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Chapter One: Introduction

1.1 Chinua Achebe as a Postcolonial Black Writer

Chinua Achebe (b. 1930), a Nigerian novelist, short story writer, essayist, poet,

critic, editor and author of children‘s literature, is famous for his profound novels

describing the effects of western customs and values on traditional African society.

Achebe‘s satire and his keen ear for spoken language have made him one of the must

highly esteemed African writers in English. He is widely known as the father of African

literature. Praising Achebe‘s talent Nadine Gordimer opines, ―Chinua Achebe is

gloriously gifted with the magic of an ebullient, generous, great talent‖ (qtd. in Achebe, A

Man, cover page). Similarly Michael Ondaatje, the most acclaimed international author

with Sri Lankan roots, adds some precious words in respect of Chinua Achebe that

Achebe is ―One of the few writers of our time who has touched us with a code of values

that will never be ironic‖ (qtd. in Achebe, A Man, cover page). Achebe is regarded as the

finest Nigerian novelist of the 20th century and his literary criticism and sociological

essays also have won praise. Achebe‘s writing has relevance beyond the anthropological,

sociological and political concerns of postcolonial Africa.

Achebe is one of the most significant writers to emerge from contemporary Africa

with a literary vision that has profoundly influenced the form and content of modern

African literature. Achebe always raises a strong voice for African literature and against

of colonialism, was born in Ogidi, Eastern Nigeria as a son to a Christian evangelist and

teacher. He attended Church Mission Society School where he learnt the Bible. He

continued his study at Government College in Umuahia from 1944 to 1947. In 1948, he

joined at the newly established University College in Ibadan, run by the University of
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London and took his Bachelor‘s degree in 1953. He went to London and studied

broadcasting at the British Broadcasting Corporation. Later on, he was appointed as a

talk‘s Producer in Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation, Lagos, Nigeria‘s Capital from

1958 to 1961 and as a director from 1961 to 1966. He left the job after the massacre of

Igbos in Northern Nigeria in 1966 and moved to the eastern Nigeria. Over the course of

his life he has written nearly 300 books and he has become a powerful personality even in

the Nigerian politics.

Achebe is one of the postcolonial Nigerian novelists who deals with

anthropological, sociological and political concerns of postcolonial Africa. Postcolonial

writers‘ writings react to the discourse of colonization. They deal with the issues of de-

colonization or the political and cultural independence of people formerly subjugated to

colonial rule. They also criticize the texts that carry racist or colonial undertones and it is

what can be noticed in the work of Chinua Achebe. So he is a great postcolonial writer.

Besides this, his works also deal with the universal qualities of human nature. As Achebe

himself says:

I am a political writer. My politics is concerned with Universal human

communication across racial and cultural boundaries as a means of

fostering respect for all people. Such respect can issue only from

understanding. So my primary concern is with clearing the channels of

communication in my own neighbourhood by backing away at the thickets

that choke them. Africa meeting with Europe must be accounted a terrible

disaster in this matter of human understanding and respects. The nature of

meeting precluded any warmth of friendship. First Europe was an

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enslaver: then a colonizer. In either role or appreciate Africa; indeed she

easily convinced herself that there was nothing there to justify the effort.

Today our world is still bedeviled by the consequences of that cataclysmic

encounter. (qtd. in Henderson 7)

There are several postcolonial writers and critics who oppose Euro centrism,

racialism, imperialism and colonization like Homi K. Bhabha, Frantz Fanon, Leela

Gandhi, Gayatri Spivak, Helen Tiffin, Robert Young, Griffiths, Hamid Dabashi, Bill

Ashcroft, V.S Naipaul, Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, Bharati Mukherjee, Nadine

Gordimer, Michael Ondaatje, Anita Desai etc. Among them Achebe is an African

postcolonial writer whose writings especially focus on race relations and the effect of

racism and usually indict white or colonial societies.

Achebe is the first generation of African novelists and his wrings are really

praiseworthy. As David Carroll states in his book Chinua Achebe:

Of all the contemporary African novelists writing in English, Chinua

Achebe is undoubtedly the most deserving of praise and scholarly study.

Achebe‘s four published novel clearly established him in the avant-garde

of the first generation of African novelists and his influence on subsequent

Anglo-phone African writing can easily be documented. (156)

Chinua Achebe is a prolific black writer and he is considered one of the most

original literary artists writing in English. Achebe has always taken as a primary concern

with understanding and accurately depicting the African people. He represents a

particular reality of modern Africa which is rich in variety of ethnic and cultural

identities, but it is complicated by the impact of European colonialism. His works are
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intended to challenge stereotypes of African. African societies were treated as primitive

and savages by colonizers which are changed with their alternatives sets of tradition,

ideals, values, and behaviors. Achebe is even dismayed, however, to Africans themselves

internalizing these stereotypes and turns away from their cultures to interpret the African

past from an African‘s point of view. He wrote short stories and novels illuminating the

experiences of traditional Africans perused by the stressed of modern society.

Achebe, one of African writers in the west, whose works explore the impact of

European intrusion on African society, deliberately writes in English language. He

argues that for most African societies, which have been enough through colonialism,

English is a national language. It helps the diverse ethnic communities to speak to one

another. Achebe opines that national literature of Nigeria will be written in English. In his

essay ―The African Writers and the English Language,‖ he argues:

English language gave them a language with which to talk to one another.

If it failed to give them a song, at least gave them a tongue, for singing.

There are not many counties in Africa today where you could abolish the

language of the erstwhile colonial powers and still retain the facility for

mutual communication. Therefore those African writers who have chosen

to write in English or French are not unpatriotic smart alecks with an eye

on the main chance-outside their own countries. They are by products of

the process that made the new nation states of Africa. (26)

A powerful instrument of control used by the colonizing powers is the instrument

of language. Language forms a huge part of the culture of a people–it is through their

language that they express their folk tales, myths, proverbs, history. For this reason, the
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imperial powers invariably attempted to stamp out native languages and replace them

with their own. As Ashcroft, Griffiths and Tiffin point out, ―There are two possible

responses to this control–rejection or subversion‖ (284). While Chinua Achebe has

chosen the idea of subversion rather than rejection. As Ashcroft, Griffiths and Tiffin say,

―Achebe‘s writing displays a process by which the language is made to bear the weight

and texture of a different experience. In doing so it becomes another language‖ (284).

Achebe uses the language of the colonizer to convey the Igbo experience of that

colonization. The idioms, proverbs and imagery of these books all invoke his Eastern

Nigerian culture, forcing the reader to accept on Achebe‘s (linguistic) terms, the story he

has to tell. Indeed, his purpose is to drive out the colonial myth of the primitive Africa

and to establish a true picture of the people and their culture. Primarily he wants to make

western readers know that Africa has its own myth prior to colonial myth and to remove

the feeling of inferiority from African‘s mind created by colonizers. Moreover, he

challenges European exposing African‘s history, religion and civilization through his

powerful writings.

In his first successful novel Things Fall Apart (1958), he successfully corrects the

imperialist myth of African primitivism and savagery by recreating the Igbo culture of

the Eastern Region of Nigeria; its daily routines, its rituals, its customs, and especially its

people dealing with one another in a highly civilized fashion within a complex society.

The interpretation necessitated, as well as a look at the invading culture; Achebe tilted the

balance in the African‘s favour by depicting individuals in the British administration as

prejudiced, imperceptive, unnecessarily bureaucratic, and emotionally impotent. Achebe

has emerged from these spiritual contests with a deeper and more comprehensive sense of
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what it means to inhabit the alternate worlds of post colonialism, worlds that are at once

aristocratic and democratic, heroic and ironic, ancient and contemporary. Similarly, his

second novel No Longer at Ease (1960) follows Obi Okonkwo, the grandson of the

protagonist of Achebe's first novel, throughout his failure to successfully combine his

traditional Igbo upbringing with his British education and affluent lifestyle in Lagos

during the late 1950s. Describing Igbo village life during the 1920s, Arrow of God (1964)

centers on Ezeulu, a spiritual leader, whose son Oduche attends a missionary school to

learn about Western society and technology. When Oduche comes home, he nearly kills a

sacred python, which precipitates a chain of events culminating in Ezeulu's loss of his

position as high priest and his detention by British authorities. Highlighting the

widespread graft and abuse of power by Nigerian leaders following its independence

from Great Britain, A Man of the People (1966) focuses on the tribulations of a Nigerian

teacher who joins a political group working to remove a corrupt bureaucrat from office.

As Mercedes Mackay writes:

The Man of the People is the jolly, cosy image created by Mr. Nanga,

later, inevitably, the hon. Dr. Nanga. The story is told in the first person by

Odili a school teacher . . . also leads a new party in opposition, despite

offers of bribes and threats of destruction. This lands him in hospital, but

the days is saved by a military coup which sends the Minister of Culture

up the lagoon dressed as a fisherman in an effort to escape. (81)

He has also had several volumes of poetry published: Beware, Soul-Brother

(1971), which later was republished as Christmas in Biafra (1973) reflects on the human

tragedy of the Nigerian civil war, using plain language and stark imagery. Similarly,
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some of the stories in Girls at War (1973) are about aspects of imminent war. Most of the

stories deal with the conflict between traditional religious values and modern, secular

mores, displaying the full range of Achebe's talents for humor, irony, and political satire.

