Novel writing has moved somewhat from Aristotle's specification thata tragic poem, or any literary work for that matter, is a representationof action (praxis), not of persons (On the Art of Poetry, Chapter 6).From its early development in the seventeenth century, during theclassicalageofrealism(M.Foucault,1970).ithasshowngreatinterest in the nature of individuality and its infinite manifestations.The question of individuality is the object of meditation in LaurenceSterne'sTristramShandy,Dickens'sGreatExpectations,andFlaubert's Madame Bovary in terms of how the particular individualsees himself or herself as a person. In Fielding's Joseph Andrews andHawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, it is in terms of how the personagessee themselves in relation to society and socially sanctioned roles andnorms. The meditation may focus on the shaping of the individual'sresponses to the conditions of his/her existence, as in Richardson'sPamela and Bronte's Jane Eyre, or in terms of their roles in shapingthe conditions of their existence, as in Austen's Emma, Scott's TheBrideofLammermoor,andDostoevsky'sNotesfromtheUnderground.
However, realism as a characterizing of the particular woulddemand thateachnovelisticpersonagebeseenstrictly in itsownindividuality,andthatthisistheonlywaytocometoanunderstanding of this specific individual. In these terms, the novelconfronts the discipline of criticism with an impossible task, in asmuch as the discipline is a reflection on the work, first of all, as aninstanceofpoetry.Thismeansthatithasitseyecentrallyonthe
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question, what constitutes the text as a poem. On the other hand, acritical account which would be in the spirit of realism would have tobe one that offers a reading of one novelistic character at a time, or atmost,one bookata time.
The device which the majority of the humanist critics of thetwentieth century used to try and get around this constraint was tofocus on the author, to centre the reflection on him and by this meanstake in all or a good number of his works. The characters may still beperceived, but certainly not as central to the critical enterprise. Theyhave receded to the background somewhere. Yet in the discourse ofhumanism, character study is well established as the ruling interest ofthe novel, and the novel had been set up for this—that is to say, in thisdiscourse, the question of individuality is what authorizes the novel inthefirstplace.
The way out is clearly to state the task of the novel and ofcriticism in such a manner as to avoid a blind alley. Such a mode ofstatement is already implicated in our connecting novels like Emma,The Bride of Lammermoor, and Notes from Underground together asformsofoneandthesamesequence.ThisreallyistoreturntoAristotle and his account of literature as a representation of action, notofpersons.
Action is the most general name for sequences of all kinds. Forexample, that a large number of realist novels can be grouped togetherunder character study hardly tells us much, and rather promises aninfinite variety of traits. On the other hand, studying the characters interms of how their responses to the conditions of their existence areshaped, allows for a relatively small number of texts, since somethingspecificisrequiredforinclusioninthelist.Thisrequirementoverlookstheindividualityofthecharacterinfavourofafunction,that is, the shaping of a response. The full set of moves whereby thisrepresentation of a process of shaping is achieved may amount to asequence or a micro-sequence. As such, it is a distributional unit, andcorrelates with other units to make up large units of narration. Eachdistributional unit is internally coherent and may be named in terms ofwhatitdoes.Forinstance,amicro-sequencemaynarrateameeting,an introduction, a challenge, and so on. Falling in love or a fight islikelytolinkseveraloftheseminimalelementstogethertomakeupa
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sequence, properly so called. And the same identical sequences can befound in a great number of novels. At their fullest extension, the nameofthesequencemaycomprehendthenovelasawhole;whatismore,it may apply equally to a great number of novels. In general, the moreabstract and generalized the name, the greater the number of texts thatmay be included in the list—the more we are certain that what isnamedisanaction.Onesuchgeneralizeddescriptivesyntagmisstruggle for power. This syntagm names one mode or articulation ofaction.Butitleavesroomforothermodesofaction,suchascommunication and desire, which may equally be applied as devicesforthecategorizingof novelsand otherliteraryworks.
