Chinua Achebe: Father of African
Literature 1930 - 2013
Lecture 9
http://viennachinuaachebe.wordpress.com/
Derek Barker
www.derekbarker.info
Dr.Derek.Barker@gmail.com
BIAFRA
Conversations
They tackle a number of issues. The classic
"language question" is discussed, of course,
and you might, by now and understandably,
find this a bit boring. However, the discussion
goes further than the usual one of "should
African authors write in English or not?" and
discussions on using vernacular, the intricacies
of the Igbo language, etc. take place and I
hope you'll find this enlightening.
Conversations
The question of the impact of modern
technology on the younger generation is
posed. Toni Morrison believes that literature
today is more valuable than ever, but that the
new generation lack the ability to imagine or
visualize things that you need to have in order
to read properly. Do you agree?
They go on to discuss fame, the writing process
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Anthills - Themes
History of suffering
Power
Storytelling
Role of women
Oral tradition
Blending of old and new
Anthills of the Savannah
Summary I
Anthills of the Savannah takes place in
the imaginary West African country of
Kangan, where a Sandhurst-trained
officer, identified only as Sam and
known as "His Excellency", has taken
power following a military coup
Anthills of the Savannah
Summary II
Achebe describes the political
situation through the experiences of
three friends: Chris Oriko, the
government's Commissioner for
Information; Beatrice Okoh, an official
in the Ministry of Finance and
girlfriend of Chris;
Anthills of the Savannah
Summary III
and Ikem Osodi, a newspaper editor
critical of the regime.
Other characters include Elewa,
Ikem's girlfriend and Major
"Samsonite" Ossai, a military official
known for stapling hands with a
Samsonite stapler.
Anthills of the Savannah
Summary IV
Tensions escalate through the novel,
culminating in the assassination of
Ikem by the regime, the toppling and
death of Sam and finally the murder
of Chris. The book ends with a nontraditional naming ceremony for
Elewa and Ikem's month-old
daughter, organized by Beatrice.
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Main Protagonists
Beatrice Okoh
Christopher Oriko
Ikem Osodi
Sam
Beatrice Okoh
Chris's fiancee, Beatrice is one of Achebe's most fully
developed female characters. She works for Sam and is an
old friend of Ikem's, so, through her connections to Chris,
Ikem, and Sam, she plays a significant role in the action of
the novel. She was born the fifth daughter to her parents
(one sister has died). Her father had been hoping for a son,
so she was named Nwanyibuife, which means "A Woman Is
Also Something" As an adult, Beatrice is well-educated,
having earned a degree with honors in English from the
University of London, and she holds an important civil
service position as an administrator in a state office. She
also enjoys writing short fiction, which Ikem reads and
admires for its "muscularity" and "masculine" qualities.
Beatrice Okoh
Beatrice is characterized by sophistication, intelligence, and
independence, but she is also attuned to the common
people on an intuitive level. Never having planned on a
career in the government, she is very disturbed by
accusations that she is ambitious. In reality, she desires
what she has desired since childhood—to be left alone in
her peaceful solitude and not attract any attention. Achebe
places her firmly in the mythic tradition of the people,
making her a sort of manifestation of Idemili, a goddess
sent to Man to oversee morality.
Beatrice Okoh
Although Beatrice is unaware of the myths regarding this
goddess, she grows into a woman possessed with wisdom,
self-knowledge, and compassion as she connects with the
culture of her land. At the end of the novel, she participates
in the naming ceremony for Ikem and Elewa's baby girl by
naming the infant Amaechina, a boy's name meaning "May
the Path Never Close." This is bold not only because she has
given a boy's name to a girl, but also because the
responsibility of naming traditionally belongs to a man.
Christopher Oriko
In his youth, Chris attended Lord Lugard College with his
friends Ikem and Sam. Even then, he served as the "buffer"
and mediator between the athletic and outgoing Sam and
the intelligent and pensive Ikem. As adults, the three
occupy prominent roles in Kangan's new military regime,
and Chris's role as Commissioner for Information again puts
him in the position of go−between as Sam and Ikem engage
in a contest of wills. Chris stepped down as editor of
the National Gazette to accept his position on Sam's
Cabinet, after which Ikem became the newspaper's editor.
