African Series
The Illustrated Things Fall Apart
This special, large-format, lavishly-illustrated edition of Things Fall Apart, 'Africa's best loved novel', is a timely tribute to 'the father of modern African Literature'. It is published to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of a book now considered a classic of African and World Literature. This edition uniquely blends the enduring simplicity of Achebe's tale with the creative visual talents of some of Nigeria's best and bright contemporary artists. The result is a book that will appeal to lovers of African Literature and Art the world over. A treasured testament to the art of story-tellling, Things Fall Apart Illustrated is bound to become a collector's item.
Chinua Achebe: Tributes and Reflections By Nana Ayebia Clarke
Chinua Achebe (1930-2013) is widely recognized as the founding father of modern African literature in English. His first novel, Things Fall Apart, published in 1958, not only contested European narratives about Africa, but also challenged assumptions about the form and function of the novel.
Throughout his long career, Achebe was a voice for the peoples of Africa and also a formative influence on a new generation of African writers. This volume of tributes and reflections is a fitting testament to his legacy.
Throughout his long career, Achebe was a voice for the peoples of Africa and also a formative influence on a new generation of African writers. This volume of tributes and reflections is a fitting testament to his legacy.
Challenge of the Barons By Lekan Are
In the fictional country of Kato, a successful and much-loved academic, Jungu, comes face to face with academic colonialism in the guise of American economic aid to the poor African country. Highly qualified Africans are passed over in favour of "experts" from the donor country, and students do not receive the education which is their due. Jungu comes into tense confrontation with the American dean, in his efforts to correct the policy and restore academic dignity.
Man-Eaters of Kumaon By Jim Corbett (eBook)
Jim Corbett was every inch a hero, something like a "sahib" Davy Crockett: expert in the ways of the jungle, fearless in the pursuit of man-eating big cats, and above all a crack shot. Brought up on a hill-station in north-west India, he killed his first leopard before he was nine and went on to achieve a legendary reputation as a hunter. Corbett was also an author of great renown. His books on the man-eating tigers he once tracked are not only established classics, but have by themselves created almost a separate literary genre. Man Eaters of Kumaon is the best known of Corbett's books, one which offers ten fascinating and spine-tingling tales of pursuing and shooting tigers in the Indian Himalayas during the early years of this century. The stories also offer first-hand information about the exotic flora, fauna, and village life in this obscure and treacherous region of India, making it as interesting a travelogue as it is a compelling look at a bygone era of big-game hunting.
Dark Times Are Over? By Olu Obafemi
This play satirises the decay in the university system in Nigeria as symptomatic of larger social ills: prostitution, religious zeal and cultism, corruption and social injustice.
In the drama, a young woman, Beatrice, is raped by a group of cultists. The perpetrators are brought to court. But as the judge turns out to be an aunt of one of the cultists, the court is corrupted as she bribes the police to release her nephew.
About the Author:
Olu Obafemi is a playwright, poet and scholar. He is Professor of English at the University of Ilorin, Nigeria, and President of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA). He is a notable critic of contemporary theatre in Nigeria.
Women of Owu By Femi Osofisan
This is an African retelling of Euripides: an unnervingly topical story of a people and a beloved city destroyed by the brutality of war. The play was first performed in Lagos in 2003 under the distinguished director Chuck Mike, and subsequently toured the UK.
The author introduces his work:
‘In 1821, the combined forces of the armies of two Yoruba kingdoms ransacked the city of Owu. Owu was a model city-state, one of the most prosperous and best organised of those times. The Allied Forces attacked it with the pretext of liberating the flourishing market…they slaughtered all the males and carried the females into slavery. Owu was never rebuilt…So it was quite logical that as I pondered over this adaptation of Euripides’ play in the season of the Iraqi war that the memories awakened in me should be those of the tragic Owu war…’
About the Author
Femi Osofisan
Femi Osofisan is a prolific Nigerian critic, poet, novelist, and playwright whose work attacks political corruption and injustice, was born in Erunwon village in the old Western Region of Nigeria and educated at the universities of Ibadan, Dakar, and Paris; he is a professor of drama at the University of Ibadan. Among the literary awards and commendations he has won are prizes from the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) for both drama (1980) and poetry (1989) and in 2004 he was awarded the Nigerian National Order of Merit (NNOM), the highest academic prize in that country.
