My OperaBook Review: No Longer At Ease by Chinua Achebe
Wednesday, June 13, 2012 9:06:52 PM
This story is a sequel to Things Fall Apart. The protagonist is Obi Okonkwo, son of Isaac Okonkwo (nee Nwoye in Things Fall Apart) and grandson of Obguefi Okonkwo.
Obi as a little boy lived in Umuofia with his family and was exceptionally brilliant so he earned a scholarship (which was really a loan) from the Umuofia Progressive Union(UPU) to study Law in England but ended up pursuing a degree in English to the dismay of his benefactors. Obi returns home to Nigeria after his four years study where he must battle enshrined customs and traditions of his people.
One such tradition was the taboo of marrying an Osu (some sort of a descendant of a slave to a fetish). Obi met Clara and fell in love but is not permitted to marry her because “her great-great- great-great -grandfather had been dedicated to serve a god, thereby setting himself apart and turning his descendants into a forbidden caste to the end of time.” However, Obi’s firm resolution to marry her causes his ailing mother to threaten him with suicide should he go ahead to marry her. Even more surprising is Isaac Okonkwo’s refusal to allow Obi to marry Clara. Isaac Okonkwo is a staunch Christian( a Catechist in the Catholic church) who will not be even permit his wife to tell folktales to their children because his deemed them to be from heathens( Here, one wonders about the negative effects of the spread of Christianity on local cultures). He even tells Obi that “Because I suffered I understand Christianity – more than you will ever do” yet likens being an Osu to leprosy thus making Clara unsuitable for a wife. Obi’s friends and members of the UPU make his decision even more daunting when they all speak against his intentions to marry Clara.
Another practice was bribery which was so endemic in Nigeria that it was almost inescapable in every government institution and which led to Obi’s eventual downfall. It is worth mentioning here that Mr. Green, Obi’s boss who is English has revulsion for “educated Nigerians” because his deems them slothful given all the holidays they are entitled to in a year yet seems to kind for the underprivileged and even pays school fees for his house help’s son. To Mr. Green, “The African is corrupt through and through.” Obi however resolves never to take bribes. Yet, it is his insentience on not taking bribes coupled with other unforeseen expenses like the payment of insurance for his new car, payment of his ailing mother’s hospital bills, reimbursement of his scholarship funds to the UPU and repayment of Clara’s loan together with a host of people seeking his underhand influence on the scholarship board on which Obi served in return for kickbacks in cash or kind (e.g. Mr. Mark’s sister’s implicit offer of sex for a recommendation to the scholarship board) finally causes him to buckle and yield to taking bribes which eventually leads to his arrest.
Obi’s predicament is no different from many today. Many young Ghanaians are in a fix owing to their new purview of life as a result of their education(and faith) juxtaposed with their local customs. For instance, it is an unspoken taboo for some to intermarry among certain ethnic groups for reasons which border on triviality or mere tradition. Indeed many today, like Obi, can be said to be “No Longer At Ease”
Obi as a little boy lived in Umuofia with his family and was exceptionally brilliant so he earned a scholarship (which was really a loan) from the Umuofia Progressive Union(UPU) to study Law in England but ended up pursuing a degree in English to the dismay of his benefactors. Obi returns home to Nigeria after his four years study where he must battle enshrined customs and traditions of his people.
One such tradition was the taboo of marrying an Osu (some sort of a descendant of a slave to a fetish). Obi met Clara and fell in love but is not permitted to marry her because “her great-great- great-great -grandfather had been dedicated to serve a god, thereby setting himself apart and turning his descendants into a forbidden caste to the end of time.” However, Obi’s firm resolution to marry her causes his ailing mother to threaten him with suicide should he go ahead to marry her. Even more surprising is Isaac Okonkwo’s refusal to allow Obi to marry Clara. Isaac Okonkwo is a staunch Christian( a Catechist in the Catholic church) who will not be even permit his wife to tell folktales to their children because his deemed them to be from heathens( Here, one wonders about the negative effects of the spread of Christianity on local cultures). He even tells Obi that “Because I suffered I understand Christianity – more than you will ever do” yet likens being an Osu to leprosy thus making Clara unsuitable for a wife. Obi’s friends and members of the UPU make his decision even more daunting when they all speak against his intentions to marry Clara.
Another practice was bribery which was so endemic in Nigeria that it was almost inescapable in every government institution and which led to Obi’s eventual downfall. It is worth mentioning here that Mr. Green, Obi’s boss who is English has revulsion for “educated Nigerians” because his deems them slothful given all the holidays they are entitled to in a year yet seems to kind for the underprivileged and even pays school fees for his house help’s son. To Mr. Green, “The African is corrupt through and through.” Obi however resolves never to take bribes. Yet, it is his insentience on not taking bribes coupled with other unforeseen expenses like the payment of insurance for his new car, payment of his ailing mother’s hospital bills, reimbursement of his scholarship funds to the UPU and repayment of Clara’s loan together with a host of people seeking his underhand influence on the scholarship board on which Obi served in return for kickbacks in cash or kind (e.g. Mr. Mark’s sister’s implicit offer of sex for a recommendation to the scholarship board) finally causes him to buckle and yield to taking bribes which eventually leads to his arrest.
Obi’s predicament is no different from many today. Many young Ghanaians are in a fix owing to their new purview of life as a result of their education(and faith) juxtaposed with their local customs. For instance, it is an unspoken taboo for some to intermarry among certain ethnic groups for reasons which border on triviality or mere tradition. Indeed many today, like Obi, can be said to be “No Longer At Ease”
