Documenti di Didattica
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Jasmine Melendez
World Literature
Mr. Marfield
12 November 2009
Seeing Africa through African Eyes
Texas, describes Chinua Achebe as a “Novelist of Cultural Conflict”. Achebe holds the
magnificent and unique capability of analyzing and foretelling the historical events of his
country, since only nine days after his country’s republic downfall, he published A Man of the
People. In this novel, he brings to surface a series of cultural and political issues that contaminate
his nation. The term “cultural infection” is not only an evocator of pessimistic ideas about
Chinua Achebe’s A Man of the People, his fourth book, encompasses this very same concept of
intentionally exposing the disposition of Nigerians, Achebe reveals powerful and significant
Democracy is “the free and equal right of every person to participate in a system of
government” (Encarta 2004); a first reading of A Man of the People tells the story of Odili’s
struggle for a better democracy in his country, but by analyzing carefully how each character
ineffectiveness. The story reveals the incompetence of all those who gain positions in the
government. We cannot forget Chief Nanga’s “new four storeyed building” (116), and his
immoral way of caring only about women, land property, and cars. Likewise, Odili, the main
character and narrator of the story, shockingly possesses similar traits as he proves himself
corrupt and immoral by displaying arrogant and revengeful qualities; perhaps the most noticeable
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corrupt idea that Odili possesses is his act of hypocritically joining an opposing political party,
the C.P.C., for the sole purpose of getting revenge against Chief Nanga. Additionally, Max who
is a member of the C.P.C., which by the way is a communist party, accepts a bribe; this unethical
and crooked act not only shows that the so called “educated elite” is not so different from the
“ignorant” people, but it also frames the C.P.C. as just as corrupt as the P.A.P. .We, therefore,
become conscious that the system of democracy is, consequently, inoperative. So, why is it then
I believe that the key to analyzing this significant problem is to understand the origins of
politics and its features. Well, let us just say that politics itself derived in Europe. We discover
that the “word politics originally has connotations in the ways in which to create the ideal
society” (Aristotle, 1996). The views of Plato also reveal that “politics implies measures which
could and should, in the views of their devisor, be implemented in the hope to create a better
This concept of politics further tells us, however, that it is mankind’s intrinsic nature to
be selfish, and that by trying to gain power over another, man will do whatever possible to gain
the interests of as many groups of people as possible, whether it is done honestly or dishonestly;
the men in A Man of the People know that politics implies power. Nanga is perhaps
attributes, and his main goal is to perpetuate himself by trying to get people to succumb to his
So, we see that politics derived from the European country, Athens. According to the
great philosophers, Plato and Aristotle, “Politics is a way of combating the degradation of society
into a violent and unconstructed mess by reducing it to be governed by the primitive instinct of
man in order to resolve conflict”. However, we observe that these obsolete philosophies are
contradicting because how can man resolve conflict when man himself is involved in conflict?
Consequently, not only does politics allows men to turn against each other so corruptly, but it
also proves itself dysfunctional in Odili’s society; as previously mentioned, “politics implies
measures which could and should, in the views of their devisor, be implemented in the hope to
create a better society, than that which is already present”. There is no evidence that the society
So, was all this concept of “politics” really necessary in this part of the world? Nigeria is
one of the wealthiest countries in the world, mainly because of the richness of its land! This is
just one of the colonizer’s ways of infecting a society’s culture. Odili describes his people as
contemptible and mindless, but at the same time he fails to realize that his people’s minds are as
infected as his. Even us as readers may have concluded that the people are unintelligent and
hopeless, but it just proves how our very own minds have been infected by the colonizers. It is
commonly said that the Europeans had a “civilized mission”, but A Man of the People reveals
how dysfunctional and uncivilized a colonizer’s ideas can serve in another country, Nigeria.
Lindfors contributes.
Then, with the coming of the white man, things fell apart, and anarchy
was loosed upon the Ibo world. The white men, in other words, were not
bringers of light to a dark continent, as was popularly supposed, and their
“civilizing mission” did not result in peace, order and harmony. Rather,
they were ignorant servants of a powerful English queen who disrupted a
well-ordered, cohesive, pacific society by imposing on it their own forms
of government.
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Furthermore, the realm of politics clearly points out that in a political system, conflict is
bound to occur. Placing men against each other is, as evidently seen in Ngugi Wa Thiongo’s
Weep Not Child, an effective technique that the colonizers used to control the people; the
colonizers knew that the union of African tribes was their most effective form of resistance,
which they (the colonizers) must target. Achebe knew, saw, and still knows all that was, would,
and will happen to his country, hence the revelation, A Man of the People.
Conclusively, Achebe ends his novel with no evident or meaningful solution. Even though
Nanga was overthrown, Odili and the C.P.C. were still not victorious, for Max was killed, and
Odili was hospitalized. Many, like Achebe, blame the European colonizers for the “moral
confusion and political chaos that beset African states” (Chinua Achebe: Novelist of Cultural
Conflict, 1996). Colonization has thus achieved its purpose of changing the way a people think.
Olawale Awosika, professor at Ambrose Alli University, tells us that “the African community
may still have to wait”. Achebe’s masterpiece proves that colonizer’s ideas were not after all
“civilized”, but rather dysfunctional and destructive to a society’s people and culture.
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Reference:
Aristotle: The Politics and the Constitution of Athens. 1996 Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press. Cambridge.
Olawale Awosika: The Educated Elite and the Leadership Initiative in Post-Colonial West
Africa. A Reading of Chinua Achebe’s A Man of the People. Ambrose Alli University