In the early novels of the Nigerian tradition, the foreigner is mostly aEuropean, but his functional roles in the narrative differ depending onthe relationship to the protagonist. In Things Fall Apart, he is theantagonist of Okonkwo, though he does not seem to distinguish thepeople of Umuofia as individuals, and never realizes the nature of hisrelationshiptothehero.Okonkwo,however,seeshimsettingupanew power system, in which decision-making is his preserve, andothersmay participatetotheextentthathe allows.
In Umuofia's traditional system, now under pressure from theEuropean, the power of decision-making belongs to the elders. But aswe see in Akwanya, Language and Habits of Thought (1999:126-128),the functioning of power relations in the senate of Umuofia elders ismuchmorecomplexthanfirstappears.Decision-makingatthehighest levels is by an invisible and anonymous group sometimescoveredbythetermtheclan,or'Umuofia.'Notwithstandinghisstature as the 'greatest wrestler and warrior alive' (Things Fall Apart82), Okonkwo never makes it into that ruling elite, and each time itmakes a decision affecting him, this decision has to be conveyed tohim by someone else. For instance, when the fate of Ikemefuna isdecided,itis Ogbuefi Ezeudu wholets Okonkwoknowaboutit:
Thatboycallsyoufather.Donotbearahandinhis death.Okonkwowassurprised,andwasabouttosaysomethingwhen
214FiftyYearsof theNigerianNovel
the,oldmancontinued:'Yes,Umuofiahasdecidedtokillhim'(40).
It is probably into this powerful echelon that Okonkwo would haveentered, if he had achieved his great ambition, to become 'one of thelords of the clan' (92). This anonymous and invisible council is thebodythatspeaksfortheentirecommunity,andisreferredtobyOgbuefi Ezeudu as 'Umuofia.' It is the council in which the highestdecisions of war and peace are taken, even though they would in somecases be presented to the full assembly of the elders, who then maketheir own the decisions presented to them (8). But of course, somemajor decisions do originate at the general assembly; for example, thedecision to burn down Mr Smith's church and expel the missionaries(137).
TheinterventionofthewhitemanranklesespeciallybecauseitisthehighestpowersofgovernmentofUmuofiathatheisfirsttotryto appropriate to himself—the district commissioner's key assignmentafter all is the pacification of formerly self-governing communities.Abame which attempts to challenge him in this regard is wiped out.This supreme authority is equally portrayed at work in the arrest, trial,and execution of Aneto after his fight with Oduche leads to the latter'sdeath (125). But the community does not yet see the full implicationsof the white man's activities, until the arrest and detention of theirleaders and exaction of reparation for the destruction of Mr Smith'schurch.
For Okonkwo the goal is set from the first moment he hears ofthe arrival of the white man in Umuofia. What he wishes to see is theremovalofthatforeignertryingtoreorganizesocialandculturallifein line with a code he alone understands. Whereas the district officerhas not identified Okonkwo as a specific individual, his enemy, hiscommitmenttotheneutralizingbyforcewhateverandwhoeveropposes his rule means that he is not prepared to try to understand themotivation of the other. No more is Okonkwo prepared to go behindthe actionsofthe opponent.
By contrast, in Arrow of God, some kind of effort to come to anunderstandingis reflected intheearly relationship betweenEzeuluandWinterbottom.Butasthe structureoftheirsubsequentantagonism
FiftyYearsof theNigerianNovel215
reveals,theirstudyofoneanother,particularlyinthecaseofWinterbottom, is to see to what extent the other could be mobilized tohelpinattainingone'sownaims.Winterbottomconfessestohisassistant that there is something enigmatic about Ezeulu, somethingworth knowing. In the hearings over the land war with Okperi, all thewitnesses on both sides are said to perjure themselves, except Ezeulu.AndWinterbottomcomments:
'Ihavenotfoundoutwhatitwas,butIthinkhemusthavehad
someprettyfiercetabuworking onhim'(38).
