Cultural Conflict And Identity Crisis

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Albert Chinualumogu Achebe, (born 16 November 1930) popularly known as Chinua Achebe,was a Nigerian novelist, poet, professor, and critic. He is best known for his first novel and magnum opus Things Fall Apart(1958), which is the most widely read book in modern African literature.

Raised by his parents in Igbo town of Ogidi in south eastern Nigeria, Achebe excelled at school and won a scholarship for undergraduate studies. He became fascinated with world religious and traditional African cultures, and began writing stories as a university student. After graduation, he worked for the Nigerian Broadcasting Service and soon moved to the metropolis of Lagos. He gained worldwide attention for Things Fall Apart in the late 1950s; his later novels include No Longer at Ease(1960), Arrow of God(1964), A Man of the People(1966) , and Anthills of the Savannah(1987). Achebe writes his novels in English and has defended the use of English, a "language of colonisers", in African literature. In 1975, his lecture An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s "Heart of Darkness" became the focus of controversy, for its criticism of Joseph Conrad as "a bloody racist" and was later published.

Achebe’s novels focus on the traditions of Igbo society, the effect of Christian influence, and the clash of Western and Traditional African 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. He has also published a number of short stories, children’s books, and essay collections. Since 2009, he has been the David and Marianna Fisher University Professor of African Studies at Brown University in Providence, Rhode island, United States.

Things Fall Apart has become one of the most important books in African literature. Selling over 8 million copies around the world, it has been translated into 50 languages, making Achebe the most translated African writer of all time.

His second novel, No Longer at Ease, about a civil servant who is embroiled in the corruption of Lagos. The protagonist is Obi, grandson of Things Fall Apart’s main character, Okonkwo. Drawing on his time in the city, Achebe writes about Obi’s experiences in Lagos to reflect the challenges facing a new generation on the threshold of Nigerian independence. Obi is trapped between the expectations of his family, its clan, his home village, and larger society. He is crushed by these forces (like his grandfather before him) and finds himself imprisoned for bribery. Having shown his acumen for portraying traditional Igbo culture, Achebe demonstrated in his second novel an ability to depict modern Nigerian life.

Achebe’s third book, Arrow of God, was published in 1964. Like its predecessors, its explores the intersections of Igbo traditions and European Christianity. Set in the of Umuaro at the start of the twentieth century, the novel tells the story of Ezeulu, a cheif Priest of Ulu. Shocked by the power of British intervention in the area, he orders his son to learn the foreigner’s secret. As with Okonkwo in Things Fall Apart and Obi in No Longer at Ease, ezeulu is consumed by the resulting tragedy.

A Man of the people was published in 1966. A bleak satire set in an unnamed African state which has justattainedindependence , the novel follows a teacher named OdiliSamalu from the village of Anata who opposes a corrupt Minister of Culture named Nanga for his Parliament seat. Upon reading an advancecopy of the novel, Achebe’s friend John Pepper clarkdeclared:"Chinua, I know you are a prophet. Everything in the book has happend except a military coup!"(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinua_Achebe)

In 1987 Achebe released his fifth novel, Anthills of the Savannah, about a military coup in the fictional West African nation of kangan. A finalist for the Man Booker Prize, the novel was hailed in the Financial Times :"in a powerful fusion of myth , legend and modern styles, Achebe has written a book which is wise, exciting and essential , a powerful antidote to the cynical commentators from ‘overseas’ who see nothing ever new out of Africa ." An opinion piece in the magazine West Africa said the book deserved to win the booker Prize, and the

Achebe was"a writer who has long the recognition that has already been accorded him sales figures."The Prize went instead to Penelope Livel’s novel Moon Tiger .

The style of Achebe’s fiction draws heavily on the oral tradition of the Igbo people. He weaves flok tales in to the fabric of his stories illuminating community values in both the content and the form of the story telling.The tale about the Earth and sky inThings fall Apart, for example, emphsises the interdependency of the masculine and the feminine. Although Nwoye enjoys hearing his mother tell the tale, Okonkwo’sdislike for it is evidence of his imbalance. Later, Nwoye avoids beatings from his father by pretending to dislike such" women’s stories". Another hallmark of Achebe’s style is the use of proverbs, which often illustrate the values of the rural Igbo tradition. He sprinkles them throughout the narratives, repeating points made in conversation. Critic Anjali Gera notes that the use of proverbs in Arrow of God "serves to create through an echo effect the judgment of a community upon an individual violation." The use of such repetition in Achebe’s urban novels, No Longer at Ease and A Man of the People, is less pronounced.

