Ikem conveys his recognition of the dispar-
ity between social classes during a speech at the
university that he entitles “ ‘The Tortoise and the
Leopard—a political meditation on the imperative
of struggle.’ ” This traditional story, first told to Ikem
by the chief of the Abazon delegation, emphasizes
the importance of resistance and of leaving a mark
to act as inspiration for those who follow. Ikem,
then, draws on and updates traditional folk wisdom
to address an urban student body and challenge
them to acknowledge his earlier insight that “It is
the failure of our rulers to re-establish vital inner
links with the poor and dispossessed of this country,
with the bruised heart that throbs painfully at the
core of the nation’s being.”
Ikem’s challenge represents a culmination of
his own recent awareness of the distance between
the educated elite and the working poor and the
peasants. His initial complacent belief in a kind of
solidarity with the underclass is humorously enacted
when he finds himself locked in a battle against a
determined taxi driver during a traffic jam. Ikem
wins the contest because he is not afraid to dam-
age his already beaten-up car, but he subsequently
comes to realize how petty his victory was when the
taxi driver later finds him and apologizes for daring
to challenge such an eminent figure. During their
meeting, conducted in the largely working-class
language of pidgin English, Ikem feels exhilaration
over “this rare human contact across station and
class,” but he wonders, nonetheless, about the huge
divide between the privileged and the poor.
A taxi driver also figures in Chris’s forced plunge
into the world of the lower classes, a transformation
that is realistically and figuratively conveyed by the
worker’s clothing that he puts on as a disguise to
help him negotiate roadblocks set up throughout the
city. Chris also realizes that his own educated speech
is now a liability, and his switch to pidgin reinforces
his immersion in a class that he had previously taken
for granted. He is only saved from detection by his
taxi driver’s interventions, and once out of danger he
announces, “To succeed as small man no be small
thing.”
Beatrice, too, learns some humility during the
hunt for Chris, to the point where she is even able to
recognize something of the unhappiness of Agatha,
her domestic worker, and to break down the rigid
employer-employee relationship with the simple
words, “I am sorry Agatha.” She is further humbled
after recognizing the sacrifices made by a very poor
family to shelter and protect Chris. Her concern
for Chris and desire to be with him comes at the
expense of the family’s own privacy, and her aware-
ness of their generosity is partly what allows her to
reassess her relationship with Agatha and recognize
“the absurd raffle-draw that apportioned the desti-
nies of post-colonial African societies.”
In the novel’s final pages, Beatrice decodes
Chris’s dying words, “The last green,” which alludes
to just how tentative the assumed heights of the
powerful elite really are, and she concludes, “This
world belongs to the people of the world not to any
little caucus, no matter how talented.” In light of
Achebe’s scathing critique of the powerful, educated
elite, it is certainly appropriate that he chooses to use
pidgin English and give the novel’s final supportive
and comforting words to the half-literate salesgirl,
Elewa.
Kerry VincentACHEBE, CHINUA Things Fall
Apart (1958)
In 1958, Chinua Achebe published Things Fall
Apart, which depicts the tragic downfall of a strong
African clansman faced with the budding pres-
ence of colonialism. Okonkwo, Achebe’s central
character, represents a man tied to his clan’s culture;
moreover, Okonkwo represents the essence of male
vigor within the tribe as he strives to lead the clan
with strength and stoicism, persistently avoiding the
appearance of weakness. Yet Okonkwo’s strength
falters under the weight of an ever-changing Africa
when his family and his clan encounter a new way
of living through the white man’s Christian religion.
The first part of the novel centers on Okonkwo,
his family, and the rituals of his tribe. Achebe
depicts how Okonkwo’s relationships with his father,
Unoka; his son, Nwoye; his daughter, Enzima; and
Ikemefuna, a boy who calls Okonkwo father, all
define Okonkwo’s identity. Despite his trials in the
beginning of the novel, including his exile from the
clan, the true test of Okonkwo’s strength comes126 Achebe, Chinua