Two Plays By Niyi Osundare
In the first play, The Man who Walked Away, a principled and sensitive young man who has served a multi-national company for decades, is ‘retrenched’, with severe consequences for his self-respect and his family. In the second play, The Wedding Car, a corrupt businessman and politician exercises his ambition for his daughter to marry ostentatiously, though things do not go according to plan.
About the Author
Niyi Osundare
Poet, dramatist, critic, essayist, and media columnist, Niyi Osundare has authored over ten volumes of poetry, two books of selected poems, four plays, a book of essays, and numerous articles on literature, language, culture, and society. He regards his calling as a writer and his profession as a teacher as essentially complementary.
He was educated on three continents: B.A. (Honours) from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, M.A. from the University of Leeds in England, and Ph.D. from York University, Toronto, Canada. The wide and varied exposure accruing from this has proved very useful for his writing and teaching careers. Born in Nigeria, one of the most linguistically and culturally heterogeneous countries in the world, he learnt early in life the complexities and challenges of diversity.
He began his teaching career at the University of Ibadan in 1974 and rose to the position of full professor there in 1989. From 1993 to 1997, he was the chair of its Department of English. He was a Fulbright scholar at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1990 to 1991, and in 1991/92, an associate professor of English at the University of New Orleans, where he returned as full professor in 1997, and was selected university research professor in 2001. His areas of specialization are African literature, literature of the African diaspora, literary stylistics, sociolinguistics, and creative writing
About the Author
Niyi Osundare
Poet, dramatist, critic, essayist, and media columnist, Niyi Osundare has authored over ten volumes of poetry, two books of selected poems, four plays, a book of essays, and numerous articles on literature, language, culture, and society. He regards his calling as a writer and his profession as a teacher as essentially complementary.
He was educated on three continents: B.A. (Honours) from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, M.A. from the University of Leeds in England, and Ph.D. from York University, Toronto, Canada. The wide and varied exposure accruing from this has proved very useful for his writing and teaching careers. Born in Nigeria, one of the most linguistically and culturally heterogeneous countries in the world, he learnt early in life the complexities and challenges of diversity.
He began his teaching career at the University of Ibadan in 1974 and rose to the position of full professor there in 1989. From 1993 to 1997, he was the chair of its Department of English. He was a Fulbright scholar at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1990 to 1991, and in 1991/92, an associate professor of English at the University of New Orleans, where he returned as full professor in 1997, and was selected university research professor in 2001. His areas of specialization are African literature, literature of the African diaspora, literary stylistics, sociolinguistics, and creative writing
The Bikoroa Plays By J.P. Clark
The Bikoroa Plays is a major of cycle of three plays, The Boat, The Return Home and Full Circle that were first staged in 1981 at the University of Lagos and the National Theatre of Nigeria. The Boat is a prose drama that documents Ngbilebiri history. The Return Home is a historical play set in the 1920s. Full Circle is set in the 1950s and concerns a brothers' quarrel in a traditional setting. The three plays are characterised by their dramatic qualities and unique poetic voice.
Daughters Who Walk This Path By Yejide Kilanko
Spirited and intelligent, Morayo grows up surrounded by school friends and family in Ibadan. There is Eniayo, her adoring little sister—for whose sake their middle-class parents fight stigmatising superstition—and a large extended family of cousins and aunts who sometimes make Morayo’s home their own. A shameful secret forced upon her by Bros T, her cousin, thrusts Morayo into a web of oppressive silence woven by the adults around her. Morayo must learn to fiercely protect herself and her sister as young women growing up in a complex and politically charged country.
