Literature of Politics: Of Dormancy or Doggedness; Finding Meanings in Chinua Achebe's A Man of the People. (original) (raw)
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A Political Analysis of A Man of the People by Chinua Achebe
2017
This present research paper is concerned with one of the most successful and political novelists in the twentieth century Africa named,Chinua Achebe, who could really depict the real situation of his country, Nigeria, in terms of political instability and corruption. Especially, in his fourth produced novel entitled, A Man of the People in which he portrays his birthplace as one of the most corrupted countries around the world during post-independence era. Achebe is a Nigerian author who writes about different aspects of his country during his lifetime and the reflection of his society could be noticed very clearly in his literary works; especially, in his selected novel. Achebe based his most prominent characters in his novel like M.A. Nanga and Odille on some political figures of his time who have a major role in the corruption in Nigeria. In this sense, his chosen literary text can be seen and read as political source for his country. Keywords: Chinua Achebe, Corruption, Poli...
African Literature as a tool for National Development: A Case of Chinua Achebe's A Man of the People
1 After the independence in 1960 Nigeria assumes the role of a free nation with hope of developing itself to its capacity in all spheres of life; politically, economically, educationally, socially and spiritually. Unfortunately, those that assumed the leadership failed to realize the dream of Nigerians. So, the country turned into the land of corruption and misrule. Considering the situation of the country, a very prolific and reputable writer (Chinua Achebe) writes to expose such evil acts of the leaders in his fourth novel, A Man of the People. His intense experience and ability to understand the reality of Nigerian environment which he portrays in the novel (A Man of the People) has a great impact in the lives of Nigerians. This paper seeks to explore such great work of arts with hope it will provide a sustainable development for the nation if used.
A Critical Analysis of Post-Independence African Leadership in Chinua Achebe’s a Man of the People
International Journal of Innovative Research and Development
The attainment of independence by most African countries in the sixties aroused in the mind of most Africans a feeling of happiness and hope. Most Africans thought that their conditions were going to shift from poverty to prosperity since the destiny of the continent is now in the hands of their own brothers who promised a better future for the continent. This legitimate aspiration of the masses has been thwarted by these new African leaders who took over from their former white colonisers. This state of things has accurately been portrayed in literary works. Writers, being part of the society and feeling indebted to it, could not stay aloof. They too, through their works of art, suggest some ways out of the myriad of challenges confronting the entire human race. These writers believe that literature, in its fictiveness, proffers means which, when well employed, could help human society to revisit some social iniquities or injustices that constitute most of the time a heavy stumbling block to its sustainable development. It is to respond to this need of reconstructing African societies that Achebe, faithful to his mission of awareness-raising, wrote this novel, in which he exposes the weaknesses and the sickness of post-colonial African leaders' ruling of the continent. He portrayed his country which is symbolized by the sickness of the leader. Achebe like many African writers of the postcolonial era acknowledges the cardinal role of creative literature when it comes to the matter of human redressing. This is why he wrote A Man of the People, in which he mocked at the leadership of post-independence African rulers. Through the portrayal of the chief M. A. Nanga, one of the major characters from the novel, the writer succeeded in revealing the true nature of post-colonial African leaders. This article purports to evaluate critically the leadership of post-independence African leaders in Achebe's A Man of the People. The work also aims to show how Chinua Achebe has used this novel to reflect the Socio-political realities of the entire African continent. Furthermore, the article seeks to demonstrate how postindependence African leaders have deviated from democracy to dictatorship and to point out the shortcomings of the contemporary African societies. The only change Africans witnessed was a new form of colonization but now orchestrated their own brothers who took over the destinies of the new nations in hands. It becomes clear that the new elite who took over continued the same system of their former white colonizers. They failed to satisfy the need of their populations whose conditions are still alike. The analysis of this article will be conducted in the light of post-colonial theory. 2. The Portrayal of Post-Colonial African Leadership in a Man of People Most of Chinua Achebe's novels set in sixties such as A Man of the People portray post-independence Africa, where leaders have shifted from the norms of democracy to personal and autocratic rule, Mavis Thokozile Macheka (2014). The fictionalized country depicted in the novel is Nigeria, one of West African countries that can be the representative of the whole Africa. Corruption, personal cult, violence, the embezzlement of country's wealth is what characterize this society.
Abstract: Gabriel Okara‟s The Voice and Chinua Achebe‟s A Man of the People represent two periods of African political life. The former stands for the one-party system whereas the latter is set in a multi-party system, which proves the complementarity of the two novels. Both show the particularity of politics in African countries. African-like politics is characterized by totalitarian regime and African leaders‟ negative attitude to political opposition, just because these leaders have the mania of staying in power for as long as possible. Keywords: African countries; One-party system; Multi-party system; Totalitarian regime;
Social and Political Unrest in Chinua Achebe’s A Man of the People: A Study
Roots International Journal of Multidisciplinary Researches, Impact Factor 0.811 , 2015
by V.Jeya Santhi & Dr.R.Selvam Chinua Achebe was a distinguished Igbo (Ibo) novelist, renowned for his unsentimental depiction of the social and psychological renovation associated with the imposition of western customs, education and values upon traditional African society. His particular concern is with evolving Africa at the moment of crisis. Similar to the diasporic experience, the modernity is contested and out of this conflict, new identities with a firm moral order out of changing values are constructed. Achebe’s fourth novel A Man of the People (1966) exemplifies his goal of social realism; and it is an attempt to restore the lost dignity of his people by allowing his readers to examine their past and to resolve what he terms a ‘crisis in the soul’. To achieve a realistic effect, Achebe created the protagonist Odili Samalu, a representative of the new intellectual generation in opposition to the Chief Nanga, Odili’s former teacher, a representative of the old bush politicians. The realization of Odili that the country could be made much better if he went up against “a man of the people” who in reality was “a man against the people” and the subsequent events foreshadow the Nigerian Revolution of 1966. The paper examines how the political, social and economic unrest relate to the transition in the context of a post-colonial African country as depicted in A Man of the People.