Aprevalent theme in Achebe’s novels in the intersection of African tradition and modernity, especially as embodied by European colonialism. The colonial impact on the Igbo in Achebe’s novels is often effected by individual from Europe, but institution urban offices frequently serve a similar purpose. The character of Obi in No Longer at Ease succumbs to colonial-era corruption in the city: the temptation of his position overwhelm his identity and fortitude. The courys and the position of district commissioner in Things Fall Apart likewise clash with the tradition of Igbo, and remove their ability to participate in structure of decision-making.

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CHAPTER TWO

CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF CHINUA ACHEBE’S NO LONGER AT EASE

Obi-Okonkwo is a young man of promise in the Umuofia village, son of devout catechist. He

is selected by his village to go to England and earn a degree in a Law. He is the first one

among the Usmuofians to get a degree and get into the civil service. In England he changes

law for literature, takes his degree and comes to settle in Lagos the then capital of Nigeria

tojoin the education Department of a high salary privileges enjoyed by Europeans. He is

idealistic and is conscious of the practice of bribery and corrupt practices in the civil service.

He believes that this can be changed only if educated youth replaced the old men. He has a

girl friend named Clara whom he met in London and now thinks of marrying her. His people

expect him to repay the loan given to him for studies and become a champion of their

ideals.But Obi has liberated himself from both his father’s Christianity and his tribe’s

customs and values though he is not openly so. Clara is an outcast shunned by the Inos. But

Obi wants to marry her. He is unable to convince his family ,friends or his clan about this. In

the office he is soon tempted with bribes to get favours done for aspirants to foreign

scholarship. There is also the offer of sexual favour, which he resists. But his lifestyle and his

family commitments, coupled with his own lack of prudence paves way for his downfall. He

quarrels with his sponsors the Umuofia Progressive Union over the repayment of the loan.

He buys an expensive car to live in style.

He is forced to borrow money from his friends and also from his girlfriend. He gets trapped i indebt. This is further complicated by the pregnancy of his girl friend, who refuses to marryhim and gets rid of the child. She deserts him and he is overcome by guilt. His mother dies. He soon begins to accept bribes in order so pay off his debts. Finally the secret police trap him and he is brought to trial and found guilty. He loses his job. But his fellow Umuofiansstill remain his supporters in spit of what he has done. The novel ends where it began; where the While Judge delivering the verdict on obi raises the question why a young man of such promise should become corrupt like other Africans.

CHAPTER THREE

THE THEME OF GROWTH IN NO LONGER AT EASE

Things fall Apart (1958) is Achebe’s first novel. Achebe took the title of the book from

William Butler Yeas ‘The Second Coming’. Things fall Apart, the centre cannot hold. "The

story is set in the 1890s, when missionaries and colonial government made its intrusion Ibo

society. It depicts the life of OgbuefiOkonkwo, ambitious and powerful leader of an Ibo

community, who counts on physical strength and courage, Okonkwo’s life is good: his

compound is large, he has no troubles with his wives, his garden grows yams, and he is

respected by his fellow villagers. When Okonkwo accidentally kills a clansman, he is

banished from the village for seven years. But the real cause of his downfall is his blindness

to circumstances and the missionary church, which brings with it the new authority of the

British District Commissioner. In this process Okonkwo is destroyed, destroyed, because of

his unwillingness to change which alienates him from the community. He is alone in his fight

against colonialism.

No Longer at Ease, a sequel to Things Fall Apart derives from the legacy for African

cultures of colonial domination by Europeans. It received the Nigerian National Trophy for

Literature, focuses on a young Nigerian man, Obi Okonkwo, who has lost connection with

his African heritage and develops almost a hatred for the ruling elite, of which he is a part.

After going away to England to get an education he hopes he can use to benefit all Nigerians,

he returns home and finds that the country has lost all that he believed in. Because of walls

set in front of him such as, the neo-colonial values of the Europeans, he is not able to do the

things he wanted to for his peoples. No Longer at Ease brings to life a character that

receives a European-oriented education that buries his culture, forcing him to lose sight of

where he comes from, who he is, and where he is going. No Longer at Ease shares a

relationship with Things Fall Apart, in that it is the ending to Okonkwo’s (the main character

in both NoLonger at Ease and Things Fall Apart) experiencing some trouble conforming to

the changes brought by the Europeans. In Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo struggles to under

stand those changes and the fact that things are not as they always where.

