Abstract
Post-independent African nations have always floundered and are still floundering as a result of rudderless leadership – a phenomenon Chinua Achebe is always critical of in his works. The floundering of post-independent African nations is an offshoot of the failure of devoted engagement of the task of nation-building by post-independent African leaders, thus bringing in its trail tremors, corruption, poverty, oppression, exploitation, dictatorship and underdevelopment. Characteristically, in his allusive and suggestive language which challenges the reader to make discovery through self-examination and reflective thinking, Achebe beams light on the flawed approach to nation-building by post-independent African nations coupled with a panacea in Anthills of the Savannah. Towards a stable and developed post-independent African nation (typified by Kangan) using the post-colonial theory in the textual analysis and explication of Chinua Achebe’s Anthills of the Savannah, this research sees Beatrice the female protagonist who has moral, intellectual and mythical capabilities as a nation-builder equipped to develop and defend the post-colonial identity and dignity, reverse the downward developmental trend and arrest the progressive degeneration in the task of nation-building in post-independent African nations. Much as this research awakens Africans to the right course in nation-building, it also challenges the hasty pathological tendency towards feminization of Chinua Achebe’s Anthills of the Savannah in critical perspectives.
Table of Contents
Title Page: – – – – – – – – – – i
Approval Page – – – – – – – – – – ii
Certification: – – – – – – – – – – iii
Dedication: – – – – – – – – – – iv
Acknowledgments – – – – – – – – – v
Abstract: – – – – – – – – – – vii
Table of Contents: – – – – – – – – – viii
Chapter One: Introduction
1.1 The Background of the Study – – – – – – – 1
1.2 Statement of the Problem – – – – – – – 5
1.3 Purpose of the Study – – – – – – – – 6
1.4 The Scope of the Study – – – – – – – 7
Chapter Two: Literature Review
2.1 Concept of Nation-Building – – – – – – – 8
2.2 Review of Related Literature – – – – – – – 20
Chapter Three: Theoretical Framework and Methodology
3.1 Post-Colonialism – – – – – – – – 35
3.2 Methodology – – – – – – – – – 45
Chapter Four: Nation-Building in Anthills of the Savannah
4.1 Beatrice Nwanyibuife Okoh’s Involvement in Nation-Building – – 47
4.2 Intervention in Chris and Ikem’s Disagreement and the Visit to the Presidential Retreat – – – – – – – – – 47
4.3 The Women, Beatrice and Nation-Building – – – – – 55
Chapter Five: Summary/Conclusion
5.1 Summary – – – – – – – – – 61
5.2 Conclusion – – – – – – – – – 64
Works Cited – – – – – – – – – 68
Chapter One: Introduction
1.1 The Background of the Study
Chinua Achebe as a writer sees tensions, dislocations, failures, conflicts, aberrations, developments and achievements in his society as the focal point of his artistic vision. Anthills of the Savannah is an embodiment of this awareness as the novel revolves around the crumbling hopes of nation-building in a post-independent African country. A portrait of the developments in his society appears to be the fundamental concern of Chinua Achebe when he says:
It is clear to me that an African creative writer who tries to avoid the big social and political issues of contemporary Africa will end up being completely irrelevant- like the absurd man in the proverb who leaves his burning house to pursue a rat fleeing from the flames (Morning Yet on Creation Day, 78-84.)
Clearly located in the creative works of Achebe is the awareness that the dearth of functional, patriotic, responsible and intelligent leadership is the bane of post-independent African countries. He has always alerted his readers to the dangers of a leadership solely governed by obsession to mismanage available resources with selfish intent, crudely deriving nourishment from the existing social anomalies and creating false impressions of being patriotic in the eyes of the people – a phenomenon that characterizes leadership in Nigeria, but which by extension, parallels leadership in post-independent African countries. In the words of Achebe who sees such nations with pretentious leadership as doomed:
… there will always be some people whose personal, selfish interests are, in the short term at least, well served by the mismanagement and the social inequities. Naturally they will be extremely loud in their adulations of the country and its system, and will be anxious to pass themselves off as patriots and to vilify those who disagree with them as trouble-makers or even traitors. But doomed is the nation which permits such people… (The Trouble with Nigeria, 16)
Coincidentally the above description of visionless leaders parading themselves in the guise of patriots parallels General Sam in Anthills of the Savannah who sees and persecutes Chris Oriko and Ikem Osodi as traitors.
Achebe believes in the potency and the indispensability of story. A story has a transformational power as it embodies the successes and failures of any generation. It is the story which has the capacity to clear a progressive path for any generation. A generation deprived of a story parallels a people without a pair of compass or direction: such a generation is doomed and lost. The story as the hope for tomorrow forms the escort for people in every generation. This awareness informs Achebe’s conviction that:
The story is more important than the writer, although they are related naturally…it is the story that conveys all our gains, all our failures, all we hold dear and all we condemn. To convey this to the next generation is the only way we can keep going and keep alive as a people. Therefore the story is like the genes that are transferred to create new being. It is far more important than anything else (Conversations with Chinua, 159).