The Broken Bond By Grace Ukala
From the begining of her life eighteen year-old Belinda has struggled hard against the immorality, oppressions and crime prevalent in the Nigerian society in which she lives. Her mother dead and her father a drunk, she chooses to work as a riceseller rather than become a prostitute. Her search for truth and spiritual development leads her through traumatic experiences. Through poverty she learns self- reliance, through physical and psychic battles with a friend in a polygamous marriage she learns to trust in her own strength. And when Chief Ojo offers her family freedom and marriage into riches Belinda must decide between the boy she loves and marrying a man for money, and her family's survival.
Season of Crimson Blossoms by Abubakar Adam Ibrahim
“A rich and vibrant novel with shades of brutality, romance and the pressures of a close-knit community. ” —Leila Aboulela, author of The Kindness of Enemies
“A powerful and compelling debut. The taboo subject of an older woman’s sexuality, portrayed with courage, skill, and delicacy, is explored in the context of the criminal underworld and the corrupt politics that exploits it. This is a novel to be savored. ” —Zoe Wicomb, author of October
Season of Crimson Blossoms tells the captivating story of an illicit affair between a twenty-five-year-old street gang leader, Hassan Reza, and a devout fifty-five-year-old widow and grandmother, Binta Zubairu, who yearns for intimacy after the sexual repression of her marriage and the pain of losing her first son. This story of love and longing—set in a conservative Muslim community in Nigeria—reveals deep emotions that defy age, class, and religion.
This novel gives a unique perspective on life and relationships in Northern Nigeria, a region vastly under-represented in the body of world literature.
Abubakar Adam Ibrahim‘s short story collection The Whispering Trees was long-listed for the Etisalat Prize for Literature in 2014, with the title story shortlisted for the Caine Prize for African Writing. Abubakar is a Gabriel Garcia Marquez Fellow (2013) and a Civitella Ranieri Fellow (2015). In 2014, Abubakar was named in the Hay Festival Africa39 list of the most promising writers under the age of forty. Season of Crimson Blossoms has been shortlisted for the $100,000 2016 NLNG Prize for Literature.
Sunset at Dawn A Novel of the Biafran War By Chukwuemeka Ike
As one of Nigeria's top writers, the author is concerned with the condition of his country. In this novel he tells, with humour, a human story set in the tragedy of the Biafran war. Fatima is fleeing the enemy planes with her young son, and through her unfolding drama, the reader sees what the war was really like through Biafran eyes.
The Trouble Wth Nigeria By Chinua Achebe
The eminent African novelist and critic, here addresses Nigeria's problems, aiming to challenge the resignation of Nigerians and inspire them to reject old habits which inhibit Nigeria from becoming a modern and attractive country. In this famous book now reprinted, he professes that the only trouble with Nigeria is the failure of leadership, because with good leaders Nigeria could resolve its inherent problems such as tribalism; lack of patriotism; social injustice and the cult of mediocrity; indiscipline; and corruption
A Walk in the Night By Alex La Guma
This collection reveals Alex La Guma as one of the most impressive of contemporary African writers. In the starkest form, it also shows, the plight of the non-whites in South Africa today.
People Of The City By Cyprian Ekwensi
A novel by the outstanding chronicler of Nigerian City Life
The Potter's Wheel By Chukwuemeka Ike
Satirist and chronicler of the many-faceted world of education in Nigeria, the author is one of Nigeria's foremost writers. In this novel, he tells of Obuechina, the only brother of six older sisters, prize pupil in the village school, apple of his doting mother's eye, eight years old and hopelessly spoilt. In a vain attempt to salvage his character, his father decides he must be sent away as a servant to a schoolmaster with a dragon of a wife. Obu goes - and comes back very different.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
IKE, (Vincent) Chukwuemeka (1931-), Nigerian novelist, was born in eastern Nigeria and educated at the University of Ibadan and at Stanford in the USA. As an educator, Ike has contributed to the intellectual and cultural development of Africa in important administrative positions at Nigerian universities and at UNESCO and as professor at the University of Jos. In 2008 he was awarded the Fonlon-Nichols Award at the African Literature Association meeting in Illinois. His novels include Toads for Supper (1965), which is set in a university and deals with love and the inherent problems that married couples from different ethnic backgrounds encounter; The Naked Gods (1970), also set in a university, which highlights the corrupt practices in the appointment of a new vice-chancellor at Songhai University; and Expo '77 (1980), in which secondary school students trying to gain admission to the university cheat in examinations. More recently, Our Children Are Coming (1990) deals with the problem of youth unrest and student revolt in colleges and universities in Nigeria: reacting to commissions of inquiry that exclude them, the students set up a counter investigation of their own. The Search (1991) is the story of the feverish patriotism of a detribalized intellectual, Ola, and his search for Nigerian unity. Ike's prose style encompasses dialogue, wit, and satire, which he employs to castigate corruption and the quest for inordinate power. The novels transcend historical, sociological, and political documentation and achieve comedy, tragedy, irony, and metaphor. He has also written How to Become a Published Writer (1991).