Arab World English Journal For Translation and Literary Studies, 2017
This paper sheds light on the possible hope for the Nigerian situation in Chinua Achebe's A Man of the People (1966), away from bankrupt intellectuals, corrupt politicians, and an ignorant public. This novel portrays two schools of ineffectual native educators who seem to be antagonists: the traditional old school and the new modern intellectuals. Postcolonial/race theories of Fanon, Appiah, Du Bois, and Woodson as well as Gramsci's notion of the "organic intellectual" are employed to get a clearer image of the role of intellectuals and politicians in shaping the future of a country in the post-independence era. The article concludes that intellectuals with European education may contribute to the corruption of their country due to reasons like divided loyalties, miseducation, and lack of communication with the public. Additionally, Achebe is critical of the current politicians and the excluded public. So, our analysis employs Woodson's concept of "the miseducation of the Negro" because such "miseducation" produces incompetent politicians like Chief Nanga, weak intellectuals like Odili Samalu, and ignorant people like the public in the novel. Real hope against governmental corruption in Achebe's satirical novel can be found in integrating the class of intellectual/political leaders and the public and in a different kind of indoctrination, neither colonial nor neo-colonial. The truly educated class and the "organic intellectuals" produced from the public are key solutions for a better "Nigeria." Hence, this article highlights the role of politicized education in post-independence nation building and tackles the mishaps of nascent nationalism.
Post-Colonial Literature in Africa A Man of the People by Chinua Achebe
2015
The present study seeks for investigating the manifestations of colonialism and post-colonialism movements in the African societies, and how literary works dealt with these movements either by defending and rationalizing, or by criticizing and refuting them. The first part starts with colonialism movement, and it briefly discusses the different reasons of the emergence of this movement in Europe, and how it moved to the African continent, whereas the next section addresses the legitimacy of colonialism in literary works about Africa, and mainly about Morocco and Algeria. The following part deals with the negative impacts of the colonial countries in the colonized territories, and how some writers censured this movement, and resisted against its notions. Finally, this entry draws more attention to the Africans’ reaction against colonialism, and their disillusionment after gaining the independence. The second part focuses on post-colonialism and the literary works that appeared at that time, and it starts with a brief introduction about this movement, and then, examines some post-colonial literary works that had negative perspectives towards this movement. Also, this entry addresses the post-colonial African books that view colonialism in the same negative way. The final section deals with a post-colonial novel which is A Man of the People by Chinua Achebe, and it includes a brief summary about the novel as well as it reviews the significance of its title, and finally it discusses the theme of corruption in the same book.
POST-COLONIAL GRATIFICATION AND CORRUPTION: A CRITICAL ASSESSMENT OF ACHEBE'S 'A MAN OF THE PEOPLE'
IASET, 2020
Post-colonialism is borne at the very first moment of colonial contact. It is the speech of resistance which colonialism brings into being. The post-colonial literature shows the upshot of colonialism. It reveals the nostalgic self of the colonized. A colonized is bound to put up with the different disconcerting situations. He has to have high resistance and fortitude against lots of uncalled-for and inevitable conflicts. The postcolonial writers bring into light the suppression of a vast wealth of indigenous cultures beneath the weight of imperial control. As Ashcroft, Griffiths and Tiffin pertinently assert, "All post-colonial societies are still subject in one way or another to overt or subtle forms of neo-colonial domination, and independence has not solved his problem". The primary concern of Chinua Achebe was his society, more precisely, the destiny of his people. Achebe, perhaps the most authentic literary voice from Africa, wrote not only to record the African, especially Nigerian, life but to analyze the reality experienced by the native people in different times and situations. In his view, the writer must be accountable to his society. To him it was absurd to think of art as a pure and autonomous entity coming into existence by itself in an aesthetic void. Accordingly, his aim was to make his fiction an instrument of awareness seeking to eliminate hydra-headed criminality and injustice. In this regard, the study is an attempt to show Achebe's endeavour to expose the rampant corruption and criminality in Nigeria to exert a decisive and positive influence on his people. For Achebe, the intrigues and contestation over power, especially within the civil service, assume a metaphoric significance in unraveling social contradictions in society. Achebe thus evaluates the various dimensions of power and how it is used to subjugate or tyrannize people. He evokes a consciousness, concerned with Manichaeism, alienation and characters that can adjust to the uncertainties of a postcolonial society with all the indices of underdevelopment, greed, corruption, bureaucratic, self-aggrandizement, tardiness, indiscipline, political instability etc. The study adopts the content assessment approach in order to unravel the constructive semantics and understanding of the post-colonial works.
A Postcolonial analysis of Chinua Achebe's A man of the People
A postcolonial analysis of Chinua Achebe's A Man of the People, 2020
This paper was a postcolonial analysis of Chinua Achebe's novel, A Man of the People. The paper was of the argument that there is a need to look into various texts from a postcolonial perspective in order to unveil that which is concealed so as to provide a means of resisting the coloniser for the colonised. Postcolonial literature is key in understanding the coloniser and the colonised in aspects, such as politics, culture and education among others. From this analysis, it was concluded that Achebe's novel, A Man of the People is an element of postcolonial literature on its own as it is representative of contrasts of political, social, economic, cultural and moral aspects.