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part ii

Authors and Works A–E

ACHEBE, CHINUA Anthills of the
Savannah^ (1987)
The Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe’s first novel,
thinGs FaLL apart, published in 1958, is con-
sidered by many to be the prototype for modern
African literature. In June 2007, his monumental
standing in the world of African letters was rec-
ognized when he was awarded the prestigious
Man Booker Prize for fiction. Many of the themes
introduced in that novel, such as colonialism, lan-
guage, the clash between tradition and modernity,
various forms of inequality and corruption, and the
abuse of power are important issues that Achebe (b.
1930) has continued to develop and probe in his
other novels, including his last to date, Anthills of the
Savannah. His belief that the primary responsibility
of the African writer should be to educate the peo-
ple is clearly evident in the way in which he portrays
social injustice in many of its manifestations. In Ant-
hills of the Savannah, Achebe takes aim at a corrupt
postcolonial African regime and shows how govern-
ment self-interest and power politics isolate those
who should be working on behalf of the people. This
corruption, the novel demonstrates, spreads and
repeats itself in various ways throughout society in
forms such as the wide gulf between the rich and the
poor or the educated and the illiterate, and between
males and females. In the novel, Achebe scrutinizes
unequal power relations as they are practiced in their

different forms, but he also holds out the possibility

of an alternative, more inclusive and hopeful vision.

Kerry Vincent

Gender in Anthills of the Savannah

The opening chapters of Anthills of the Savannah

introduce readers to a country that is shaped and

defined by male power politics. By the novel’s clos-

ing chapter, however, these aggressive and cynical

male voices have given way to the inclusive and

reconciliatory voices of female characters. This shift

in emphasis reflects a key recognition in the novel of

the need to reconfigure assumptions of male domi-

nation that are deeply embedded in this traditionally

patriarchal society. Achebe conveys this need for

more equitable gender relations particularly through

the gradual development of Ikem, a key male

character, and through the presence of Beatrice, an

equally important female character.

During a conversation with Chris, in which he

is attempting to explain his relationship with Sam

and Ikem, Beatrice interrupts him to exclaim, “Well,

you fellows, all three of you, are incredibly conceited.

The story of this country, as far as you are concerned,

is the story of the three of you.. .” This “story,” of

course, is exclusively male and singularly elitist, and

it is one that Achebe examines during the course

of the novel. The correlation of institutional power

with male dominance is perhaps best articulated