However, we do not see him busy himself trying to find out. Perhapsthe question does not strike him deeply enough, or maybe he thinks ofit as something he has every chance of stumbling upon sooner or later.He does not seem to think of it at all when he has an assignment heconsiders the chief priest fit for. Little does he know what headache hewould have saved his administration if only he had followed up thatquestion.
On the other hand, Ezeulu has sought from the start to makethings out, to understand. The white man has spoken to him aboutsendingoneofhischildrentoschool,andhehadpromisedtodoso.He makes no move, however, for three years, 'to satisfy himself thatthe white man had not come for a short visit but to build a house andlive.' When he does send his son Oduche, it is in order to observe thewhitemanatcloserquarters. Heinstructs him asfollows:
'I want one of my sons to join these people and be my eye there.If there is nothing in it you willcome back. But if there issomethingthereyouwillbringhomemyshare'(15-46).
What he learns for a certainty is that the white man has come to stay:hisefforts can yieldno furtherinsights.
In the relationship of Okonkwo and the district commissioner, theunderstandingisthatwhoeveristocarrythedaywillhavetooverwhelm the other through sheer force. Okonkwo will be driven toconcedepreponderancetothewhitemanwhenhefindshimselfabandonedandaloneinconfrontationwithanopponentwhodoesnot
216FiftyYearsof theNigerianNovel
need to exert force personally and directly in order to be effective, ashe has an endless series of agents and intermediaries anxious to makehiswarstheir own.
In Achebe's No Longer at Ease and Soyinka's The Interpreters,the foreigner appears as an interested observer, with the attitude ofhaving bequeathed a legacy to be carried and handed on by a few ofthe locals, who are handpicked, so to speak. Obi Okonkwo is one oftheseelectinNoLongeratEase,andisseenbyhisbossMrGreenasa protege. He is the one who hands down to the protégé aspects of theknowledge of everyday life essential in the civilization of which Obiwould be in the spearhead at the foreigners' withdrawal. When heinstructs Obi about the yearly insurance premium, for instance, 'It waslikethevoiceofJoelthesonofPethuel.'But hejustifieshimself:
'It is, of course, none of my business really. But in a countrywhere even the educated have not reached the level of thinkingabouttomorrow,onehasaclearduty.'Hemadetheword'educated' sound like vomit. Obi thanked him for his advice (NoLongeratEase87).
Obi Okonkwo accepts Mr Green's advice, but he is ill at ease with hispatronage.Mentally,heiscriticalofit;andsoheobservesthepeculiar ring of Mr Green's patronizing voice, and the 'taste' of thewordeducated, whenitisthrown at himby theboss.
For his own part, Mr Green understands the patronage he offersasa good turn, atany rate a duty. He would likeit to be understoodandacceptedasagoodturn.Hisstewarddoesso.Therefore,heextends it to its fullest: he pays his steward's son's school fees. Onlythe educated Africans, of whom 'he says the most outrageous things'(95), make it difficult for him to adopt the whole country into hispatronage. But that his instinctual response to the country is one ofadoption is seen in the kind of civil service code he would like to givethe educated Africans, it is a code in which work and self-sacrifice arethedominantthemes.Someofthesacrificeshewouldliketoseemade have to do with cutting down on some of the privileges of theseniorcivilservants,suchasleaveandallowances.Andhedoesnot
FiftyYearsof theNigerianNovel217
accept Obi's excuse thatit is a matter for the government to decide,not his:
It's people like you who ought to make the government decide.That is what I have always said. There is no single Nigerian whoispreparedtoforgoalittleprivilegeintheinterestsofhiscountry, from your ministers down to your most junior clerk.Andyou tell me youwanttogovern yourselves'(139).
The new nation can ill-afford the high cost of funding the privilegeswhich have traditionally belonged to the senior civil servants. But ifMr Green and his fellow expatriates havehad all these privilegesuncomplainingly up until now, he is obviously using double standardsto be complaining now. This is why Obi hears something hypocriticalinhis patronizingtone.