Divided into two parts, Morning Yet on Creation Day (1964) addresses a number of

literary and political themes, with special emphasis on traditional and contemporary roles

of art and the writer in African society. Set in the fictional West African country of

Kangan, Anthills of the Savannah (1988) is about three childhood friends who hold

influential governmental posts. When one of them fails in his bid for election as president

for life, he works to suppress his opposition. After successfully conspiring to murder one

friend, he meets a violent death during a military coup, while the third friend dies in a

street riot. Generally considered Achebe's most accomplished work, Anthills of the

Savannah illustrates the often dire consequences for society when individual

responsibility and power are recklessly exploited. While retaining the use of Igbo

proverbs and legends to enhance his themes, Achebe also pays more attention to the

development and role of the women characters in this novel. In the book, Achebe gives

women strength and composure as the agents of traditional morals and precepts. Finally,

Hopes and Impediments (1988) gathers new and previously published essays and

speeches, including a controversial essay attacking British novelist Joseph Conrad as

racist. The book also includes a tribute to American novelist James Baldwin, along with

several commentaries on postcolonial African society that high-light cultural forces

influencing its modern-day character. Margaret Laurence writes in ―Narrative Technique

in Things Fall Apart‖:

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The flourishing of Achebe‘s literature which has drawn sustenance from

both traditional oral literature and from the present and rapidly changing

society. Thirty years ago Chinua Achebe was one of the founders of this

new literature, and over the years many critics have come to consider him

the finest of Nigerian novelists. (98)

On an auspicious occasion of the sixtieth birthday of Chinua Achebe, a well-

known writer Rose Ure Mezu pays respect to him by adding some precious words:

The greatest accolade given him was summed up in one metaphor: the

eagle on the iroko. Now, anybody familiar with the African landscape

knows that the iroko is the tallest, strongest tree in the forest and that the

eagle is, of course, the king of the birds. It is not an easy feat to scale the

tree; that is why the Igbo proverb insists: ‗One does not climb the iroko

twice‘. Having succeeded in climbing the iroko, the climber should

appropriate all that he finds there: he may not be able to do so again. The

eagle, however, can both scale and soar above the tree over and over. (26)

In this metaphor the iroko then represents the field of African literature; the eagle,

Chinua Achebe. Achebe has, of course, literarily climbed and soared above the iroko

several times. More than those of any other African writer, his writings have helped to

develop what is known as African literature today.

Achebe focuses especially African writers and African literature. He wants all

African writers should prefer writing their own experience in their own style so as to

make known African literature widely popular sharing the history, culture, civilizations

and religion of Africa And for the same it is essential to have a strong commitment
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among African writers. Achebe says, ―Most African writers write out of an African

experience and of commitment to an African destiny.‖ (qtd. in Gikandi 8)

It is obvious that a writer should write for reformation of the society and the

nation. A good writer sacrifices his whole life for the national goal and social welfare. A

writer should also be involved with contemporary issues to explore in depth the human

condition. Achebe argues:

Here, then, is an adequate revolution for me to espouse – to help my

society regain its belief in itself and put away the complexes of the years

of the denigration and self-abasement. And it is essentially a question of

education, in the best sense of the world. Here, I think my aims and

deepest aspirations of my society meet. For no thinking African can

escape to be expecting to be excused from the task of reeducation and

regeneration must be done. (qtd. in Ogungbesan 70)

Achebe basically remains constant in his role as a social one. He sees his task as

essentially that of restoring dignity to his own people. He helps his society to regain

belief in itself. He seems to suggest in fact, that the public responsibility and communal

tie are more essential then creative value for any African writer.

In Achebe‘s essay book Morning Yet on Creation Day he has embraced instead

the idea at heart of the African oral tradition that ―art is, and always was, at the service of

man" (13). ―Our ancestors created their myths and told their stories for a human purpose‖

(14). For this reason, Achebe believes that any good story, any good novel, should have a

message, and should have a purpose. Achebe believes that the novelist must have a social

commitment. He further argues in the same book:

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The writer cannot be excused from the task of re-education and

regeneration that must be done . . . I for one would not with to be excused.

I would be quite satisfied if my novels (especially the ones I set in the

past) did no more than just teach my readers that their past – with all its

imperfections – was not one long night of savagery from which the

Europeans acting on God‘s behalf delivered them. (17)

Achebe has given especial focus to the Nigerian women is his work because they

have a very important role, duty and responsibility in the society. Without their support a

nation can not be progressed. So to pay respect, he gives diverse role to Nigerian women

in his work; it is because of his love of Nigerian people and the society which can be

noticed even in Things Fall Apart:

Women constitute (and still do) the core of the rural workforce – farming,

tending animals, nurturing children, among other activities. To echo the

Nigerian critic Juliet Okonkwo, Achebe's cultural universe is one in which

women [are] to be seen not heard, coming and going, with mounds of

foofoo, pots of water, market baskets, fetching kola, being scolded and

beaten before they disappear behind the huts of their compound. (36)

Achebe's novels focus on the traditions of Igbo society, the effect of Christian

influences, and the clash of values during and after the colonial era. His style relies

heavily on the Igbo oral tradition, and combines straightforward narration with

representations of folk stories, proverbs, and oratory. His especial concerns with African

culture, African tradition, African religion, African literature, African nation and
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prevailing problems of African people of postcolonial era made him a great postcolonial

black writer.

1.2 Igbo Culture in Achebe’s Writing

Igbo cultures are the customs, practices and traditions of the Igbo people of

southeastern Nigeria. It comprises archaic practices as well as new concepts added into

the Igbo culture either by evolution or by outside influence. These customs and traditions

include the Igbo people's visual art, music and dance forms, as well as their attire, cuisine

and language dialects. The same culture is highlighted in Chinua Achebe‘s works. It is

not because of he belongs to the Igbo culture but because of his love of African culture

and rejection of western culture. Every culture has its own importance and significance.

Neither culture is superior or inferior. So it is important to valorize our on culture. Same

is done by Achebe through his literary works. Cultures are reflected through many things

like music, art, dance, mythology, language, tradition, feast and festival and so on.

In Igbo Culture, a sense of tradition was highly significant. The Igbo people

would carry out the various traditions that had been passed down from their ancestors

centuries ago in their everyday lives. These traditions or customs that came in the form of

funeral ceremonies, one‘s manners, rites of passage, and more were the backbone of the

Igbo culture. They brought the tribe closer by allowing the people to come together and

take part in activities as a group.

One of the most notable Igbo traditions is the rite of passage for young girls and

boys maturing into adulthood. This rite of passage is not a sudden acceptance into

adulthood but rather a series of rites they must go through over time before they become

a true adult. Only eight days after birth, a child goes through the rite of circumcision.
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Every boy and girl must be circumcised in order to be part of the Igbo culture. Boys and

girls must also complete the rite of wearing cloths. This entails going from wearing

nothing to being completely covered in clothes, signifying social status as well as

individual improvement or transformation. The next rite of passage is Iru-mgede

(fattening a girl before marriage). This custom is done to promote healthy offspring as

well as a healthy marriage. Itu Anya is the fourth rite of passage, lasting for eight days,

where one becomes a diviner. During this time, the child has time to think, reflect, and

even communicate with spirits in order to gain the power, knowledge, and courage that is

needed to become a diviner. The last rite of passage for a child in Igbo culture is Igba-

Mgba or wrestling. In this activity one shows his true strength and courage and with

success he becomes a real warrior and in turn, a man.

The Week of Peace is a sacred time for the Igbo people. Before any one is

allowed to plant their crops they must live in peace with their neighbors for a week to

honor Ani, the great goddess of the earth. It is ordained that if this peace is broken than

they will not receive a blessing from Ani and their crops will not grow. Achebe

demonstrates how important this week is to the Igbos through Okonkwo‘s beating of his

wife. As Achebe writes in Things Fall Apart, ―Okonkwo gave her a sound beating and

left her‖ (33). It was a shocking moment for Igbo people when they heard of Okonkwo‘s

actions because it was the first time for many years that a man had broken the sacred

peace.

Mbari, a popular ceremony among the Igbo people, is a festival of the visual arts.

For them art is created for the service of human being and is to make the life of people

easier but not to make it more difficult. As Achebe says in An Interview:

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The ceremony, which is called ‗Mbari‘ among the Igbo people, is a

festival of art, a celebration of humanity. It is not a festival of oral arts; it

is more a festival of the visual arts, the plastic arts, though drama and

songs are presented there as well. There you will find, I think, what our

people thought of art and that‘s the reason I am referring to it. Some of the

statements made by Mbari are very profound. One is that art is in the

service of the community, there is no apology at all about that. Art is

invented to make the life of the community easier, not to make it more

difficult. (qtd. in Rowell 86)

Another similar tradition in honoring the gods is the New Yam Festival. At this

time of the year, before the harvest begins, the Igbo people celebrate the joy of a new

harvest year. At night they throw away the yams of the old year and all of the cooking

pots and pans are thoroughly washed. This is also a time to honor the earth goddess again

and the ancestral spirits of the clan. ‗Yam Festival‘ and ‗Harvest Season‘ have a great

importance to Igbo men, women and children. The same thing has been vividly picturized

by Achebe in Things Fall Apart:

Every child loved the harvest season. Those who were big enough to carry

even a few yams in a tiny basket went with grown – ups to the farm. And

if they could not help in digging up the yams, they could gather firewood

together foe roasting the ones that would be eaten there on the farm. This

roasted yam soaked in red palm – oil and eaten in the open farm was

sweeter that any meal at home. (53)

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Aside from ceremonial traditions, the traditions of telling stories have great

importance in Igbo culture. It is not only fun but also educational because through these

folk tales, myths, riddles, and proverbs the young Igbo children can learn about their

ancestors and allow them to understand the importance of various customs.

Similarly Achebe highlights Igbo culture even in A Man of the People ―Five or six

dancing groups were performing at different points in the compound. The popular ‗Ego

Women‘s Party‘ wore a new uniform of expensive accra cloth‖ (1- 2). Here he glorifies

Igbo women‘s cultural dance which has great importance in their culture. New Year Yam

Festival, no doubt, has great important and yam food is also equally important in

accordance with their culture. Whenever some guest comes to home they serve ‗yam

food‘. Once Odili visits his friend‘s house where his friend‘s parents serve some boil

yams to him. Odili says:

I was in secondary school then and it was our half-term holiday. As my

home village was too far away and I didn‘t want to spend the holiday in

school I decided to go with one of my friends to his home which was four

or five miles away. His parents were very happy to see us and his mother

at once went to boil some yams for us. (29)

If some people go to visit to some special person, they bring the gift of yam, ―There were

all those people who brought my father gifts of yams‖ (29).