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
IKE, (Vincent) Chukwuemeka (1931-), Nigerian novelist, was born in eastern Nigeria and educated at the University of Ibadan and at Stanford in the USA. As an educator, Ike has contributed to the intellectual and cultural development of Africa in important administrative positions at Nigerian universities and at UNESCO and as professor at the University of Jos. In 2008 he was awarded the Fonlon-Nichols Award at the African Literature Association meeting in Illinois. His novels include Toads for Supper (1965), which is set in a university and deals with love and the inherent problems that married couples from different ethnic backgrounds encounter; The Naked Gods (1970), also set in a university, which highlights the corrupt practices in the appointment of a new vice-chancellor at Songhai University; and Expo '77 (1980), in which secondary school students trying to gain admission to the university cheat in examinations. More recently, Our Children Are Coming (1990) deals with the problem of youth unrest and student revolt in colleges and universities in Nigeria: reacting to commissions of inquiry that exclude them, the students set up a counter investigation of their own. The Search (1991) is the story of the feverish patriotism of a detribalized intellectual, Ola, and his search for Nigerian unity. Ike's prose style encompasses dialogue, wit, and satire, which he employs to castigate corruption and the quest for inordinate power. The novels transcend historical, sociological, and political documentation and achieve comedy, tragedy, irony, and metaphor. He has also written How to Become a Published Writer (1991).
Our Husband Has Gone Mad Again By Ola Rotimi
The award-winning noted playwright here takes a comic swipe at ideological misfits and opportunists who strut the ever-accommodating political landscape of contemporary Africa. A former military Major, takes to politics. His motives have far more to do with vanity than patriotism, and his attempts to adapt to a situation he hardly comprehends produce highly comic results. His predicament is complicated by the unexpected arrival of his American wife who discovers two more marriages contracted without her knowledge and her husband beset by political problems.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
The late Ola Rotimi is one of Nigeria's most well known playwright and Professor of Dramatic Arts at Obafemi Awolowo University
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
The late Ola Rotimi is one of Nigeria's most well known playwright and Professor of Dramatic Arts at Obafemi Awolowo University
Arrow of God By Chinua Achebe
Set in the Ibo heartland of eastern Nigeria, one of Africa's best-known writers describes the conflict between old and new in its most poignant aspect: the personal struggle between father and son.
Burning Grass By Cyprian Ekwensi
This is an enthralling tale of Northern Nigeria where, when the grass is burnt on the plains, the Fulani cattlemen move southwards towards the banks of the Niger. Mai Sunsaye, the hero of the story, is afflicted with the sokugo, wandering sickness.
Things Fall Apart By Chinua Achebe
THINGS FALL APART tells two overlapping, intertwining stories, both of which center around Okonkwo, a “strong man” of an Ibo village in Nigeria. The first of these stories traces Okonkwo's fall from grace with the tribal world in which he lives, and in its classical purity of line and economical beauty it provides us with a powerful fable about the immemorial conflict between the individual and society.