Accordingly, the longer Obi is in contact with patronizing MrGreen, the more his own attitude towards the foreigner hardens. In hisview, Mr Green's charity to his steward's family is because he can seethem somehow in terms of the received image of Africa, 'the belovedbush full of human sacrifice' (96), the Africa he can take by the handand bring to the light. His sarcastic tones with Obi and the outrageousthingssaidabouttheeducatedAfricansareprobablyaformofpunishment meted out at the unconscious level against these personswho have failed to resolve into the received and well-liked image ofAfrica.
AgainstMrGreen'spreconceivednotionaboutAfricaandAfricanness,ObiproposesthefigureofConrad'sKurtzastheEuropean colonizer par excellence, and the image by means of whichto comprehend his opponent. In this retaliatory reduction, Mr Green isa figure of Kurtz. He is even threatened—Obi keeps this at the level ofconsciousness—withanovelinwhichhewillbenamedandcharacterizedbymeans of thisimage.Weread:
WithaflashofinsightObirememberedhisConradwhichhehad read for his degree. 'By the simple exercise of our will wecan exert a power for good practically unbounded.' That was MrKurtzbeforetheheartofdarknessgothim.Afterwardshehad
218FiftyYearsof theNigerianNovel
written: 'Exterminate all the brutes.' It was not a close analogy,of course. Kurtz had succumbed to the darkness, Green to theincipient dawn. But their beginning and end was alike. 'I mustwrite a novel on the tragedy of the Greens of this century,' hethought,pleased with hisanalysis(97).
The struggle between Obi and Green is entirely psychic, and consistsof characterizing by a name, by reducing to a category of thought, byclassification. Obidoesnothavethelast word, however. Mr Greenhasthesatisfaction,whenObistumblesandfalls,todeclarehimamaninthe old and familiarimage of Africa.
To his fellow Europeans amazed and surprised that Obi shouldtake a bribe, he offers explanation that it is because he is an African.He has only been acting out his nature, for the 'African is corruptthrough and through.' What disposes the African in this way is alsoknown to Mr Green. His account stands to him as objective reality, forwhichhisownexperienceistheconfirmation.AndwhatgrieveshimisthatyoungerpeoplenewlyarrivedfromEuropeneverseemtonoticethe'facts,'namely:
'The fact that over countless centuries the African has been thevictim of the worst climate in the world and of every imaginabledisease. Hardly his fault. But he has been sapped mentally andphysically. We have brought him Western education. But whatuseis itto him?' (3).
In bothThingsFallApartandNoLongeratEase,therefore,therelationship between the foreigner and the subject of the narrative, ahighly self-aware individual, is struggle. What is different is the modeof this struggle. In Things Fall Apart, the two do not come to physicalgrips because of the intermediaries that separate them. Okonkwo isforced to leave his people behind, in his single-minded pursuit of hisadversary. Thus isolated, he fights and loses as an individual. In NoLonger at Ease, Obi's mode of self-disablement is by channelling allhisenergyintoaprivatestrugglewithtradition,whichhealsoloses.Inneithercase,therefore,doesthestruggleleadtotheshakingofthe
FiftyYearsof theNigerianNovel219
self-assuranceoftheforeigner.Itisevendoubtfulthathegetsagoodfight.
InTheInterpreters,Westerneducationdoesnotnecessarilybring awareness of self; rather the characters who have attained thehighest levels of the kind of education are the ones who thoughtlesslyaccept the patronage of the foreigners. That is the case with ProfessorOguazor, Mr Faseyi, Dr Lumoye, and all the rest, who affect Westernculture, and are happy with themselves if people like Professor Singerand Professor Pinkshore give what they regard as a sign of approval.They do not suspect that the sign of approval could harbour otherintentions. For instance, Professor Pinkshore uses this sign of approvalas a kind of currency in his dealings with the 'new black elite,' whomhesecretly despises:
butdamnitalliftheassesaresusceptibletofawningandflattery, let's give it them and get what we can out of them whilethegoingis good (149).
The head of state of Kangan is treated in the same way in Achebe'sAnthills of the Savannah by Lou Cranford of the American UnitedPress,and he isaglowwithsatisfaction.