Finally Achebe‘s writing career is so firmly attached with Igbo culture which

cannot be separated. His very popular book Things Fall Apart has given good description

of Igbo people and their culture like ‗Yam Festival‘ and ‗Harvesting Season‘. In all of his
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writings, he presents and highlights Igbo culture whether it is novel or story or essay or

short fiction. As Rais Simola quotes:

Achebe has been subjected to historical, gender sociological,

anthropological, and political analysis . . . yet another attempt to grapple

with the Achebe phenomenon. She seeks to distill from close readings of

all Achebe‘s writings – short fiction, novels, essays, children‘s books, and

poetry – beliefs that could reflect the ideology of both his specific Igbo

ethnic group and that of a ‗changing‘ Africa. (qtd. in Ogede 137)

The first chapter of this research is a general introduction to the novelist, Chinua

Achebe, a postcolonial black writer which proves this research is fairly based on

postcolonial perspective. The second chapter deals with methodology that applied to test

the hypothesis of the research with general introduction to philosophy of colonialism and

postcolonialism. The third chapter is textual analysis based on postcolonial perspective

and it proves the text to be influenced with colonialism and its consciouness. Odili, the

chief character of the novel A Man of the People, is conscious about it and revolts against

it strongly. The final chapter illustrates the finding of this research in brief.
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Chapter Two: Philosophy of Colonialism and Postcolonialism

2.1 Meaning of Colonialism

―Colonialism‖ is derived from Roman ―Colonia‖ Which meant ―form‖ or ―settlement‖,

and referred to Romans who settled in other lands but still retained their citizenship.

Colonialism was a process that began by fits and starts in the different parts of the world

but everywhere it locked the original inhabitants and the newcomers into most complex

and traumatic relationship in human history. Though this process of forming a new land

was not temporarily identical around the world, its effect aftermath was homogenous in

its kind. The new communities were unformed or reformed with a wide range of practices

including trade, plunder, negotiation, warfare, genocide, enslavement and rebellions. A

large body of writings is responsible for such practices. Such imaginative production

includes a wide range of writings including public and private records, letters, trade

documents, government papers, fiction and scientific literature. As Philip G. Altbach

writes in his essay ―Literary Colonialism: Books in the Third World‖:

. . . notably, the United States, Britain, France, and to a lesser extent, West

Germany and the Soviet Union are at the center of scientific research and

scholarly productivity. These same countries dominate the systems which

distribute knowledge; they control publishing houses and produce

scholarly journals, magazines, films, and television, programs which the

rest of the world consumes. (485)

Colonialism is generally defined as the conquest and control of other people‘s

land and goods. It is not merely the expansion of various European powers into Asia,

Africa or the American from late 15th century onwards because it is a recurrent
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phenomenon in human history. Colonialism is the establishment, maintenance,

acquisition and expansion of colonies in one territory by people from another territory.

Colonialism is a process whereby sovereignty over the colony is claimed by the

metropole and the social structure, government and economics of the colony are changed

by colonists- people from the metropole. Colonialism is a set of unequal relationships

between the metropole and the colony; between the colonists and the indigenous

population. As Jurgen Osterhammel says in Colonialism:A Theoretical Overview,

“Colonialism is a process of territorial acquisition . . . a system of domination… is the

notion of expansion of society beyond its original habitat. These processes of expansion

are a fundamental phenomenon of world history‖ (146).

The term colonialism normally refers to a period of history from the last 15 th to

20th century when European nation states established colonies on other continents. In this

period, the justifications for colonialism included various factors such as the profits to be

made, the expansion of the power of the metropole and various religious and political

beliefs. The colonialism literature had produced a variety of discourses such as the myth

of power, the race classifications, and the imagery of subordination. Such discourse were

once created to support the colonization.

Marxism views colonialism as a form of capitalism, enforcing exploitation and

social change. Working within the global capitalist system, colonialism is closely

associated with uneven development. It is an instrument of wholesale destruction,

dependency and systematic exploitation producing distorted economies, socio-

psychological disorientation, massive poverty and neocolonial dependency. Lenin regards

colonialism as the root cause of imperialism, as imperialism is distinguished by

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monopoly capitalism via colonialism and Lenin advocates forcefully for the self-

determination of people and the right of nations to self-determination as he argues:

The right of nations to self-determination implies exclusively the right to

independence in the political sense, the right to free political separation

from the oppressor nation. Specifically, this demand for political

democracy implies complete freedom to agitate for secession and for a

referendum on secession by the seceding nation. (qtd. in Sunga 90)

No matter, the European colonizers moved for the settlement and plantation in

America, or for trade in Indian or for the civilizing mission elsewhere, it resulted an

enormous global shifts of population in the passage of time. Both the colonized and the

colonizers had moved. The colonized were not only slaves but also people from the

diverse profession and class including labourers, domestic servants, travelers and writers,

domestic staffs, missionaries, teachers and scientists.

Due to the heterogeneous nature of colonial literature, it lacks the precise

definition. Elleke Boehner defines the colonial literature in his famous book Colonialism

and Postcolonialism Literature as, ―. . . writing concerned with colonial perceptions and

experience, written mainly by metropolitans, but also by Creoles and indigenes, during

colonial times‖ (4). He also talks abut the colonialist literature, which is informed by

theories concerning the superiority of European culture and the rightness of empire.

Colonialist literature is specifically concerned with colonial expansion which embodied

the imperialists‘ point of view. He says, ―From the days of colonization, not in text in

general but literature, broadly defined, underpinned efforts to interpret other lands,
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offering house audiences a way of thinking about exploration, western conquest, national

valour, her colonial acquisitions‖ (14).

Colonialism is a relationship between an indigenous (or forcibly imported)

majority and a minority of foreign invaders. The fundamental decisions affecting the

lives of the colonized people are made and implemented by the colonial rulers in pursuit

of interests that are often defined in a distant metropolis. Rejecting cultural compromises

with the colonized population, the colonizers are convinced of their own superiority and

their ordained mandate to rule. As John Decker says in ―The Neocolonial – Assumption

in University Teaching of English‖, ―In colonialism and neocolonial historical situations,

a hierarchy of cultural importance and value is imposed by the colonizing power, both on

the conquered indigenous societies, and on the white agents of colonial oppression

themselves‖ (445).

Colonialism can be defined as the conquest and control of other people‘s land

and goods. For Stephen Slemon colonialism is, ―All kind of social oppression and

discursive control‖ (50). Colonialism is over now because their direct ruling over the land

has come to end. In the colonial period they invented a new way of controlling over other

through different other mediums like language, culture etc. As Said says:

Colonialist literature in contrast was that which was specifically concerned

with colonial expansion on the whole it was literature written by and for

colonizing Europeans about non- European lands dominated by them. It

embodied the imperialist point of view. Colonialist literature was informed

by theories concerning the superiority of European culture and the

rightness of empire. (3)

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In ―Durban Declaration of the World Conference against Racism, Racial

Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, 2001,‖ the outcome of colonialism

is defined in the following way, ―Colonialism has lead to racism, racial discrimination,

xenophobia and related intolerance, and . . . Africans and people of African descent and

people of Asian descent and indigenous people were victims of its consequences‖

(Ferguson xii). Thus, colonialism was a cruel form of subjugation which only resulted in

the discrimination of the indigenous people living mostly in Asia and Africa. They were

and are still victimized by the impact of colonial rule.

A great Postcolonial critic Frantz Fanon writes in The Wretched of Earth,

―Colonialism is not satisfied merely with holding the people in its grip and emptying the

native‘s brain of all form and content. By a kind of the perverted logic it turns to the past

of the oppressed people and distorts, disfigures and destroys it‖ (170). The colonizers by

employing ruling ideas in their discourse started domination over the natives. Homi K.

Bhabha mentions in his book The Location of Culture:

The objective of colonial discourse is to construe the colonized as a

population of degenerate type on the basis of racial origin in order to

justify conquest and to establish system of administration and instruction. .

. . Therefore, despite the ‗play‘ in the colonial system which is crucial to

its exercise of power, colonial discourse produces the colonized as a social

reality which is at once. An ‗other‘ and get entirely knowable and visible.

(70-71)

Historians often distinguish between two forms of colonialism, chiefly based on the

number of people from the colonizing country who settle in the colony:
 Regmi 21

i) Settler colonialism involved a large number of colonists, typically seeking fertile

land to farm.

ii) Exploitation colonialism involved fewer colonists, typically interested in extracting

resources to export to the metropole. This category includes trading posts, but it

applies more to the much larger colonies where the colonists would provide much of

the administration and own much of the land and other capital, but rely on indigenous

people for labour.

In both cases, people moved to the colony, and goods were exported to the metropole. A

plantation colony is normally considered to fit the model of exploitation colonialism.

However, in this case there may be other immigrants to the colony - slaves to grow the

cash crop for export.

In some cases, settler colonialism take place in substantially pre-populated areas

and the result was either a culturally mixed population or a racially divided population,

such as in French, Algeria or Southern Rhodesia. A League of Nations‘ mandate is legally

very different from a colony. However, there is some similarity with exploitation

colonialism in the mandate system.

According to Hans Kohn there are two kinds of colonialism; they are settlement

and dependence. The first one is really very dangerous to natives. As he says in the

Review of Politics:

Colonialism may be of two different kinds: those of settlement and those

of mere dependence. The former ones are more dangerous for the natives.