Solutions to the problems plaguing post-independent African nations do not lie in arrogant, sanctimonious and self-serving invocation of western ideologies such as communism, socialism, capitalism, Marxism, etc; the solutions lie in healthy exploitation of history, knowledge and experience. The present and the future can be guaranteed if history, knowledge and experience are harnessed. Western concepts regurgitated with all the panache cannot solve the problems of post-independent African countries – the solution lies in distillation of new thinking derived from healthy appropriation of history, knowledge and experience. This is the position of Achebe when he declares unequivocally that:
The writer is not a theorist. None of the “isms” – capitalism, Marxism, etc., can solve our problems. Yet, solutions can be found in Negotiation, in History – knowing where we came from. We must not allow History to be our masters. We must not become slaves to memory. We must use History and knowledge, and experience to negotiate the present (Chinua Achebe, 230-231).
Achebe’s perception of himself as a teacher appears to have suffered a misconception in the hands of some persons. This explains his deliberate redefinition and clarification of his assumption of the position of being a teacher as a writer. His perception of himself as a teacher does not predispose him to prescribe but rather he challenges the intellect of the readers towards reflective thinking and discovery. To Achebe the best way to teach pupils is to create the opportunities for them to think and discover things. Expecting a teacher to prescribe would be a parochial perception of the teacher’s role because Achebe sees himself as a teacher purely from a broad perspective:
I was never really thinking of the teacher in a narrow sense at all… Anyhow, I was not thinking of the kind of teacher who prescribes; he draws out. Education is a drawing out of what is there, leading out, helping the pupils to discover … to explore (Conversations with Chinua Achebe, 141).
The position of Achebe is very clear: it is the responsibility of the writer to challenge the readers to embrace indepth heights of self-examination so that a variety of appropriate solutions to societal ills/problems can be excavated for man’s benefit. His is a consciously persuasive creative appeal to empower the readers to discover progressive paths, not a conservative prescriptive approach. It is against the background of these various positions held by Achebe that Anthills of the Savannah will be studied, as the novel itself clearly embodies the said creative compulsive persuasion bound to move the readers down the path of self-examination and discovery. However, Emmanuel Ngara’s conviction, which coincidentally parallels Achebe’s position on creatively challenging his readers to think and make their own discoveries, is echoed here in these words:
Part of the greatness of Anthills of the Savannah lies in the fact that it does not only raise such questions. It compels the reader to reflect upon them, and there is no greater achievement writers can hope for than to be able to persuade their readers to reflect on the issues raised in their works. Anthills of the Savannah challenges the reader to address fundamental questions about society and art and to engage in the process of self-examination (Eagle on Iroko, 262).
Therefore, it is against the background of the ills, dangers and encumbrances caused by the dearth of functional visionary leadership, reflective thinking and self-examination, loss of the directional sense of history, knowledge and experience and the indispensable power of a story, as reflected in his works, that Achebe artistically awakens post-colonial African leaders to the task of nation-building in Anthills of the Savannah by challenging the readers to identify this path through reflective thinking, self-examination and discovery.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
Most critical perspectives on Chinua Achebe’s Anthills of the Savannah have often centred on how it portrays military intervention, corruption and dictatorship in post-colonial Africa resulting from bad leadership. Other perspectives also see it as a work in which Achebe has consciously elevated the status of women as a departure from his earlier works. The hitherto existing traditional inhibitions, public-private dichotomies broken, the roles and capabilities of women are enhanced for onward engagement of socio-political issues in Africa. From the feminist angle the novel is seen as an elevation and empowerment for women. Among some critics, there is a pathological inclination and gravitation towards facile feminization of any work that embodies elements of elevation and empowerment of womanhood, sometimes without careful consideration of the circumstances of the portrait. This is also at the root of most of the critical perspectives on Chinua Achebe’s Anthills of the Savannah.
No perspective sees Anthill of the Savannah indepth as Achebe’s exploration and portrait of flawed approach to nation-building in Kangan where he positions Beatrice with moral, intellectual and mythical capabilities as nation-builder in post-independent African nation, typified by Kangan. This lacuna in the critical perspectives on the novel is what this research is out to dissect, address and open up new interpretational possibilities for Anthills of the Savannah.
1.3 Purpose of the Study
The purpose of this study is to examine the flaws, ills and infractions associated with governance in post-independent African nation (Kangan) where the task of building a nation is wrongly approached to further selfish personal ends, rather than the whole nation. It is against this background of flawed nation-building efforts of General Sam in Anthills of the Savannah that Achebe has positioned Beatrice with moral, intellectual and mythical capabilities and vision as nation-builder in post-independent Africa nation. By this approach Achebe has characteristically used his art to address socio-political problems plaguing post-colonial African nations. Therefore the fundamental concern of this study is to pinpoint, highlight and identify the flaws in the nation-building efforts of General Sam and his cohorts and how the author has positioned Beatrice with the mythical, intellectual and moral capabilities as nation-builder equipped to address the developmental challenges of post-independent African countries typified by Kangan.
1.4 Scope of the Study
The study is limited to Chinua Achebe’s novel Anthills of the Savannah which sheds light on the overthrow of a civilian government by young military officers after nine years of democratic government and the placement of the power of governance of Kangan in the hands of General Sam (as Head of State) supposedly trusted to salvage the nation from careering down the precipice but sadly, he abandons the task of building a strong and progressive nation through his pathological interest in crude appropriation and accumulation of power, wealth, blind loyalty, insensitivity to the plight of the ordinary people, conservative conceptualization of the country’s belongingness to him, annihilation of oppositional forces and celebration of dictatorship and eventually leaves an embittered history.
The Female Protagonist as Nation-builder in Chinua Achebe’s Anthills of the Savannah