But the idea of getting something out of the interaction with theAfricans is something that would not have occurred to Mr Green, whothinks of himself as having whatever there is of value to give. This isequally the attitude of the Christian missionaries we meet in OnuoraNzekwu'sBladeAmongtheBoys,Munonye'sObi,andNkemNwankwo's Danda. In fact, Obi Okonkwo thinks of the missionariesas types of Kurtz, having the self-assurance of St George, armed andready for battle with the dragon. He is certain that 'in 1900 Mr Greenwould have ranked among the great missionaries' (No Longer at Ease96-97).
If patronage is a word loaded with negative associations, andtherefore objectionable to the foreigners, the role of a helper is onethey would more readily identify with. Under this aspect they areesteemed and accepted by the Alaiye and the Alake in Aluko's HisWorshipfulMajestyandSoyinka'sAkerespectively.InthesameroleofhelperAjuziacallsthewhitedistrictofficertohisaidinhisstruggle
220FiftyYearsof theNigerianNovel
withChiefOrjiinTheCrippledDancer,ButAnanwemaduofAkwanya's Orimili who first accepts appointment from the white manas a warrant chief in the hope that it would give him an edge in thesenateofOkochaisbitterlydisappointedthatitisthewhitemanwhois using him as a helper and a relay to convey unpleasant messages tothecommunity.
ThedistrictofficersmessagestoAnanwemaduareusuallyconnected to the policies and programmes of the colonial government.But there are other foreigners in the novels of the tradition who arepursuingtheirownprivateinterests,andlikeMrPinkshore,determined to get what they can while the going is good. Mr Wright,theroad makerofAchebe'sArrowofGod, isprobablyonesuchperson. But there are others not connected to the European colonialenterprise.Weseeanearlyinstanceofthese,forexample,inEkwensi's Burning Grass. These are a group of Arabs intercepted asthey try to carry 'away from Nigeria across the desert'(110) two boys,Rikku and Chikeh, kidnapped and sold to them by Shehu, husband ofKantuma,Rikku'slover,fromwhoseclutchesMaiSunsayehaspreviously rescued the slave girl Fatimeh. We catch but a fleetingglimpse of these Arabs. Only in recent novels does the foreigner asadventurer orfortune hunterbecomethe focus ofnarration.
Forinstance,wedonotproperlymakehisacquaintanceinSoyinka's Season of Anomy (1973), even though his activities exercisethe minds of the narrator and the characters. The narration connectshim rather by reflection, for it centres on a period after he has been onthe loose and then passed out of Zaki Amuri's Cross-river. But theinfrastructurewhichfacilitateshisactivitiesisalreadyinplaceinSeason of Anomy: he is a businessman with international connections,andmakes useofIslam asameansof contactand networking.
Chalil, brother of Taiila, Iriyise's look-alike, mentions his fatheras such a businessman with international connections. It is through hisconnection with the Zaki's ministers that Chalil gets appointed as theseniormedicalofficerofthestate-ownedhospital. GovernmentinCross-riverissomethingofapersonalappurtenanceoftheZaki;therefore Ofeyi presumes that to have this appointment, Chalil or hisfathermusthaveapersonalconnectiontohim.This,thedoctordenies. Theconnectionis with,
FiftyYearsof theNigerianNovel221
'Just a few of his ministers. They whispered in his ear. You see,myfatherisquiteawealthybusinessman.Heandyourpoliticians …well, let's just say they got on well' (Season ofAnomy231),
He insists in addition that he is a qualified medical practitioner, whichis not the case with most of the people whom the Zaki has personallyhired.TwogreatexamplesarebothChalil'scountrymenfromPakistan,whomthe Zakihad met in'hisIslamicpilgrimages.'
The one he had appointed a senior railway engineer had been 'astation sweeper in his country,' and had driven the train involved in'theKapagidisaster'(230).TheotherhadbeenChalil'spredecessorasseniormedicalofficer,thoughallhismedicaltrainingandexperiencehadcomprised 'onceor twice, wheeling patients in andout'in aKarachihospital.