The second story, which is as modern as the first is ancient, and which elevates the book to a tragic plane, concerns the clash of cultures and the destruction of Okonkwo's world through the arrival of aggressive, proselytizing European missionaries. These twin dramas are perfectly harmonized, and they are modulated by an awareness capable of encompassing at once the life of nature, human history, and the mysterious compulsions of the soul. THINGS FALL APART is the most illuminating and permanent monument we have to the modern African experience as seen from within
The second story, which is as modern as the first is ancient, and which elevates the book to a tragic plane, concerns the clash of cultures and the destruction of Okonkwo's world through the arrival of aggressive, proselytizing European missionaries. These twin dramas are perfectly harmonized, and they are modulated by an awareness capable of encompassing at once the life of nature, human history, and the mysterious compulsions of the soul. THINGS FALL APART is the most illuminating and permanent monument we have to the modern African experience as seen from within
No Longer At Ease By Chinua Achebe
The story of a man whose foreign education has separated him from his African roots and made him parts of a ruling elite whose corruption he finds repugnant. More than thirty years after it was first written, this novel remains a brilliant statement on the challenges still facing African society
A Man Of The People By Chinua Achebe
By the renowned author of "Things Fall Apart," this novel foreshadows the Nigerian coups of 1966 and shows the color and vivacity as well as the violence and corruption of a society making its own way between the two worlds.
Anthills Of The Savannah By Chinua Achebe
Anthills of the Savannah is a frightening look at oil-boom Nigeria, a world of robberies, road blocks and intimidation in which those who are meant to be protecting a country's citizens are in reality supervising the looting.
The Concubine By Elechi Amadi
Ihuoma, a beautiful young widow, has the admiration of the entire community in which she lives, and especially of the hunter Ekwueme. But their passion is fated and jealousy, a love potion and the closeness of the spirit world are important factors
The Strange Man By Amu Djoleto
Mensa endures his Ghanaian childhood under the shadow of successive tyrannical headmasters. In his maturity he struggles with the trials that village jealousies and his own family lie upon him.
Weep Not Child By Ngugi Wa Thiong'O
Tells the moving story about the effects of the Mau Mau war on the lives of ordinary men and women in Kenya. In the forests, the Mau Mau are waging war against the white government, and two brothers, Kamau and Njoroge, and the rest of the family must decide where their loyalties lie
Devil on the Cross By Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o
This remarkable and symbolic novel centers on Wariinga's tragedy and uses it to tell a story of contemporary Kenya.
The River Between By Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o
Christian missionaries attempt to outlaw the female circumcision ritual and in the process create a terrible rift between the two Kikuyu communities on either side of the river.
A Grain of Wheat By Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o
Ngugi takes the reader back to the days preceding Kenya's independence. Mugo, a farmer and hero in the eyes of the villagers, is asked to deliver a speech during the Uhuru celebrations, to be held in memory of his friend Kihika. He refuses to make a speech and turns out to be a traitor.
A Question of Power By Bessie Head
"Your mother was insane. If you're not careful you'll get insane just like your mother. Your mother was a white woman. They had to lock her up, as she was having a child by the stable boy who was a native." It is never clear to Elizabeth whether the mission school principal's cruel revelation of her origins is at the bottom of her mental breakdown. She has left South Africa with her son and is living in the village of Motabeng, the place of sand, in Botswana where there are no street lights at night. In the darkness of this country where people turn and look at her with vague curiosity as an outsider she establishes an entirely abnormal relationship with two men. A mind-bending book which takes the reader in and out of sanity.
Equiano's travels Edited By Paul Edwards
Widely admired for its vivid accounts of the slave trade, Olaudah Equiano's autobiography -- the first slave narrative to attract a significant readership -- reveals many aspects of the eighteenth-century Western world through the experiences of one individual. The second edition reproduces the original London printing, supervised by Equiano in 1789. Robert J. Allison's introduction, which places Equiano's narrative in the context of the Atlantic slave trade, has been revised and updated to reflect the heated controversy surrounding Equiano's birthplace, as well as the latest scholarship on Atlantic history and the history of slavery. Improved pedagogical features include contemporary illustrations with expanded captions and a map showing Equiano's travels in greater detail. Helpful footnotes provide guidance throughout the eighteenth-century text, and a chronology and an up-to-date bibliography aid students in their study of this thought-provoking narrative.