The out standing example is the United States where the settlement of the

vast continent meant the practical extermination of the natives. (259)

 Regmi 22

In fact most of the indigenous people of colonial territory were oppressed and enslaved

by the occupying power. Sometimes they were even deported from fertile land or

murdered to make room for new settlements.

2.2 Colonialism and Imperialism

A colony is part of an empire and so colonialism is closely related to imperialism.

The initial assumption is that colonialism and imperialism are interchangeable.

Imperialism is the concept while colonialism is the practice. Colonialism is based on an

imperial outlook, thereby creating a consequential relationship between the two. Through

an empire, colonialism is established and capitalism is expanded, on the other hand a

capitalist economy naturally enforces an empire.

Imperialism means formation of an empire in which one nation has extended its

domination over one or several neighboring nations. Colonialism is a direct form of

exploitation of the native land and people. It is a process of exploiting the foreign land

through direct rule and invasion, making the inhabitants of the invaded land the subject

people and treating them as cheap labours and slaves, whereas imperialism rules the

distant land through economic exploitation. It is an attitude constituted by the west about

a distant land which it governs through economic and political dominance. As Edward

Said says:

‗Imperialism‘ means the practice, the theory and the attitude of the

dominating metropolitan center ruling a distant territory; ‗colonialism‘,

which is almost always a consequence of imperialism, is the implanting of

settlements on distant territory. (qtd. in Ashcroft,Griffiths and Tiffin 46)

 Regmi 23

Imperialism is indirect rule over the distant countries especially the countries of

Third World, by the European power whereas colonialism is the outcome of the

imperialism which consists of implanting settlements on the distant territory for direct

exploitation of both nature and beings. Similarly Osterhammel says, ―Imperialism is the

creation and control of what he calls trans- colonial empires. Colonialism concerns only

colonial politics, but imperialism implies both colonies are not just ends in themselves,

but also pawns in global power games‖ (146).

2.3 Neocolonialism and Post colonialism

Neocolonialism is a term used by post-colonial critics to refer to the involvement

of developed countries in the developing world. It is a great impact of developed and

advanced nations upon underdeveloped and developing countries. For Philip G. Altbach

―Neocolonialism means the impact of advanced nations on developing areas‖ (452). He

also adds, ―Neocolonialism is partly a planned policy of advanced nations to maintain

their influence in developing countries‖ (452). It is similar to old colonialism but the way

of domination and control is different since the old colonies are no more today. They

have got independence. That‘s why new controlling power emerged replacing traditional

colonialism. As he says, ―The old colonial era is almost dead. Formerly colonial areas are

now independent nations. On the ruins of traditional colonial empires, however, has

emerged a new, subtler, but perhaps equally influential, kind of colonialism‖ (452). For

John Docker, ―Neocolonialism is the imposition of the metropolitan power‘s dominant

cultural values‖ (443).

A policy whereby a major power uses economic and political means to perpetuate

or extend its influence over underdeveloped nations or areas. Strong elements of

 Regmi 24

neocolonialism persist in the economic relations of the rich and poor countries. Political

control by an outside power of a country that is in theory sovereign and independent,

especially through the domination of its economy. Economic arrangements created by

former colonial powers were or are used to maintain control of their former colonies and

dependencies after the colonial independence movements of the Post-World War period.

The term neocolonialism can combine a critique of current actual colonialism (where

some states continue administrating foreign territories and their populations in violation

of United Nations resolutions) and a critique of the involvement of modern capitalist

businesses in nations which were former colonies. Critics adherent to neocolonialism

contend that multinational corporations continue to exploit the resources of post-colonial

states, and that this economic control inherent to neocolonialism is akin to the classical,

European colonialism practiced from the 16th to the 20th centuries. In broader usage,

neocolonialism may simply refer to the involvement of powerful countries in the affairs

of less powerful countries; this is especially relevant in modern Latin America. In this

sense, neocolonialism implies a form of contemporary, economic imperialism that

powerful nations behave like colonial powers of imperialism, and that this behavior is

likened to colonialism in a post-colonial world. As Che Guevara, Marxist revolutionary,

says, ―As long as imperialism exists it will, by definition, exert its domination over other

countries. Today that domination is called neocolonialism‖ (Web).

The term neocolonialism first saw widespread use, particularly in reference to

Africa, soon after the process of decolonization which followed a struggle by many

national independence movements in the colonies following World War II. Upon gaining

independence, some national leaders and opposition groups argued that their countries
 Regmi 25

were being subjected to a new form of colonialism, waged by the former colonial powers

and other developed nations. Kwame Nkrumah, who in 1957 became leader of newly

independent Ghana, was one of the most notable figures to use the term. According to

Nkrumah, in place of colonialism, neo-colonialism emerged today as the main instrument

of imperialism.

Postcolonialism or Post-Colonialism, a specifically postmodern intellectual

discourse, sometimes called New English Literature, or considered to be a branch of

postmodern literature, is a body of literary writings that consist of reactions to, and

analysis of, the cultural legacy of colonialism. Postcoloniaism is a set of theories found

amongst philosophy, film, political science, human geography, sociology, feminism,

religious and theological studied, and literature. It often involves writings that deal with

the issued of de-colonization or the political and cultural independence of people

formerly subjugated to colonial rule. Postcolonial literary attempts to critique the

contemporary postcolonial discourse that has been shaped over recent times. It attempts

to re-read this very emergence of post colonialism and its literary expression itself. As

Bill Ashcroft et al. argues:

‗Post- colonial‘ as we define it does not mean ‗post- independence‘, or

‗after colonialism‘, for this would be to falsely ascribe an end to the

colonial process. Post- colonialism, rather, begins from the very first

moment of colonial contract. It is the discourse of oppositionality which

colonialism brings into being. In this sense, post- colonial writing has a

very long history. (117)

 Regmi 26

In fact, there are several definitions and meanings of postcolonialism. None of

them is absolute because it covers vast area of studies. Some critics have argued that any

literature that expresses an opposition to colonialism, even if it is produce during a

colonial period, may be defined as postcolonial, primarily due to its oppositional after

colonialism, and postcolonial literature is characterized by its opposition to the colonial.

As Slemon says, ―Post-colonialism mostly as an object of desire for critical practice‖

(45). Any way this vast field of postcolonial studies has been gaining prominence since

the 1970s. It is used in various fields like professional fields and heterogeneous subjects.

He further asserts, ―‗Post-colonialism‘ as it is now used in its various fields, de-scribes a

remarkably heterogeneous set of subject positions, professional fields, and critical

enterprises‖ (50). Some scholars would date its rise in the western academy from the

publication of Edward Said‘s influential critique of Western construction of the orient in

his 1978 book, Orientalism. As Said says:

To the extent that Western scholars were aware of contemporary Orientals

or Oriental movements of thought and culture, these were perceived either

as silent shadows to be animated by the Orientalist, brought into reality by

him, or as a kind of cultural and intellectual proletariat useful for the

Orientlist‘s grander interpretative activity, necessary for his performance

as superior judge, learned man, powerful cultural will. (208)

Similarly, Elleke and Stephen define postcolonial writing as a channels for

thinking through and beyond terror. As Elleke and Stephen say:

Postcolonial writing, whether defined under the heading of resistance or of

hybrid cosmopolitanism, does not, however, provide justifications of

 Regmi 27

terror or sidestep the pain and wrong that it is the objective of a terrorist

act to inflict . . . postcolonial writing supplies channels for thinking

through and beyond terror and shocking breaks in time it inflicts, and

offers ways of developing workable political responses of its horrors.

(149)

Post- colonial theorists are providing space for multiple voices. This is especially

true of those voices that have been previously silenced by dominant ideologies. It is

widely recognized within the discourse that this space must first be cleared within

academia. Edward Said, in his book Orientalism provides a clear picture of the ways

social scientists, specifically Orientalists, can disregard the views of those they actually

study - preferring instead to rely on the intellectual superiority of themselves and their

peers. Said further writes:

He was right about the place, of course, especially so far as a European

was concerned. The orient was almost a European invention, and had been

since antiquity a place of romance, exotic beings, haunting memories and

landscapes, remarkable experiences. Now it was disappearing: in a sense it

had happened, its time was over. . . . Orient is not only adjacent to Europe;

it is also the place of Europe‘s greatest and richest and oldest colonies, the

source of its civilizations and languages, its cultural contestant, and one of

its deepest and most and most recurring images of the other. (1)

Some post-colonial theorists make the argument that studying both dominant

knowledge sets and marginalized ones as binary opposites perpetuates their existence as

homogenous entities. Home K. Bhabha thinks, ―the post-colonial world should valorize
 Regmi 28

spaces of mixing; spaces where truth and authenticity move aside for ambiguity. This

space of hybridity, he argues, offers the most profound challenge to colonialism‖ (113).

And he further says, ―offer the most profound challenge to colonialism‖ (113).

Truly speaking ‗Post-colonialism‘ is very significant for the identity of those

nations or groups which have been colonized once. Colonialism, in fact, is a Eurocentric

concept and images while post-colonialism is establishment of uncontaminated and fair

identity of all groups of people throughout the world. Simon During argues, ―Post-

colonialism is regarded as the need, on nations or groups which have been victims of

imperialism, to achieve an identity uncontaminated by universalist or Eurocentric

concepts and images‖ (125).