InCross-river,however,thismanhadbeenperformingoperations and dumping the bodies of his victims in a vast clearingoverlooked by his office. The death rates were to grow so high that aninquiry had to be held, but not before he had put in four years on thejob. Nor had the inquiry made any real headway. According to Chalil,'Don't forget the Zaki's word is law here. Any talk which suggestedsomethingwrongandthefoolhardymouthdisappearedforever.Strange thing is, whenever Amuri himself took ill he did not use thisplace. He always sent for his private physicians from your universityhospitals'(231).
Thecareersofthisseniormedicalofficerandtherailwayengineer do not make up distributional units in the structuralist sense.This would have involved their correlating with other distributionalunits in the networking of the narrative. Rather they attach to the Zakipersonally, and their meaningfulness is insofar as they reflect on theZakiand portrayhisirresponsible exerciseof power.
The Zaki does seem to take them to be part of himself, theirpresence in Cross-river as an expression of the absoluteness of thepower he wields. Cross-river itself is presented by his closest aides assomething attached to his person.He is the proprietor,and thefatherofthecitizenry,whilethelandmassofCross-riverishistoendowto
222FiftyYearsof theNigerianNovel
whom he will. Some of the people who enjoy his goodwill and arewelcometousethelandaretheEuropeansoftheMiningTrustexploiting the mineral resources of Cross-river in exchange for moneypaymentstothe Zaki's Treasury.
UndertheZaki'sprotection,theMiningTrustisoperatingapparentlywithnoregardtothepeoplewhooccupythelandanduseit for agricultural and pastoral purposes, nor to the integrity of thelandscape. The herdsman Salau puts it this way to the Zaki when he isbeing interrogated for agitating against the Mining Trust under theinstigation of 'strangers from way across the river,' who are not even'ofthefaith:'
'Your Highness, as you know, the white men have been diggingon those lands for a long time. They pay us something but, whatdoes it come to your Highness? Nothing much. When they havefinished with the land it is useless. Nothing but rocks. The rainwashes the best soil away once they have been at it. Apart fromthe small patches here and there. A goat turns up his nose at thegrassthatgrowsthere' (123).
What is wrong with the 'strangers from way across the river' is thatunlike the white men of the Mining Trust they have not come intoCross-river by the Zaki's fiat, nor have they sought his permission tostay. What is wrong with them, in other words, is that they have notadopted the Zaki as their political father. Far from this, they are givingthe people to believe that the sharp decline in their livelihood can berecouped,andtheyhaveidentifiedthecauseoftheirmiseryassomething that could and ought to be taken up at the political level.TheseareideaswhichareboundtohelpunderminetheZaki'sabsolutist rule.
Theaspectofresourceexploitationbyorganizationsofamultinational scale is seen but rarely in the Nigerian novel. But ZakiAmuri is large enoughto take such a vast organization under hiswings. Only the migrants who have come into Cross-river from otherpartsofthecountryaredistinguishedas'strangers.'Thesearenottobe lost sight of by the populace because the Zaki does not lose sight ofthem.ThewhitemenoftheMiningTrustandanyotherswhose
FiftyYearsof theNigerianNovel223
presence and activities in some way help promote the Zaki's interestsarepartofhisestablishment,andsoareshieldedfromobservation.The Zaki's clerk has the following to say to Salau after he had beenthoroughlybrowbeatenintofeelingsofguiltforconnectinghisimpoverishedconditiontothe activitiesoftheMiningTrust:
'… your land now belongs to aliens who pretended to be yourbrothers. At least the whiteman only borrowed it. He paid youand returned it to you. And part of the profit he makes he paysinto the Treasury. That is how we build you roads and hospitalsand schools. But you let too much greed lead you to agitateagainsttheZaki,yourownfatherwhohasdonesomuchforyou, the only one who knows how to handle these whitemen yougrumblesomuchabout'(125-126).
