Chinua Achebe: Father of African
Literature 1930 - 2013
Lecture 4
http://viennachinuaachebe.wordpress.com/
Derek Barker
www.derekbarker.info
Dr.Derek.Barker@gmail.com
Summary
• Set in the 1950s, the novel opens with the trial of
Obi Okonkwo on a charge of accepting a bribe. It
then jumps back in time to a point before his
departure for England and works its way forward
to describe how Obi ended up on trial.
Summary
• The members of the Umuofia Progressive Union
(UPU), a group of Ibo men who have left their
villages to live in major Nigerian cities, have taken
up a collection to send Obi to England to study
law, in the hope that he will return to help his
people navigate British colonial society.
Summary
But once there, Obi switches his major to English
and meets Clara Okeke for the first time during a
dance. Obi returns to Nigeria after four years of
studies and lives in Lagos with his friend Joseph.
He takes a job with the Scholarship Board and is
almost immediately offered a bribe by a man
who is trying to obtain a scholarship for his little
sister.
Summary
• When Obi indignantly rejects the offer, he is
visited by the girl herself who implies that she
will bribe him with sexual favors for the
scholarship, another offer Obi rejects.
Summary
• At the same time, Obi is developing a romantic
relationship with Clara Okeke, a Nigerian woman
who eventually reveals that she is an “osu”, an
outcast by her descendants, meaning that Obi
can not marry her under the traditional ways of
the Igbo people of Nigeria
Summary
• While he remains intent on marrying Clara, even
his Christian father opposes it, although
reluctantly due to his desire to progress and
eschew the "heathen" customs of pre-colonial
Nigeria. His mother begs him on her deathbed
not to marry Clara until after her death,
threatening to kill herself if Obi disobeys.
Summary
• When Obi informs Clara of these events, Clara
breaks the engagement and intimates that she is
pregnant. Obi arranges an abortion, which Clara
reluctantly undergoes, but she suffers
complications and refuses to see Obi afterwards.
Summary
• All the while, Obi sinks deeper into financial
trouble, in part due to poor planning on his end,
in part due to the need to repay his loan to the
UPU and to pay for his siblings' educations, and in
part due to the cost of the illegal abortion.
Summary
• After hearing of his mother's death, Obi sinks into
a deep depression, and refuses to go home for
the funeral. When he recovers, he begins to
accept bribes in a reluctant acknowledgement
that it is the way of his world.
Summary
• The novel closes as Obi takes a bribe and tells
himself that it is the last one he will take, only to
discover that the bribe was part of a sting
operation. He is arrested, bringing us up to the
events that opened the story.
Characters
Obi Okonkwo - The novel's protagonist, Obi
Okonkwo, is a young man who has returned to
Nigeria after having studied in England. The fact
that he went to England to study and has returned
puts him a peculiar position, one in which he will
have to face the issues of a man torn between his
own country and what he has learned in the hands
of those who have colonized his country (the
English). The novel follows his idealistic beginnings
to his unfortunate end, an end in which he is put
on trial for taking a bribe.
Characters
Clara Okeke - Obi's fiancée, Clara is a young
Nigerian woman whom Obi met, originally, at a
dance in London and later on the boat ride back to
Nigeria. Clara is not intellectual but strong-minded.
She has also studied abroad and has become a
nurse. The main conflict with Clara is that she is an
osu, which means she is an outcast that is not
allowed to marry Obi. This fact causes the main
struggle between Clara and Obi regarding their
relationship and their marriage.
Characters
Isaac Okonkwo - Obi's father, Isaac Okonkwo, is a
Christian. He had left home at an early age, against
the will of his father, because he wanted to join the
other Christians. Isaac's Christianity is the most
important aspect of his life, and it colors most
everything he does and says.
Characters
Hannah Okonkwo - Obi's mother, Hannah, is
another woman of strong-will in the novel, with
whom Obi has a special relationship. It is Obi's
mother that refuses to allow him to marry Clara by
threat of her own suicide. However, it was also
Hannah that shared folk stories with Obi—stories
that he could share at school and for which he
loved her. They also have a special bond of blood,
according to a story in which his mother cuts
herself with a blade from his pocket.
Characters
Joseph Okeke - A friend of Obi's and a clerk in the
Survey Department, Joseph is an important
character because of his actions. He gives Obi a
place to stay and an ear to listen whenever Obi
needs one. However, it is Joseph who tells the
Umuofia Progressive Union about Clara being an
osu. Still, Joseph may be doing this because he
believes it best for Obi not to marry Clara. And,
later, he acts as a friend, once again, when he
brings Obi beer to help entertain the people who
attend the funeral gathering.
Characters
Christopher - Another friend of Obi's, Christopher,
unlike Joseph is educated. He is very much like Obi
in terms of education, but Christopher is very
different in attitude. He is more pragmatic than
Obi and less of an idealist. He believes he knows
how to live in the Nigerian world of the late 1950s,
and he thinks he understands the balance he must
possess in order to live in between two very
different cultures.
Characters
William Green - Obi's boss at the Civil Service, Mr.
Green is an old Englishman, accustomed to the
ways of colonialism and the mindset of such. He
believes that the English brought education and
civility to Africa. He also believes that the African
is, by nature, corrupt and even implies an inherent
laziness in Africans. Nevertheless, he pays for the
school fees of his steward's sons. We are told that
he works very hard for the country and that he is
not all together a "bad man," as Miss Tomlinson
(Mr. Green's secretary) likes to remind Obi.
Characters
Mr. Omo - The administrative assistant at Obi's
office, Mr. Omo, is what Obi calls an "old African."
Accustomed to the rule of the English, Mr. Omo is
submissive to his boss Mr. Green and respectful of
"old ways." He has worked for the Civil Service for
thirty years and has a son studying law in England.
His physical description is also unappealing—he is
said to have black teeth from cigarettes and kola
nuts, and one of those teeth were missing from
the front.
Characters
Miss Marie Tomlinson - Mr. Green's secretary,
Marie, is kind to Obi. Marie often claims what a
strange man Mr. Green is and, on other occasions,
defends the same Mr. Green. She, like Mr. Green,
represents the presence of the English in Nigeria.
Characters
Sam Okoli - The Minister of State, Sam Okoli is a
good looking and popular politician. He becomes
friends with both Obi and Clara, through Clara's
connection to him. It is from Sam that Obi borrows
the money for Clara's abortion.
Themes
• Corruption
• Education
• Traditions versus
Progress
• Others?
Motifs
• Songs and poetry
• Proverbs
• Language
• Others?
Symbols
• Mr Green
• The Umuofian
Progressive Union
• Mr Omo
• Others?
Chinua Achebe and the German
Judge
• Can literature do anything to solve
our social and political conditions?
African Novel
• Do we need to define what an “African novel” is?
• For Achebe, what makes a novel an African
novel?
• Is “Out of Africa” an African or a European
book/film?
• How would you define it?
The Language Question
• Is Arabic an African language?
• What about Afrikaans?
• And anyway, do we really need so
many languages?
Corruption
• How would you define corruption? Is it a foreign
element previously unknown in Africa?
• The protagonist of the novel (No longer at ease)
begins to act in a way he once had believed was a
terrible and corrupt act
• Does Achebe “excuse” Obi by blaming it all on
the colonists?
Influence of education
• Is the influence of education
represented as all bad?
Tradition versus Progress
• Should Obi be allowed to marry Clara?
Question
• “No longer at ease” - autobiography
or fiction?