Some scholars of post-colonialism view colonialism contained in modernity and

they further say post-colonialism deconstructs Orientalism and cultural hegemonism by

drawing the colonizational relationship between the East and the West. In the article

published in the Frontiers of Philosophy in China, Yang Geng and Zhang Qixue write:

Postmodernism, Post-colonialism reflects modernity from a new

perspective—the cultural perspective. Post-colonialism interprets

colonialism contained in modernity, deconstructs Orientalism and cultural

hegemonism, and turns western reflection of modernity into an inquiry

about the global relationship between the East and the West. Post-

colonialism brings forward a new theoretical domain, that is, the

colonizational relationship between the East and the West in the process of

modernization. This interpretation expresses a strong tendency of anti-

western centrality and shares some ideas with Marxism. This article
 Regmi 29

discusses the essence, characteristics, and limitation of post-colonialism

from the viewpoint of Marxism, expecting to further the study of post-

colonialism and its relationship with Marxism. (279)

Postcolonial literature works through the process of writing back, re-writing, re-

reading, re-thinking, re-investigating and re-formulating the historical experiences. As

Said asserts:

. . . Re-thinking of what had for centuries been believed to be an

unbridgeable chasm separating east from west. . . . The most interesting

developments in post-colonial studies was a re-reading of the canonical

cultural works, not to demote or somehow dish dirt on them, but to re-

investigate some of their assumptions, going beyond the stifling hold on

them of some version of the master- slave binary dialectic. . . . The idea of

rethinking and re-formulating historical experiences which had once been

based on the geographical separation of peoples and cultures is at the heart

of a whole spate of scholarly and critical works. (352-53)

This describes the interpretation of well-known literature from the perspective of

the formerly colonized. In A Man of the People, Chinua Achebe‘s protagonist is shown to

be exploited in several ways like politically, economically, socially and so on. And he is

struggling for not to be more exploited.

Post-colonial literature emerged to countervailing balance to the primacy of

western ideas and literary practices in the academic courses of universities throughout the

world. Helen Tiffin views, ―Post-colonial literature is seen to be broadly counter-

discursive‖ (96). Such a literature emerged as a result of the changing global scenario
 Regmi 30

which was no more Eurocentric and it advocates for the minority and ‗other‘ groups. He

also adds:

It is possible to formulate at least two (not necessarily mutually exclusive)

models for future post-colonial studies. In the first, the post-coloniality of

a text would be argued to reside in its discursive features, in the second, in

its determining relations with its material situation. The danger of the first

lies in post-coloniality‘s becoming a set of unsituated reading practices;

the danger in the second lies in the reintroduction of a covert form of

essentialism. (96)

There is not single and absolute meaning, definition and features of postcolonial

literature. Postcolonial literature has taken on many meanings. Although it covers vast

areas of studies. It includes mainly three subjects. According to Wisam Mansour,

postcolonialism includes three subjects:

(i) Social and cultural change or erosion

(ii) Misuse of power and exploitation

(iii)Colonial abandonment and alienation

2.4 Decolonization

Decolonization is final aim of anti-colonial resistance in which two contradictory

forces encounter each other- opposed one marked by violence. Decolonization is painful

because it demands the social structure being changed from the bottom up. However, it

does not just overthrow the old colony but it follows the old suppression and people will

be suffering as in colony. Old tradition will be replaced by new one which will be equally

painful to bring into practice. As Fanon says, ―Decolonization is always a violent

 Regmi 31

phenomenon. Decolonization is quite simply the replacing of a certain species of men by

another species of men without any period of transition; there is a total, complete and

absolute substitution‖ (35). The recently decolonized homeland is invaded by the colonial

remnants that leads to the political and socio-cultural alienation of the native in his own

land which can be described as one of the many traumatic experiences as heralded by

colonialism in various spheres of colonized nation states. Still there is the impact of

European imperialism in the recently decolonized countries even though the countries

have already been decolonized. After decolonization, when the colonizers leave the

country, some sort of cultural, political and psychological components are left by them in

the nation states. As a result of that, colonialism does not end along with the end of

colonial occupation. Helen Tiffin in The Post-colonial Studies Reader argues:

Decolonization is a process, not arrival; it invokes an ongoing dialectical

between hegemonic centrists systems and peripheral subversion of them;

between European or British discourses and their post-colonial

dismantling. Since it is not possible to create or recreate national or

regional formation wholly independent of their historical implication in

the European colonial enterprise. (49)

In the similar fashion, Achebe himself has been the critic of colonial impact upon the

recently decolonized nation-states. He writes in ―Colonialist Criticism‖ an essay included

in Critical Theory Since Plato, edited by Hazard Adams:

And so our world stance in just as much need of change today as it ever

did in the past. Our writers are responding to something in themselves and

acting also within the traditional concept of and artist‘s role in society-
 Regmi 32

using his art to control his environment has addressed themselves to some

of these matters in their art. And their concern seems to upset certain

people whom history has dealt with differently and who persists in

denying the validity of experiences and destinies other than theirs. (1197)

Achebe‘s observation theorizes the complexities of colonized nations as is the

case with Leela Gandhi holds in Postcolonial Theory: A Critical Introduction,

―colonialism does not end with the end of colonial occupation‖ (17). However, ―the

psychological resistance to colonialism begins with the onset of colonialism‖, Gandhi

reiterates on the changelings of sovereignty in recently decolonized nations, ―thus, the

very notion of colonial after-math acquired a doubleness inclusive of both the historical

scene of the colonial encounter and its dispersal‖ (17). Thus, though the empire leaves the

country, the psychological components that ruin and rule still remains at the aftermath of

colonialism.

Decolonization emerges in relation of resistance that occupies its location from

the pit of domination and intervention generally in indigenous affairs. Resistance is

generally defined as a revolt or revolution against a certain injustice and exploration.

Revolt is the outcome of imperialism and colonialism which had played very notorious

role against the spirit and values of African people. Colonialism concerns with the policy

of occupying other‘s territory and exploiting its natural resources physically, militarily or

epistemologically leading to modification or devastation of native religion and

undermining native‘s cultural norms and values. K. Asare Opoku writes:

The missionaries taught their converts that life could be separated into

spiritual and secular spheres, a teaching which can counter to fundamental

 Regmi 33

basis of African culture namely the unity of religion and life. Missionary

teaching thus attempted to attack the cement which held African societies

together. The danger signals were picked up early by many perceptive

African rulers who initially resisted missionary penetration into their

societies, seeing it a challenge and a treat to traditional pattern of

authority. Missionary and colonial administrators alike preached against

belief in spirits and supernatural forces and gods… taboos and veneration

of ancestors and thus weakened the influence of African traditional and

ritual leaders. (513-14)

Historically, the practice of colonialism has initiated from the extension of Roman

Empire that led to Spanish, French and British imperialism coherently up to mid

twentieth imperialism in Africa commenced from 1885 and lasted up to 1960 by running

the state affairs more than seven decades. At this pitfall, Nigeria was colonized by British

Empire in early decade of expansion and got independence after a revolution in 1960.

Christianity was dominant during colonial period and dominating culture British

empire applied its own religion as means of colonialism. On the other hand, Africans

applied religion as a means of tit for tat to fight against colonial force with the synthesis

or support from ancestors and gods, except the converts, other native people fought

against British Empire. K. Asare Opoku presents, ―African used their religion as a

weapon to resist colonial rule and often relied on magic and intervention of their

ancestors and gods in their fight against colonial oppression‖ (514).

Writing a book against imperial influence is itself resistance. So, post colonial

literature presents counter attack in against of colonial literature on colonial ethos through
 Regmi 34

writing. The writers had to resist the colonial influence by dealing with native culture and

social affairs. They also had to awake the people through writing. Elleke Boehmer writes

in Colonial and post-colonial Literature:

To mend the self negating disjunction between language and lived reality,

colonized writers had to begin to imagine the world from their own point

of view. it was the writer‘s task, Nugugi has sad, to assert to right [of the

once colonized] to name the world for ourselves‘ (‗Moving the center‘,

1991) Chinua Achebe is, too has spoken of the imperative need of writers

to help change the way the colonized world was seen, to tell won stories,

to wage ‗a battle of mind with colonialism‘ by reeducating readers. (189)

Anti-colonial resistance denotes the expansion of hatred and arrogance over the

colonial practice through culture, literature and revolution as well. It is the resistance

against colonial mentality and its performance. Some writers have conceived colonial

expansion as a criminal mentality. Jamaica Kincaid and influential Antiguan writer,

postulates bitter arrogance against white as criminal by using 2 nd person ‗you‘ in her well

celebrated essay ―A Small Place‖, ―For isn‘t it odd that the only language I have in which

to speak of this crime is the language of the criminal who committed the crime? And

what can that really mean? For the language of criminal contain only the goodness of the

criminal‘s deed‖ (94).

Decolonization is final aim of anti-colonial resistance in which two contradictory

forces encounter each other colonizer and decolonized one marked by violence. The true

intellectual generation of native culture seems ready to change and be changed as Odili in

A Man of People. Drawing the scenario of violence, the prominent post-colonial figure
 Regmi 35

Fanon writes in his book, The Wretched of Earth, ―The naked truth of decolonization

evokes for us the searing bullets and bloodstained knives which emanate from it. For if

the last shall be first this will only come to pass after a murderous and decisive struggle

between two protagonists‖ (30).

In terms of resistance, the native people react and sharpen their knives over the

colonizers. They become conscious about the imposition of western imperialism by

realizing that the western ethos is all false and misguided ones. The native is always

tensed and gets ready to attack as Odili.

In the second chapter of this research, general introduction to theoretical aspect

has been given which is chiefly applied to carryout this research work i.e. post-colonial

theory. Aiming to make the theory clear and comprehensible to all, some related

terminology to postcolonial theory has been discussed along with ‗Decolonization‘,

‗Neocolonialism‘ and ‗Imperialism‘ with ample citation from the works of profound

theorists; otherwise it may not be practical and meaningful to prove the text as purely

post-colonial work. It is hoped to be fruitful to comprehend and critically analyzed the

text from the postcolonial perspective i.e. colonial consciousness in Achebe‘s A Man of

the People.
 Regmi 36

Chapter Three: Colonial Consciousness in A Man of the People

Generally, consciousness is defined as awareness or wakefulness, the

understanding of the concept ‗self‘, the subjective experience and the ability to

experience ‗feeling‘. Besides, it denotes the executive control system of the mind. It is

defined variously from different perspective in different era by different scholars or

philosophers. As John E. Roy defines:

Consciousness is the subjective awareness of momentary experience

interpreted in the context of personal memory and present state. . . .