Action is determined by Aristotle as the matter of representation.As to the purpose for which the representation takes place, he does notexplain,exceptaspertainstotragicliterature,whereitisultimatelythe attaining of 'tragic pleasure,' or a 'desirable composure,' as PeterRabinowitz(1974)rendersit.WorkingfromaphenomenologicaltraditionandfollowingthepoetHölderlin,Heideggerassignsthefollowing key function to poetry, namely that it is here 'for the firsttime[that]isdecided,whomanisandwhereheissettlinghisexistence'(1949:289).Itwouldappearthatthisdecisionisopen,never to be accomplished; otherwise poetry would have to come to anend, there being nothing else for it to do, when the decision is reachedandfinalized.
Thereremainsathirdelement,ofcourse,form,whichensures,by shaping the movement of representation and reflection according tothe modes established in the literary tradition, that the work whichresults is literature. Gender studies of African literature have largelybeenshapedbysuchfactorsastheexclusivefocusonthecharacterandsituation.Likethesociological-anthropological,historical,political, and ethical approaches to literature, its critical discourse hasfrequently been guided by the principle that the literary work is amachine of some sort inside which the author is busy pulling stringshere,throwingswitchesandengaginggearsthere.Underthisdiscourse policy, the odious concept of deus ex machina becomes thenormandthegloryofrepresentationinliterature.Allthiscomesoutinfulllightinthecontrastivestudyofliteratureasaformal construct.
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However,whileacriticismbasedonformiscertainto beabletotelltheliteraryfromthenon-literary,itnecessarilyfallssilentabouttheso-called'outsidefacts,'whichpeoplelikeEdwardSaid(1984)insistmustberecalledtothesiteofreadingtoensurethatthefullestpossiblemeaningisattained.Theseincludetheauthor,thesocio-culturalcontextofcompositionandreception,theintendedaudience,historyandsoon.Underformalcriticism,moreover,charactersaremuchlesslikelytobeseeninthemselvesandforthemselvesthantobeconnectedtoothercharactersoftheliterarytradition.Thatistosayitistraditionthatprovidestherulesforinterpretingthem,ratherthantheirpersonalhistories.Ontheotherhand,acriticismwhichfocusesontheactiontendstoreducethecharactertosomethingwhichasequenceprovidesitselfasanenablingconditionofrepresentation,inexactlythesamewaythatdiscourseprovidesitselfwithcharacters,namelythepersonalpronouns,withoutwhichitcannottakeplace.Necessarily, the kinds of character which action provides itself dependonthenatureoftheactionitself.Forexample,struggleforpowerwasahighlyproductivediscourseformativefromtheancientstotheseventeenthcentury.Inthissituationofstruggle,theprotagonistsareusuallyadultmalesofanaristocraticpedigree.Veryoccasionally,asin Sophocles's Antigone and Webster's The Duchess of Malfi, some ofthekeyplayersarewomen.Inthenineteenthcentury,loveandmarriagearesomeofthemostproductiveformatives.Thoughwestillspeakofprotagonists,heroesandheroines,sequencesof loveandmarriagemaybeseeninstructuralisttermsasarelationshipofdonorandreceiver.Thetwoprincipalcharactersinsuchasequenceareusuallyamanandawoman,ofwhichtheoneoffersorinvitestheother to a relationship, while the other welcomes or declines that offer.AnalysisoftheNigeriannovelonthebasisofthedifferentarticulationsofpraxisdoesyieldapatternsimilartowhatisobservedin the Western tradition. The sequences of struggle for power, whetherundertheadventurefantasy,theheroicorthehistoricalnarratives,ortheinterpersonalstruggleofthenovel,orthatoftheindividualversusconvention,mostlyinvolve malecharacters.Bycontrast,sequencesofloveandmarriage,asinNwapa'sIdu,andAlkali'sTheStillborninvolveamanandawomanasthemaincharacters.Anothertypeofsequencewhichoftenfavoursmale-femalepairsiscommunication,as
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in Emecheta's Double Yoke and Iyayi's Violence. It may equally yielda male-male pair, as in Okoye's Men Without Ears, and a female-female pair, as in Chinwe Okechukwu's The Predicament. We haveseenquiteafew ofthesecharacterpairs underdifferentheadings.