The Heinemann Book Of Contemporary African Short Stories By Chinu Achebe
Capturing the diversity of African writing from across the continent, this important anthology draws together well-established authors and the best of new writers.
From the harsh realities of South Africa, elegantly described by Nobel Prize winner Nadine Gordimer, to the fantastic world of Booker Prize winner Ben Okri and from the magic realism of Mozambican Mia Couto to the surreal world of Ghanaian Kojo Laing, the editors have distilled the essence of contemporary African writing. Blending the supernatural and the secular, the market-place and the shrine, this anthology gives the reader a taste of the full range of African literary styles
From the harsh realities of South Africa, elegantly described by Nobel Prize winner Nadine Gordimer, to the fantastic world of Booker Prize winner Ben Okri and from the magic realism of Mozambican Mia Couto to the surreal world of Ghanaian Kojo Laing, the editors have distilled the essence of contemporary African writing. Blending the supernatural and the secular, the market-place and the shrine, this anthology gives the reader a taste of the full range of African literary styles
African Short Stories By Chinua Achebe
This anthology of 20 stories are from all over Africa, grouped geographically into four different sections - West, East, North and Southern Africa.
Houseboy By Ferdinand Oyono
Toundi Ondoua, the rural African protagonist of Houseboy, encounters a world of prisms that cast beautiful but unobtainable glimmers, especially for a black youth in colonial Cameroon. Houseboy, written in the form of Toundi's captivating diary and translated from the original French, discloses his awe of the white world and a web of unpredictable experiences. Early on, he escapes his father's angry blows by seeking asylum with his benefactor, the local European priest who meets an untimely death. Toundi then becomes "the Chief European's 'boy'--the dog of the King." Toundi's attempt to fulfill a dream of advancement and improvement opens his eyes to troubling realities. Gradually, preconceptions of the Europeans come crashing down on him as he struggles with his identity, his place in society, and the changing culture.
Second-Class Citizen By Buchi Emecheta
A poignant story of a resourceful Nigerian woman who overcomes strict tribal domination of women and countless setbacks to achieve an independent life for herself and her children.
Season of Migration to the North By Salih
The Sudanese writer al-Tayyib Salih has been described as the "genius of the modern Arabic novel." He has lived abroad for most of his life, yet his fiction is firmly rooted in the village in which he spent his early years. His most well-known work is the modern classic Mawsim al-hijra ila’l-shamal (1967; Season of Migration to the North), which received great critical attention and brought new vitality to the Arab novel.
Salih has not been a prolific writer; his early work, including Season of Migration to the North, remains the best of his oeuvre. He has received critical acclaim in both the west and the east. In Sudan he is without rival, and his writing has played a considerable part in drawing attention to Sudanese literature. Arabic literature has been dominated by social criticism, social realism, and committed literature depicting the bitter realities of life; Salih managed to break with this trend and return to the roots of his culture, capturing the mystery, magic, humor, sorrows, and celebrations of rural life and popular religion.
Salih has not been a prolific writer; his early work, including Season of Migration to the North, remains the best of his oeuvre. He has received critical acclaim in both the west and the east. In Sudan he is without rival, and his writing has played a considerable part in drawing attention to Sudanese literature. Arabic literature has been dominated by social criticism, social realism, and committed literature depicting the bitter realities of life; Salih managed to break with this trend and return to the roots of his culture, capturing the mystery, magic, humor, sorrows, and celebrations of rural life and popular religion.
Every Man is a Race By Mia Couto
18 short stories which look at the issues of civil war, petty officialdom and curruption against the backdrop of post-independence Mozambique. They tell the wider Mozambican story through tales of individual men and women, and contain many strange and fantastic incidents.
The Enemy Within By Steve Jacobs
1990s South Africa is changing. Or is it? Jewish barrister Jeremy Spielman questions this as he defends a black man accused of murder. His girlfriend's belief in the superiority of whites, the anti-Semitism, and the unfairness of the legal system, all become increasingly apparent.