Perception can be defined as awareness of the objects contained in a

multisensory scene. Consciousness involves linking the present awareness

to past experience. . . . Consciousness lies in understanding how

meaningful perceptions are generated in the brain. (244)

Consciousness depends on an individual experience. Everyone has not the same type of

experience and perception; so awareness or consciousness is varied in each and every

individual. It makes link between present awareness to past experience. For John Locke,

a modern philosopher and great thinker, consciousness is, ―the perception of what passes

in a man‘s own mind‖ (web Britannica).

Consciousness is an awareness about social and political causes, state of being

conscious of an external object and the quality of being aware especially of something

within oneself. In Merriam- Webster Dictionary, it is defined as, ―the quality or state of

being aware especially of something within oneself; the state or fact of being conscious

of an external object, state, or fact; awareness; especially; concern for some social or

political cause‖ (web Dictionary).

 Regmi 37

Chinua Achebe‘s A Man of the People is his forth but must powerful novel set in

the postcolonial period in an unnamed independent African state. As it is said in the

introduction to Things Fall Apart, ―Achebe published A Man of the People, a novel

located outside of Nigeria that explores the corruption of post-colonial society‖ (XX).

The novel is a political satire that narrates, with the misuse of power by postcolonial

political leaders, a worry that reflected in all of Achebe‘s literary contributions. However,

Achebe was able to deal with this critical subject in a mode of satire that is frequently of

quiet comic in nature.

A Man of the People vehemently criticizes the drawbacks of military rule which

had usurped power in the guise of clean administration which had turned out to be worse

than the democratic government in the hands of politicians in post- independent African

countries which were formerly colony.

In this novel, some traditional customs that existed in post-independence of

Nigeria have been described. There is a custom to offer bride-price to father of the bride

to marry her by the bride-groom, ―Chief Nanga had paid a bride-price of one hundred and

fifty pounds for his daughter‖ (148. The character Obi Okonkwo is ready to pay not only

the bride-price but also 100 pounds for bride‘s educational and incidental expenses as

demanded by bride‘s father, ―one hundred pounds on her education and other incidentals‖

(148). This demonstrates a view of the increasing relevance placed on academic

opportunities for women.

The continuing operation of ‗British Amalgamated‘ in the story demonstrates how

British companies still wields their power in business dealings which demonstrates

neocolonial influence by the British in their former colony. Further, the above company
 Regmi 38

makes hefty contributions to the campaign funds of the ruling ‗People Organization

Party‘s mainly to see that party was in power to furthering their business interest, ―British

Amalgamated has paid out four hundred thousand pounds to P.O.P. to fight this election?

Yes, and we also know that the Americans have been even more generous, although we

don‘t have the figures as yet‖ (147-48). Thus, Achebe divulges how a strong Western

contribution has its effect on the African corruption and greed that he satirizes in the

novel.

The title of the novel indirectly resembles Nanga, who is characterized as an

uncultured, unscrupulous, ambitious and ruthless politician who elevated himself by

crookedness to the position of minister in the ruling government. Achebe‘s satirical

portrayal of Nanga as a selfish man helps to make the title of the novel is wholly ironic.

In his novel, A Man of the People, he vividly dealt with the ―corruption in high places‖

(81) of the government and recommended military intervention as a solution to the

situation. Thus, the proposed remedy rendered implies that Achebe was susceptible to the

accusation that he had prior insider‘s knowledge of military plans. Further, Achebe exerts

his technique of identifying the competition between competing value systems for

political power in Africa.

This novel describes various political and social changes that have been taken

place in Africa (Nigeria) since its publication. The novel describes Nigeria in its post-

independence phase, during which time the country became a cesspool of corruption and

misrule in the context of colonial-style of social and economic development. In the back

flap of the novel, it is said:

 Regmi 39

. . . most political novel, A Man of the People is a story of corruption and

expectations, deceit and pope. Elegantly fusing the worlds of the

traditional village and the modern city, A Man of the People brings

together the multiple identities of a country leaving behind its colonial

past, while trying to make its way into an independent future. (Cover

page)

In the novel, Odili, the protagonist, has colonial consciousness while Nanga,

antagonist, is an agent of colonialism. Other people including protagonist are exploited

and suppressed a lot.

In the very opening of the novel, a politician, M. A. Nanga‘s arrival is pompously

celebrated by ignorant villagers. He gets his name, fame and financial benefit. He is

respected everywhere as ―Chief the Honourable M. A. Nanga‖ and ―the most

approachable politician‖ (1). He seems to be a true man of the People/ politician/ leader/

guardian of the country. On the other hand, Odili is observing every incident very

attentively and critically. The influence of the corrupt politician upon people; and the

country during transition period is perfectly portrayed in the novel:

That after noon he was due to address the staff and students of the Anata

Grammar School where I was teaching at the time. But as usual in those

highly political times the villagers moved in and virtually took over. The

Assembly Hall must have carried well over thrice its capacity. Many

villagers sat on the floor, right up to the foot of the dais. (1)

Although such leaders cannot lead the nation in the right path, they try to lead for their

selfishness. Nanga, being a corrupt Minister of Culture, exploits the ignorant people
 Regmi 40

using power and position and leads the nation to instability. It is the fossils left by

colonial empire. Just Odili and his friends, mostly the educated people are conscious

about it.

Chief M. A. Nanga makes an official visit to Anata Grammar School, where he

taught during his early career. Odili, a teacher at the school, views the ensuing

celebration by the illiterate massed and the arrival of Nanga hesitantly. Hoping for

something miracle to happen for destruction of evil practices in his native land as well as

drastic change in the mentality of native people by erasing blue printed false image of

Nanga; Odili says:

As I stood in one corner of that vast tumult waiting for the arrival of the

minister I felt intense bitterness welling up in my mouth. Here were silly,

ignorant villagers dancing themselves lame and waiting to blow off their

gunpowder in honour of one of those who had started the country off

down the slopes of inflation. I wish for a miracle, for a voice of thunder, to

hush this ridiculous festival and tell the poor contemptible people one or

two truths. But of course it would be quite useless. They were not only

ignorant but cynical. (2)

The local song played on the old ―Grammar-phone‖ (1), women dancing to

celebrate the occasion, and the gunfire by Nanga‘s hooligans all perfectly portray this

kind of situation and reflect how African (Nigerians) can sacrifice national interest for

personal interests. In the novel, Odili remembers his childhood when he praised Nanga as

his ideal, honest politician. This image of Nanga is shattered during Odili‘s last visit to

Parliament, when he watched the political assassination of minister of finance, who was
 Regmi 41

―a first rate economist with a Ph.D. in public finance‖ (3). The minister of finance

presents a complete plan to avert the financial crisis to cabinet, but the government reject

it because it will result in its defeat during the upcoming election. Any politicians

supporting the minister of finance were fired and the corrupt politicians accuse the honest

minister of being a traitor being un-African, and of ―aping the white man‘s mannerisms

and way of speaking‖ (4). Odili is shocked to see these lies being used as political

propaganda in local newspapers, one of which printed the following:

Let us now and for all time extract from out body-politic as a dentist

extracts a stinking tooth all those decadent stooges avert in test-book

economics and aping the white man‘s mannerism and way of speaking

with are proud to be Africans. Our true leaders are not those intoxicated

with their Oxford, Cambridge or Harvard degrees but those who speak the

language of the people. Away with the damnable and expensive university

education which only alienated an African from his rich and ancient

culture and puts him above his people. . . . (4)

Newly independent countries are highly influenced by colonial political system

i.e. cheating in election, bribery, corruption, misuse of power and position for personal

interest and so on. It is noticed by Odili, ―Nanga must have gone into politics soon

afterwards and then won a seat in parliament. (It was easy in those days – before we

knew its cash price.)‖ (3).

During the transitional period, intellectuals are badly treated or abused using bad

and immoral words like ―Traitor, ―Coward‖, ―Doctor of Fork your Mother‖ (6) and make

ignorant people puppet in the hands of opportunist like Nanga. They promise to do a lot
 Regmi 42

of things for the welfare of the country and people but practically do nothing else. Some

so-called intellectuals become puppets in politicians hands, ―But the teachers in that

school were all dead from the neck up‖ (7). Odili like intellectuals are only conscious

about the matter and living in great tension. Odili expresses his felling, ―Perhaps it was

their impatience with this kind of hypocrisy that made men like Nanga successful

politicians while starry-eyed idealists strove vainglorious to bring into politics niceties

and delicate refinements that belonged elsewhere‖ (11). However, Nanga like politician

tries their best to tempt even the conscious people about their dirty game by offering

some things and opportunity to them, ―Odili, I think you are wasting your talent here. I

want you to come to the capital and take up a strategic post in the civil service‖ (12).

