and preserve elite dominance.