Christopher Oriko
Chris is now Ikem's boss, but he himself reports to Sam, which puts
him in the uncomfortable position of trying to get Ikem to comply
with Sam's will. Although Chris sees Sam becoming mad with power,
he is reluctant to give up his position in the Cabinet. Chris finally
asserts himself when Sam orders him to fire Ikem, thus beginning a
harrowing series of events. Fleeing for his life, Chris comes into
contact with the "people" and begins to understand his country
better. Chris is killed trying to save a girl from being raped at a chaotic
party, and his last words are, "The last green." This is a reference to
a running joke he, Ikem, and Sam shared in the early days, when they
imagined themselves as three green bottles arrogantly situated on a
shelf, each bound to fall.
Ikem Osodi
Ikem is the outspoken and reform−minded editor of the
state−owned National Gazette, a position that often puts
him in conflict with his boyhood friend, Sam, who is the
president of Kangan. Part of his duty is to broadcast Sam's
messages to the people, which are Sam's way of feeling that
he is radiating power from the capitol out to the people.
Ikem, on the other hand, believes strongly that the press
should be free and independent of government regulation.
He and Chris often debate the effectiveness of Ikem's
editorials, but Ikem feels that even if they are futile, he
should continue publishing them.
Ikem Osodi
Despite the fact that he is a London−educated intellectual, Ikem is
very sensitive to the needs of the common people. His editorials are
often harsh in their criticism of the new ruling regime, which makes
Sam regard him as treacherous. Ikem states that the best weapon
against ineffective or unjust governments is not facts, but passion.
Unlike Chris, Ikem is an extremist who is not interested in working
gradually toward progress and so uses his powerful position as a
journalist to call for change. Speaking to a group of students, Ikem
discusses the role of the storyteller in depth, insisting that it is the
role of the writer to ask questions and make challenges. He concludes
his speech to the students by proclaiming, "Writers don't give
prescriptions. They give headaches!"
Ikem Osodi
Ikem also makes a joke about putting Sam's head on the
country's coins, which leads to false reports that Ikem called
for the beheading of the president. His fate already
orchestrated, Ikem is taken in the night by government
secret police and killed. Still, his presence continues to be
felt among the people and his friends—a presence
strengthened by the fact that he leaves behind a girlfriend
close to giving birth to their child.
Sam
Sam is the new president of the military regime in power
following a coup, a position he holds due in no small part to
the efforts of his schoolmates Chris and Ikem. He is
described as being very athletic and very charming, having
adopted the ways of an English gentleman. Early in the
novel, Ikem comments on Sam's "sense of theatre," adding
that Sam "is basically an actor and half of the things we are
inclined to hold against him are no more than scenes from
his repertory to which he may have no sense of moral
commitment whatsoever." Although he attended the
prestigious Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst, Sam is
fully aware that he is unprepared for his new government
leadership role.
Sam
However, he soon becomes blinded by power, insisting on
being called "Your Excellency" and seeking to be elected
"President for Life." Military school trained Sam and his
fellow cadets to remain aloof from political matters, and
Sam was, at first, quite terrified in his new role. His solution
was to gather together his friends and give some of them
government positions from which he could seek their
advice. Once he overcame his fear, however, he began to
relish his power, becoming extremely upset at even the
mildest demonstrations against him.
Sam
Chris can see that Sam is now a dictator−in−the-making and
considers him a "baby monster," but Sam is only concerned
about securing as much power for himself as he can
without interacting with the people of the country. In fact,
he is starving a dissident province in hopes of forcing them
to comply with his authority. He soon becomes consumed
with paranoia, anger, and insecurity, and when his political
ambitions are disappointed, he recalls being told how
dangerous boyhood friends can be. After he arranges for
Ikem's murder and Chris has fled, Sam himself is killed
during a coup and buried in a shallow grave.
