SynopsisCarol of the Blackened Season* is a surreal, dreamlike portrait of a Nigerian Christmas overshadowed by social hardship and political disillusionment. Set within a collective dream, the story transforms familiar Yuletide symbols—a marketplace, carols, Christmas lights, a tree, family gatherings—into stark metaphors for inflation, fuel scarcity, insecurity, inequality, and failed governance. The narrator wanders through a bleak festive landscape where political promises dissolve into dust, religious spaces offer both comfort and fragile hope, and armed authority appears as an ominous, ever-present force.As ash falls from the sky—symbolizing burned hopes, silenced protests, and national memory—the nation is personified as a weary but resilient old woman, bearing the scars of exploitation and survival. Despite the darkness, the story ends on a note of quiet resistance: small acts of kindness, creative defiance, and laughter begin to fracture despair. The narrative ultimately frames Nigeria’s “dark yuletide” not as the absence of light, but as a season where endurance itself becomes a form of hope amid ongoing struggle.