Achebe emphasizes how Europeans impose their ways traditions and values, upon Africans

and the destruction and dislocation the colonial process brought together with Anthills of

theSavannah the above-mentioned novels form a trilogy. They present the early history of

British colonialism in Nigeria from an afro-centric perspective. Because of their realistic

cultural themes, these novels provide a better understanding of the indigenous Africans

and reasons for their current struggles.

The title of Chinua Achebe No Longer of Ease suggests the possibility of a time there was

"ease". The struggles of the protagonist, Obi Okonkwo,a twenty-six year old Umuofian

educated in the British Colonial system and an the university in Greate Britain, are

analogous to he struggles facing Nigerian society during the period at the end of

colonization. Obi must manage the complexities occasioned by his position as a senior civil

servant in the British colonial administration in Lagos and his "taboo" love for Clara, a nurse

educated in Britain and an osu, a women banned from marriage by tribal traditons. Obi is

the son of Isaac Okonkwo the son of Okonkwo the hero of Things Fall Apart. Isaac had

converted to Christianity rejecting his father. Obi is the short form of ‘Obiajulu’ which in Ibo

means the ‘mind at last is at rest’. This name later proves to be an irony because Obi

himself is not at ease between his peopleand the world, which he is made to live in.

Obi is a dreamer and idealist in the beginning. While working on his English B.A. and living in Britain on funds provided by the poor members of his tribe, the UmuofianUnion , Obi celebrates his country in a poem, entitled "Nigeria." He writes, "How sweet it is to lie beneath a tree/ At eventime and share the ecstasy/ Of jocund birds and flimsy butterflies". No Longer at Ease depicts the complicated picture of Nigeria that Obi finds after four years study abroad.

No Longer at Ease is a sensitive novel that presents a broad view of humanity. Achebe deals

frankly with a number of controversial topics, including sexuality, racism, and corruption.

Obi finds himself at the intersection of a numer of competing allegiances pulling him in

contradictory directions. Obi’s poem, "Nigeria", quoted in various parts throughout the

novel, embodies the hopes for Nigeria that the novel, in its unfilinching realism, ultimately

upholds: "God bless our noble countrymen/And women everywhere. /Teach them to walk

unity/ To build our nation dear".

No Longer at Ease is about a generation of Africans caught between the value of a traditional society and the so-called modern civilization represented by the colonizers from Europe.

It traces the growth of a man living in Nigeria in the mid 25thcentury. In this sense it can be called a bildungsroman. Obi, the main character in the story

goes through a lot of change in the short time span in which the novel takes place. Obi’s

growth as a man is influenced by just few decisions he makes, which how great consequences for him and the others close to him .

When we look at the life of Obi we understand that this novel is a novel of growth. He grew

from a young, some what ignorant man to one who learns the meaning of family and loyalty

to his nation. Obi could have never guessed that he would accept a bribe, but he does and

has to pay for his actions. This story teaches the reader a valuable lesson as well. When in

time of trouble and turmoil, one can always turn to the people that have supported them

throughout their life. Obi does not take the initiative to do this and it ultimately brings him

to his downfall. If Obi had held true to his roots, it seems like he could have avoided mostof

the trouble he encounters in the novel.

The life and career of Obi Okonkow prove that the advent of white civilization ‘loosed’

‘blood-dimmed tide’ of anarchy on African life. No wonder people like Obi who cannot put

up with their disillusioning present meet with failure. On the one hand there is disillusion,

with the native life, which is still in the vice- like grip of outdated ideas. On the other there

is the futility of western education that proved ineffectual in closing the gulf of difference

between caste and outcaste.

CHAPTER FOUR

CONCLUSION

Chinua Achebe’s novel No Longer at Ease deals with the central problem of corruption and

bribery in Nigerian society. The novel traces the career of Obi Okonkwo, an educated

idealist Nigerian youth, who finally becomes part of what he opposed. His downfall is

brought about through matters. They his inability to fight against corruption.

The theme of bribery is highlighted in the first chapter itself. It opens with the court

sentencing Obi for bribery. The judge raises the question how a promising young man like

Obi should fall like this.

The whole novel is an answer to this. Achebe presents the problem. But he does not seem

to offer a solution to the problem of public corruption that has entrenched itself in Nigeria.

Nigerian civil service is one of the most corrupt in the would. Achebe always criticized the leaders of Nigeria and its civil servant for pillaging their country. This novel is an honest examination of the reasons behind Nigeria’s failure to sustain a clean democratic administration.