Mostly, newly independent countries from the hands of colonial rule are highly

influence by nepotism and misuse of power. People in the power use power for personal

benefits and for the welfare of their nearest people and relatives:

A common saying in the country after independence was that it didn‘t

matter what you knew but who you knew. And, believe me, it was no idle

talk. For a person like me who simply couldn‘t stoop to lick any Big

Man‘s boots it created a big problem. . . . I took this teaching job in the

bush, private school instead of a smart civil service . . . give myself a

certain amount of autonomy. (17)

Odili‘s political views are inseparable from his character. His opinion of his girlfriend

Elsie is also significant in revealing his character; he thinks that he has been unlucky in

love, but Elsie is different:

 Regmi 43

Elsie was, and for that matte still is, the only girl I met and slept with the

same day – in fact within an hour . . . I can‘t pretend that I ever thought of

marriage, but I must admit I did begin to feel a little jealous ay time I

found her reading and rereading a blue British air-letter with the red

Queen and Houses of Parliament stamped on its back. Elsie was such a

beautiful, happy girl and she made no demands whatever. (24-25)

Odili‘s father Hezekiah Samalu is a district interpreter so he is very powerful, rich

and widely known. He used to earn money not only from his fair service but also

corruption. People used to see him with gift because of his ―fear‖ (29). He did not learn

to work without bribery, ―There were all those people who brought my father gifts of

yam, pots of palm-wine or bottles of European drink, goats, sheep, chicken. Or those who

brought their children to live with us as house-boys or their brides-to-be for training in

modern housekeeping‖ (29). Such a corrupt person immediately get opportunity in

politics; and uses this opportunity to exploit common people. Odili‘s father is a corrupt

―District interpreter‖ (28) get chance to ―plunged into the politics‖ (31) and later he is

elected from our village as ―the local chairman of the P.O.P‖ (31).

Odili admires chief Nanga in the very beginning of the story because he is

unknown about his naughty behavior but later he has got opportunity to watch Nanga

closely in his brief stay at his house. Life at Nanga‘s house during the first few days

undermines Odili‘s clear cut views, which are somewhat eroded by the opulence:

All I can say is that on the first night there was no room in my mind for

criticism. I was simply hypnotized by the luxury of the great suite

assigned to me. When I lay down in the double bed that seemed to ride on
 Regmi 44

a cushion of air, and switched on that reading lamp and saw all the

beautiful furniture a new from the lying down posit9ioj and looked beyond

the door to the gleaning bathroom and t the towels as large as a lappa I had

to confess that if I were at that moment made a minister I would be most

anxious to remain one for ever. (36-37)

Moreover, Odili even begins to feel sympathetic about the temptations faced by

men in power:

A man who has just come in from the rain and dried his body and put on

dry clothes, is more reluctant to go out gain that another who has been

indoors all the time. The trouble with our new nation – as I saw it then

lying on the bed – was that none of us has been indoors long enough to be

able to say ‗to hell with it‘. We had all been in the rain together until

yesterday. Then a handful of us – the smart and the lucky and hard ever

the best – had scrambled for the one shelter our former rulers left, and had

taken it over and barricaded themselves in. (37)

At this point in the story, it is clear that Odili‘s disapproval of the country‘s

politicians is mixed with his new understanding of how a common man could be tempted

by power. Still, politicians like Nanga are the villains of the story; however attractive

may be, they seem immoral. The so-called politician Chief Nanga is found to be immoral,

mannerless and lecherous. A leader should be of good morality, good manner, good mind

and even not polluted by sexual world. Such good qualities are not found in Chief Nanga.

In Odili‘s words:
 Regmi 45

I must confess to a certain feeling of awkwardness before her

sophisticated, assured manner. The way she spoke she must have spent her

childhood in England. But this awkward feeling was only momentary.

After all, I told myself, Chief Nanga who was barely literate was probably

going to sleep with her that night. (49)

In the story, men like Nanga take bribes and use the money to build apartment

blocks ―of seven storey luxury flat‖ (101), which they rent to earn profit. They also make

false promises to the population about future rewards if they are re-elected.

When Odili meets Jean and her husband at Nanga‘s house, differences arise

between African and European codes of conduct. Odili attends a party at Jean‘s house

while her husband is away on business, ―advising . . . government on how to improve its

public image in America‖ (44). Odili finds this situation particularly ironic as he learns

about the corruption in Nigerian government through her. Jean takes him on a tour of the

city as she takes him home, and Odili senses a hidden purpose, as he notes that ―some

certainly knew the city well, from the fresh smelling modern waterfront to the stinking,

maggoty interior‖ (54). Odili laughs uneasily at the signs of corruption and inequality in

Bori bit is simultaneously suspicious of Jean‘s motivation, wondering if the tour was

simply out of curiosity or for ―some secret reason, like wanting me to feel ashamed about

my country‘s capital city. . . . who the hell did she think she was to laugh so self-

righteously? Wasn‘t there enough in her own country to keep her laughing all her days or

crying if she preferred it?‖ (55).

Odili‘s sense of affinity with Nanga is badly shaken when he takes Elsie, his

girlfriend, to stay at Nanga‘s house. Odili refers to Elsie, ―she is just a good-time girl‖
 Regmi 46

(60). Before Odili can gather courage to enter her room at night, Nanga enters her room

and rapes her while Odili listens in a crisis of inertia to her apparent screams and calls for

help:

I rushed into the sitting-room and made to bound up the stairs when I

heard as from a great distance Elsie deliriously screaming my name. . . . I

trudged up the stairs in the incredible delusion that Elsie was calling on

me to come and save her from her ravisher. But when I got to the door a

strong revulsion and hatred swept over me and I turned sharply away and

went down the stairs for the last time. . . . Recollection and panic

followed soon enough and then the humiliating wound came alive again

and began to burn more fresh than when first inflicted. My watch said a

few minutes past four. And Elsie had not come. My eyes misted . . . I took

off my pajamas, got into other clothes and left the room by the private

door. (71-72)

Elsie‘s rape by Nanga is the best portrayed immoral, corrupt and mischievous

nature of so-called politician. This incident brings drastic changes in the mentality of

Odili. Out of anger and humiliation Odili leaves Nanga‘s home at midnight but returns

later to take revenge, ―What a country! I said, You call yourself Minister of Culture? God

help us.‘ And I spat; not a full spit but a token, albeit unmistakable one‖ (74). Nanga

offers him another girl instead of Elsie but Odili‘s estrangement is final and continues

throughout the novel joining with Max forming a new political party as a political

revenge. Since then he becomes very much careful about Nanga. Nanga likes so-called

‗Man of the People‘ who apparently seems very innocent but in reality they are degraded,
 Regmi 47

corrupt, ravisher and so on. It is Chief Nanga, Minister of Culture who seduces his own

student, Odili‘s girl-friend and lives happily in the house made out of corrupted money:

. . . another man had wrenched my girl-friend from my hand and led her to

bed under my very eyes, and I had done nothing about it – I do nothing . . .

Because the man was a minister bloated by the flatulence of ill-gotten

wealth, living in a big mansion built with public money, riding in a

Cadillac . . . I doing nothing about it except speculating whether Elsie

would go back to her hospital that day or spend another night with Chief

Nanga. (76)

Odili is obviously conscious about ruler and ruling system of the government in

the country; that is not free from the colonial ruling system and the tradition of it. After

forming new political party joining with many other friends like Max, he commits to save

the country from the grip of corrupt politicians. In this newly formed party, there is not

any corrupt and ―illiterates like Chief Nanga‖ (78) but there are ―intellectuals like Max‖

(79). There are many intellectuals from different fields in the new party including ―a very

beautiful Lawyer who… met at the London School of Economics. There was a trade –

unionist, a doctor, another lawyer, a teacher and a newspaper columnist‖ (78). Max, Odili

and some other friends are very serious because whether their hard-won freedom will

finish in the hand of corrupt politicians. Whether they can save the country from them by

lunching a new party or not, ―Max and some of his friends having watched with

deepening disillusion the use to which our hard-own freedom was being put by corrupt,

mediocre politicians has decided to come together and launch the Common People‘s

Convention‖ (78).
 Regmi 48

Odili asserts in the duties and responsibilities of intellectuals. Only intellectuals

can start great revolution but not by the common people like ―the worker, farmer, the

blacksmith, the carpenter . . . ‖ (79). He further encourages to take initiatives of

revolution to end suppression, exploitation and dirty game of so-called Nanga like

politicians by giving a historical example of great revolution, ―And I‘d like to take our

friend up on a purely historical point. The great revolutions of history were started by

intellectuals, not the common people. Karl Marx wan not a common man‖ (80). Odili

expresses his patriotic feeling in the form o f poem in which mother refers to ―Earth-

mother‖ (82). His deep ―tragic feeling‖ (82) has been poured in the following verse along

with his ―high promise‖ (82) to make the country a fine and holy place freeing she from

the grips of those sons who makes her sad, ―And the son she has pinned so much hope on

turning out to be a chief Nanga‖ (82). Odili quotes:

I will return home to her – many centuries have I wandered –

And I will make my offering at the feet of my lovely Mother:

I will rebuild her house, the holy places they raped and plundered,

And I will make it fine with black wood, bronzes and terra-cotta. (82)

Odili discovers that this new party is backed by a junior minister in the current

government and wonders why the minister does not resign if he is so discontented. He

insisted that max not take any assistance from such politicians, ―I would have thought it

was better to start our new party clean, with a different kind of philosophy‖ (84), but he

gradually begins to realize that idealism does not work when a whole ―country is on the

verge of chaos‖ (101).

 Regmi 49

Odili decides to campaign against Nanga in this own constituency. At the

inaugural campaign meeting, Nanga‘s men laugh at Odili in front of a crowd and Edna‘s

father threatens him with a machete with the suggestion that he withdraw his nomination:

My in-law is like a bull . . . and your challenge is like a challenge of a tick

to a bull. The tick fills its belly with blood from the back of the bull and

the bull does not even know it is there. He carries it wherever he goes – to

eat, drink or pass ordure. Then one day the cattle egret comes, perches on

the bull‘s back and picks out the tick . . . (107)

Odili‘s focus on revenge keeps him steadfast despite humiliations brought on him by his

headmaster, Mrs. Nanga, and Nanga‘s supporters; his focus on revenge changes into a

genuine desire to destroy Nanga and the corruption he represents, as is clear in his

statement, ―although I had little hope of winning Chief Nanga‘s seat, it was necessary

nonetheless to fight him and expose him as much as possible‖ (110). At this point, Odili‘s

character has two clear aspects. Publicly, he wants to expose Nanga for his misdeeds in

the hope that there ―may be someone who would get up and say, No, Nanga has taken

more than the owner could ignore!‖ (110). Privately he wants to marry Edna out of love,

as revenge on Nanga.