Simply to have made the connection that the mining operations havedestroyed his livelihood is in itself to agitate against the Zaki. So closeis the relationship that holds between the latter and the white men ofthe Mining Trust. What this attachment permits us to see very clearly,in the light of other novelistic sequences, is the path of entry of theforeigner as adventurer, and the necessity of affiliation to a politicalfatherunder whoseprotection hedoeswhathedoes.
The adventurer's entry into the field of narration as its subject isseenmostlyinthenovelsofthelate1980sandthe1990s;forexample,inPeterNwankwo'sDevil'sPlayground.SuchisFirozSamji,mentionedinthePrologueas'theIndianthief,'whorunsAlhaji Aminu Baba's International Business Agency. This is a manwith a history, and a clear idea what he is after. This history will reachfulfilment when the object of the search is attained. Samji starts hissearch in Dar-es-Salaam, but he does not make headway. As a result,he relocates to London, quickly leaves again, and finally settles inSonghai, a place he detests because it is dirty and noisy and its peoplelazyandcorrupt.Buttheyarealsostupid—thisishowhecharacterizes his employer especially, and it is probably the aspectwhich particularly recommends Songhai. We see him in a moment ofsoberreflection:
224FiftyYearsof theNigerianNovel
Well, he said to himself, you wouldn't be living in this sort ofluxuryifyouwerestillinDar-es-SalaamsellingMakondecarvings on City Drive. No Sir! And it would have taken you alifetime in a neighbourhood grocery shop in London to make ameaningful living out of a ten percent profit you made from eachtinof curry yousold.
Yes,despitethedirtandtheheatandthenoiseandthehustling, this is the place. Look where it's got me in five years—ahealthybankaccounthereandarespectableaccountinLondon.... in another few years, I should be able to get out.Maybego to California andsettle down(32).
Samji's entire aim is money making, and Alhaji Aminu Baba is thepolitical father who provides the facility as well as the shield he needs.He despises him for this, as Pinkshore does his university colleagues,but he knows he must hold on to him at all costs if his goal is to befullyrealized.
ButSamjiisalsoausefultooltohisemployer,themainthrustofwhose business is to openup andexploit the loopholes in thegovernment monetary policies,with theendof transferring publicmoneyintohisprivateaccountoverseas.Thetransactionsofteninvolve the importation of commodities of all kinds. All this SamjiarrangesforhimwiththehelpofaLondon-basedco-nationalBannerjee.Buthearrangesthingsinsuchawaythatsubstantialquantities of the country's foreign reserves being diverted from thenation's account into Alhaji Aminu Baba's find their way into his ownaccount. In addition, he is defrauding his patron and employer throughaforgeryracket,alsoincollaborationwithBannerjee.Thetotalamount involved is reported by the newspapers to be one thousandmillionpounds.
The first that Aminu Baba gets to know of his losses is in anaccount by his lawyer, whom he is trying to get to defend Samji afterhehasbeenarrestedfor fraud:
'Alhaji, there doesn't seem to be much anybody can do for thatman, Samji. He's so utterly corrupt. Indeed, I am here to tell youthatit'sawasteoftimedefendinghim.However,inviewofthe
FiftyYearsof theNigerianNovel225
[InternationalBusinessAgency's]predicament,I'lldomybestto defend the company and yourself. Would you believe that theman has inflated the figures on the pro-forma invoice for theconsignmentoftyreswhichisnowcausingyousomanyheadaches? He has been colluding with some fellow in Londoncalled Bannerjee. They are joint owners of some company calledWorldwideSupplies.Afterallyoudidforhim'(145).
The abandoning of Firoz Samji to his fate is, according to this novel'sdiscursivepractice,welldeserved.Oneafteranothereachofthemalefactors in this sequence is richly paid back in his own coin. Not asingleoneofthemisleftinsecure possessionofhis ill-got wealth.