So Long A Letter By Mariama Ba
This novel is in the form of a letter, written by the widowed Ramatoulaye and describing her struggle for survival. It is the winner of the Noma Award.
The Beautiful Ones Are Not Yet Born By Ayi Kwei Armah
A railway freight clerk in Ghana attempts to hold out against the pressures that impel him toward corruption in both his family and his country. The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born is the novel that catapulted Ayi Kwei Armah into the limelight. The
novel is generally a satirical attack on the Ghanaian
society during Kwame Nkrumah’s regime and the period
immediately after independence in the 1960s. It is often claimed to rank with "Things Fall Apart" as one of the high points of post-colonial African Literature.
A quote from Chapter 6:
"And where is my solid ground these days? Let us say just that the cycle from birth to decay has been short. Short, brief. But otherwise not at all unusual. And even in the decline into the end there are things that remind the longing mind of old beginnings and hold out the promise of new ones, things even like your despair itself. I have heard this pain before, only then it was multiplied many, many times, but that may only be because at that time I was not so alone, so far apart. Maybe there are other lonely voices despairing now. I will not be entranced by the voice, even if it should swell as it did in the days of hope. I will not be entranced, since I have seen the destruction of the promises it made. But I shall not resist it either. I will be like a cork. It is so surprising, is it not, how even the worst happenings of the past acquire a sweetness in the memory. Old harsh distresses are now merely pictures and tastes which hurt no more, like itching scars which can only give pleasure now. Strange, because when I can think soberly about it all, with out pushing any later joys into the deepr past, I can remember that things were terrible then. When the war was over the soldiers came back to homes broken in their absence and they themselves brought murder in their hearts and gave it to those nearest them. I saw it, not very clearly, because I had no way of understanding it, but it frightened me. We had gone on marches of victory and I do not think there was anyone mean enough in spirit to ask whether we knew what we were celebrating. Whose victory? Ours? It did not matter. We marched, and only a dishonest fool will look back on his boyhood and say he knew even then that there was no meaning in any of it. It is so funny now, to remember that we all thought we were welcoming victory. Or perhaps there is nothing funny here at all, and it is only that victory itself happens to be the identical twin of defeat.
novel is generally a satirical attack on the Ghanaian
society during Kwame Nkrumah’s regime and the period
immediately after independence in the 1960s. It is often claimed to rank with "Things Fall Apart" as one of the high points of post-colonial African Literature.
A quote from Chapter 6:
"And where is my solid ground these days? Let us say just that the cycle from birth to decay has been short. Short, brief. But otherwise not at all unusual. And even in the decline into the end there are things that remind the longing mind of old beginnings and hold out the promise of new ones, things even like your despair itself. I have heard this pain before, only then it was multiplied many, many times, but that may only be because at that time I was not so alone, so far apart. Maybe there are other lonely voices despairing now. I will not be entranced by the voice, even if it should swell as it did in the days of hope. I will not be entranced, since I have seen the destruction of the promises it made. But I shall not resist it either. I will be like a cork. It is so surprising, is it not, how even the worst happenings of the past acquire a sweetness in the memory. Old harsh distresses are now merely pictures and tastes which hurt no more, like itching scars which can only give pleasure now. Strange, because when I can think soberly about it all, with out pushing any later joys into the deepr past, I can remember that things were terrible then. When the war was over the soldiers came back to homes broken in their absence and they themselves brought murder in their hearts and gave it to those nearest them. I saw it, not very clearly, because I had no way of understanding it, but it frightened me. We had gone on marches of victory and I do not think there was anyone mean enough in spirit to ask whether we knew what we were celebrating. Whose victory? Ours? It did not matter. We marched, and only a dishonest fool will look back on his boyhood and say he knew even then that there was no meaning in any of it. It is so funny now, to remember that we all thought we were welcoming victory. Or perhaps there is nothing funny here at all, and it is only that victory itself happens to be the identical twin of defeat.