Anthills of the Savannah
Quotes
“Ife onye metalu' ['what a man commits'] - a statement unclear and
menacing in its very inconclusiveness. What a man commits...Follows
him? Comes back to take its toll? Was that all? No, that was only part
of it ... The real burden of that cryptic scripture seemed to turn the
matter right around. Whatever we see following a man, whatever fate
comes to take its revenge on him, can only be what that man in some
way or another, in a previous life if not in this, has committed. That
was it! So those three words wrapped in an archaic tongue and
tucked away at the tail of the bus turn out to be the opening segment
of a full-blooded heathen antiphony offering a primitive and quite
deadly exposition of suffering. The guilty suffers; the sufferer is guilty.
As for the righteous, those whose arms are straight, they will always
prosper!”
Anthills of the Savannah
Quotes
“While we do our good works let us
not forget that the real solution lies in
a world in which charity will have
become unnecessary.”
Anthills of the Savannah
Quotes
“Storytellers are a threat. They
threaten all champions of control,
they frighten usurpers of the right-tofreedom of the human spirit — in
state, in church or mosque, in party
congress, in the university or
wherever.”
Anthills of the Savannah
Quotes
“It is only the story…that saves our
progeny from blundering like blind
beggars into the spikes of the cactus
fence.The story is our escort;without
it,we are blind.Does the blind man
own his escort?No,neither do we the
story;rather,it is the story that owns
us.
Anthills of the Savannah
Quotes
“It is the story that owns and directs
us. It is the thing that makes us
different from cattle; it is the mark on
the face that sets one people apart
from their neighbors.”
Anthills of the Savannah
Quotes
“In the vocabulary of certain radical
theorists contradictions are given the
status of some deadly disease to which
their opponents alone can succumb. But
contradictions are the very stuff of life. If
there had been a little dash of
contradiction among the Gadarene swine
some of them might have been saved
from drowning.”
Anthills of the Savannah
Quotes
“Charity … is the opium of the privileged; from the good
citizen who habitually drops ten kobo from his loose change
and from a safe height above the bowl of the leper outside
the supermarket; to the group of good citizens (like
youselves) who donate water so that some Lazarus in the
slums can have a syringe boiled clean as a whistle for his jab
and his sores dressed more hygienically than the rest of
him; to the Band Aid stars that lit up so dramatically the
dark Christmas skies of Ethiopia.
Quotes
“…she was sensitive enough and intelligent enough to
understand, and her literary education could not but have
sharpened her perception of the evidence before her eyes:
that in the absurd raffle-draw that apportioned the
destinies of post-colonial African societies two people
starting off even as identical twins in the morning might
quiet easily find themselves in the evening one as President
shitting on the heads of the people and the other a
nightman carrying the people’s shit in buckets on his head.”
Questions
• Does the novel represent a pessimistic
dismissal of a functional African state as an
impossibility?
Questions
• What are the significance of Anthills?
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Themes
History of suffering
Power
Storytelling
Role of women
Oral tradition
Blending of old and new
Journalism
Anthills of the Savannah is not a repudiation of journalism or
of the notion of objectivity. Instead, Achebe calls for
balance. Ikem writes dozens of impassioned editorials, but
it is finally through his prose−poem that he connects with
Chris, and through his speech that he poses a threat to the
president. If Kangan is ever to be a just nation, its rulers
and its people must combine old and new, objective and
subjective, editorials and poetry. They must use both their
heads and their hearts. The precise combination is beyond
Achebe's ken to describe. As Ikem shouts to his audience,
"Writers don't give prescriptions. . .They give headaches!"
Hope
Anthills of the Savannah describes a truly dreary
historical moment, in which monstrous halfwits
wield the instruments of survival and destruction,
the "yam and the knife." Yet Achebe establishes
hope as a given, as the only conceivable response
to suffering, the only one that challenges its
permanence. It's a courageous act, urging such a
thing upon us— neither pessimism nor optimism
but a running argument with despair. And one
worth waiting thirty years for.
• January 17: “Anthills of the Savanna” (1987) +
Consolidation of all five novels
• January 31: Exam
• Enjoy your reading!