ThispoeticjusticeissomewhatmoreselectiveinDibiaHumphrey's The End of Dark Street. Here it is the miscreant nationalsthataresingledoutforpunishment.AlhajiSalami,retiredofficerofthepoliceandchairmanoftheImportLicenceBoard,whoisthoroughly corrupt, takes advantage of the purge following a militarytake-overofgovernmenttogetthehardworking,honest,anddedicatedAbbaBello,secretarytotheBoarddismissed'withimmediate effect.' He in turn is got rid of through the exercise ofinfluence within the military leadership by his former friend AlhajiMuktaAlMukta,andhailedtoprison.LuredintotheClubBourgeoisie,Bello,nicknamedtheBrain,bringsalongintotheworldwide organization headed by his former school-teacher, EzakiEl-Hadawinotonlyhisgreatintellectualresourcesanddrive,butalsoabraceofhighlyefficientandtalentedspecialassistants,RockyCheymy and Mustapha, the estranged son of his former boss at theImport Licence Board. His first appointment is as the general managerof the Export-Import Division of the Club. With Rocky Cheymy, afirst-rateeconomist,coordinatingtheLondonandoverseastransactionsoftheImport-ExportDivisionandBellopersonallyhandlingtheofficialsoftheImportLicenceBoard,hequicklyestablishes himself as a highly reliable and efficient top executive,outstripping all expectations. He is next appointed the successor ofEzaki El-Hadawi as chairman of the Club. Ezaki EI-Hadawi, IndiaBoy,inhisdaysasaschoolmaster,nowanaturalizedBeganian,preparestogobackbecauseofimpairedhealthtohisnativeIndiaon
226FiftyYearsof theNigerianNovel
retirement and to the Hindu religion he had abandoned for Islam, as afacilitatorofbusinessconnectionsinBegania.Havingservedhisbusiness interestsneither Islam norBeganiancitizenship isneededany longer. Before he goes, however, he has his appointed successormarried to his daughterCzarina, to protect the heiress to his vastfortune and controller of the Club's capital and assets from his ownrivals in the world of business and high finance who would want to goafter heron his account.
Bello hasbeenbrought intotheClubby theIndians as ahelper,they as principals. He does not realize that his appointment as head ofthe organization does not necessarily mean that his role has changed.So he tries to take full charge, using his position to make money forhimself and stash away in hard currency and to provide arms andammunition to an extremist group attempting to launch an insurgencyagainst the government of Begania. To try and strengthen his positionas head, he does away with Chief Yolamo who has his eye on the topjob, and would gladly destroy Bello for it. He also destroys his formerfriend Mustapha for paying court to his neglected wife Sherifatu. Thismeans that he and Rocky are the only Beganians at the higher reachesof the organization, so that the removal of the two would leave theIndiansonceagain intotalcontrol.
Hisattempttorevengeforhiswrongfuldismissalfromgovernment service by arming the opponents of the government iswhat leads the Indians to the realization that he is turning around theprotagonist-helper binary chain in which they are related together, sothat he is now the protagonist. The man to whom it falls to kill him isthe Gila, Czarina's Indian lover who, accordingly, has the greatestsatisfaction in making his death as slow and painful as possible. Wereadthat,
Laterthatnight,theassistantsdraggedthebloodysack,weighted downwith stones,tothe edge of theAsakaYama.They let it drop into the sea, perhaps in fulfilment of Czarina'searlier warning about those who must 'end up as snacks forvariousformsofmarine life.'
TheGilareportedtoCzarina,'Assignmentaccomplished'
FiftyYearsof theNigerianNovel227
'Not on your life,' she said. There's still one of them at sixty-six Cambridge Road, London.' The Gila beamed a smile at her,andleftfor the airport.
And now inside the bag, Bello was still alive, or rather dead,andalive (192-193).
The destruction of Bello and Cheymy means that the organization hasrenewed itself, and has ceased being at risk of self-undermining fromwithin.
FromSoyinka'sSeasonofAnomytoNwankwo'sDevil'sPlayground and Humphrey's The End of Dark Street, the foreigner asadventurer has been gaining in strength and self-confidence. At thesame time he isdeveloping strategiesforbetterprotecting himselffromharmoranykindofbacklash,forexample,bystayingoutofsight behind nationals who front for him, and take the backlash, ifthese shouldcropup.