When Odili began his political campaign, he recalled that when he was at

university, his sole ambition was to become ―a full member of the privileged class whose

symbol was the car‖ (110), and that ―many of us vowed then never to be corrupted by

bourgeois privileges of which the car was the most visible symbol in our country‖ (111).

By this point, however, Odili has undergone a great change; he has acquired a new car

through party funds. He assesses his present position, ―and now here was I in this
 Regmi 50

marvelous little affair eating the hills like yam – as Edna would have said. I hoped I was

safe, for a man who avoids danger for years and then gets killed in the end has wasted his

care‖ (111)

At the novel‘s climax, Nanga is having his inaugural campaign meeting, in an

attempt to expose Nanga to the people, Odili sneaks in wearing a disguise:

What would happen, if I were to push my way to the front and up the

palm-leaf-festooned dais, wrench the microphone from the greasy hands

of that blabbing buffoon and tell the whole people – this vast contemptible

crowd – that the great man they had come to hear with their drums and

dancing was an Honorable thief. But of course they knew that already. No

single man and human there that afternoon was stranger to that news – not

even the innocent looking convent girl on the dais. (139)

While Odili considers his nest step, He is spotted by Josiah, now an ally of Nanga. Nanga

calls Odilia thief, forcing him to pause in order to respond. Nanga calls him to the dais

and publicly ridicules him, beginning with his own interpretation of the past:

This is the boy who is thrusting his finger into my eye. He came to my

house in Bori, ate my food, drank my water and my wine and instead of

saying thank you to me he set about plotting how to drive me out and take

over my house. . . . He was once my pupil. I taught him ABC and I call

him to my house to arrange for him to go to England. . . . He even tried to

take a girl on whose head I had put the full bride-price and many other

expenses – and who according to our custom is my wife – this girl here. . .

.(140-41)
 Regmi 51

Then Nanga thrust the microphone into my face. At the time Odili thinks he has a chance

to expose Nanga‘s corruption and exploitation and he says, ―I come to tell your people

that you are a liar and . . . ‖ (141). While speaking Nanga pulls the microphone away

smartly, and slaps him on his face. To Odili‘s shock, the crowd joins in the beating:

He pulled the microphone away smartly, set it down, walked up to me and

slapped my face. Immediately hands seized my arms, but I am happy that

he got one fairly good kick from me. He slapped me again and again. Edna

rushed forward crying and tried to get between us but he pushed her aside

so violently that she landed on her buttocks on the wooden platform. The

roar of the crowd was now like a thick forest all around. By this time

blows were falling as fast as rain on my head and body until something

heavier than the rest seemed to split my skull. The last thing I remembered

was seeing all the policemen turn round and quietly away. (141)

Achebe presents Odili as an educated man who is conscious about the corruption

and suppression and who wants to bring drastic change in the society but fail because

they are easily finished by villains. Max and Eunice are Odili‘s friends. Max is killed by

an election jeep belonging to Koko, a ministerial colleague of Nanga, and Eunice kills

Koko out of anger after Max‘s murder, ―she opened her handbag as if to take out a

handkerchief, took out a pistol instead and fired two bullets into Chief Koko‘s chest‖

(144). When Nanga elected unopposed from Anata, Private armies begin to rampage,

―sacking one market after another in the district, seizing women‘s wares and beating up

people‖ (144) and in this state of anarchy, the Prime Minister reappoints the old cabinet

to office. The army can not accept this decision and ―by staging a coup at that point and
 Regmi 52

locking up every member of the Government‖ (147-48). The political turmoil serves to

help Odili, after Nanga is arrested, Edna reveals that she never wanted to marry him,

―Marry him? To be frank with you I did not want to marry him. . . . All the girls in the

college were laughing at me . . . it was only my father . . .‖ (146). Still, despite the

military coup Odili knows that nothing has changed and refuses to accept this simple

consolation that the will of the people has been served:

No the people has nothing to do with the fall of our government. What

happened was simply that unruly mobs and private armies having tasted

blood and power during the election had got out of hand and ruined their

masters and employers. And they had no public reason whatever for doing

it. Let‘s make no mistake about that. (145)

Overnight, Max becomes a ―Hero of the Revolution‖ (148), and the people who

have previously idolized Nanga and Koko now denounce them. Odili comes to

understand the entire ethic of social acceptance and rejection within African (Nigerian)

society, ―Max was avenged not by the people‘s collective will but by one solitary woman

who loved him. Had his spirit waited for the people to demand redress it would have been

waiting still, in the rain and out in the sun? But he was lucky‖ (149).

As Odili seeks to understand why private loyalty seems to be more important that

public morality, he remembers the story of Josiah. Rejected by the whole village at the

beginning of the novel for stealing a blind man‘s stick, Josiah ends up as Nanga‘s most

trusted man. As Odili observes, it is ―a regime in which a . . . fellow cursed in the

morning for stealing . . . and later in the evening saw him again mounting the altar of the

new shrine in the presence of all the people to whisper into the ear of the chief celebrant‖
 Regmi 53

(149). This exemplifies how priorities can change suddenly, when individual self-interest

comes into play. In this way, Josiah‘s story foreshadows events later in the novel. In this

context, Eunice has done a noble deed, as Odili summarizes:

. . . I do honestly believe that in the fat-dripping, gummy, eat-and-let-eat

regime just ended – a regime which inspired the common saying that a

man could only be sure of what he had put away safely in his gut . . . in

such a regime. I say, you died a good death if your life had inspired

someone to come forward and shoot your murder in the chest – without

asking to be paid. (149-50)

Besides political influence, there is a high cultural influence of colonialism in

Africans. Their Igbo culture is influenced by westerners‘ culture, ―After Christmas. You

know Eddy‘s father is going to America‖ (39). Here, indigenous people are celebrating

westerners‘ festival i.e. Christmas. Language is also very important aspects of culture.

Without language no culture can be transmitted to new generation. If the native language

is contaminated by others language especially by colonizers‘ language, there will be more

chances to collapse native culture, ―they would become English people. Don‘t you see

they hardly speak out language? Ask them something in it and they reply in English‖

(39). The wearing cultures has also highly influenced from capitalism. Odili once

attaining in a programme where Chief Nanga is delivering his speech but he observes the

dress of the people in the room:

There was one man I noticed particularly. His robes were made from some

expensive-looking, European woolen material-which was not so very

strange these days. But what surprised me was that the tailor had retained
 Regmi 54

the cloth‘s thin, yellow border on which the manufacture advertised in

endless and clear black type: 100% WOOL: MADE IN ENGLAND. (65)

Finally, Achebe has suggested that if a nation is to progress and to end the

―oppression and corrupt government‖ (149), it must take proper care when selecting

leaders, otherwise corrupt politicians will always get their way and citizens will simply

be a means by which they can fulfill their corrupt goals. An electorate needs to be strong

enough to withstand the opposing pulls of private and public pressures. National interest

must be given supreme importance as opposed to self-interest, which has the power to

corrupt leaders. Achebe successfully projected his own ideals through Odili Samalu, the

protagonist of A Man of the People.

 Regmi 55

Chapter Four: Conclusion: Protest due to Suppression

Chinua Achebe has reflected pathetic and tragic story of post-independent African

countries in postcolonial term through A Man of the People. The colonizer wants to

reestablish colonization. In fact, the colonizer never forgets the sweet or taste of

colonialism and wants to see the past in the future with the sense of returning to the

period when they were free and held power in their own hands. On the other hands, there

is a mass of colonized people who are accustomed to live in such an impure situation and

relationship between the colonizer and the colonized; except a few educated and

conscious people like Odili in this novel, A Man of the People.

Achebe, through his powerful writing, vividly portrays the real picture of

lawlessness, anarchy, chaos, exploitation and suppression in African countries rather than

an independent and prosperous one. Neocolonialist inclination and nativist practices in

post-independent African countries make them a cesspool of corruption and misrule in

the context of colonial-style of social and economic development which resulted in

conflict and protest against the system.

Achebe‘s A Man of the People successfully demonstrates the colonial

consciousness and sense of protest in African countries. In the novel, the protagonist

Odili Samalu, an educated and conscious citizen, is the representative of all colonized

Africans while Chief M.A. Nanga, antagonist, illiterate politician, is the representatives

of the colonizer who is habituated to suppress and exploit the common people through

corruption using his power and position in post-independent African countries. When his

evil deed reaches the climax, Odili, joining with his friends like Max forms a new

political party to end the corrupt politicians‘ rule for ever. Aiming at overthrowing the
 Regmi 56

corrupt government of Nanga-like politician, Odili has decided to fight for the

membership of the parliament from the same constituency wherefrom Nanga fights in the

forthcoming election. But unfortunately, the nomination paper, in which Odili has signed,

is seized by thugs from his people on their way to the Electoral Office. So Nanga is

elected unopposed. Odili cannot achieve his goal. So the dreams of all the Africans‘ are

shattered and now they have realized that no freedom, liberty and equality can be

achieved without joint protest against suppression. If the people were not divided, their

dreams (i.e. to make a prosperous country) would not be shattered.

The novel deals with the social and psychological impact of European

imperialism on indigenous African societies, particularly with respect to a distinctly

African consciousness in the twentieth century. After colonial rule no nation can live

independently and no leader can lead the nation towards prosperity because of

neocolonialism. So independence becomes a myth to those nations and their people.

When anarchy, suppression and exploitation reaches its climax, people should strongly

protest against it to give the way to the country from the situation of national crisis and

chaos. But here Achebe presents Odilia as a hero, intellectual and very much conscious

leader who fights against political instability, suppression, domination, and exploitation

and tries to give a way to the nation.

 Regmi 57

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 Regmi 58

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 Regmi 59

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