ButthebreakingofnewgroundmaybeseeninsuperimposingonthepatternofactionHeidegger'saccountofpoetryasthemovement of reflection whereby it is decided for the first time what itmeans to be a human being, and where this being is settling his/herexistence. Quite a few of the texts of the tradition may be read in thelightof this reflection:Achebe'sArrow of Godand No Longer atEase, Munonye's Oil Man of Obange, Okara's The Voice, Echewa'sTheLand'sLord,Okri'sTheLandscapesWithin,andAkwanya'sOrimili.Inthese,thesubjectisamalepersoncaughtupinarelationship of struggle for power or for a footing in the social world,or is in confrontation with social conventions and ideologies whichprescribecertainactsorbehaviourpatterns,andbackupthisprescriptionwithavarietyofinstrumentsofpressure.Butifthedeepest questions of existence, as Karl Jaspers puts it, are unveiled inanyofthese,itisbyanalysis.Ontheotherhand,theyaretheproblemsthatthecharactersaredirectlyfacedwithinIyayi'sViolence, Okpewho's The Victims, and Ifeoma Okoye's Chimere, sothat thereisno need to digto find them.
In Chimere, the protagonist's sense of who she is depends onwho her father is. Though she is a second-year undergraduate studentintheuniversity,allsheknowsaboutherfatheristhathehasabandoned her mother as a result of a quarrel, and has never comeback. Her mother will not tell her anything further on the matter, noteven her father's name. Nor would she let her sister, the mother's onlysurviving relative, tell her anything. Isolated within an enclosing wallof silence, she has almost given up the search until she is taken by Jideher friend to meet his parents. The relationship which is developingbetween them breaks up as Jide's mother digs up a history she knowsimperfectly,thoughshefindsinitmatterenoughtowarnhersonoff.
Jide's mother turns out to be the woman who had helped MrsAto, Chimere's mother, when she had been abandoned by her loverafter she had become pregnant, and had then been thrown out of thehousebytheauntwithwhomshehadbeenliving.Butthesearefacts
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which are to be brought out by Mrs Ato after she has been worn downbypressurefromChimere.
At the earliest opportunity, Chimere confronts her with what shehas learned from Jide's mother, refusing on this occasion to be movedby her fragile health or tearfulness, or to be cowed by her stubbornrefusal totalk:
'Why do you want us to go through all this again, Chimere? MrsAto's voice was tearful now. 'Why do you want to open up mywoundagain?'
Chimerestoodup,'BecauseawomansaidI'millegitimate.A
womanwhosaidshe knewyou asagirlinLagos.'
'Who was that stupid woman? Where did you meet her? Andwhat were you talking about to make her say that to you?' MrsAtolookedvisibly agitatedas shefired thesequestions.
'I met the woman at Enugu, Mother. She gave me an accuratedescription of you, and even remembered your maiden name'(60).
The wall of silence painstakingly built up by MrsAto turns out tohave a point of discontinuity whereby Chimere is kept in openness tothe outsideworld. There are in factmore gaps in it than the presentone alone. Her resemblance to her father, something Mrs Ato deeplyregrets, is so close that a complete stranger visiting the university hadidentified her as the daughter of Mr Enuma of the railway corporation(19). Chimere does not pick up this unlooked-for tip. But it will turnout thatMr Enumais thelostfathersheisin searchof.
Theaboveencounterwiththemotherisapparentlynotenoughto bring forth the desired result. But the mother's continued refusalonly hardens her further and reinforces her determination to know thetruth of her history, as the memory of the encounter with Jide and hismother haunts her with images of humiliations to be suffered over andover again in the future. She brutally presses on and overpowers her,and gets to the mystery of her history. But when she meets her fatherfinally, she finds a man who is on the brink of a nervous collapsebecause of the crisis in his marriage and family. She comes awaybitterlydisappointedbecausehewouldnot acknowledge her.
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Chimere is a novel which honours the ideology of traditionalsociety to the extent that it is by making the discursive policies of thatideologyitsownthatitarticulatesasasequenceandmakesitsappearance. Chimere'stitleto personhood isin termsofwho herfather is, and in terms of whether or not he acknowledges her andaccepts her as his, not in termsof who she is herself. We read that'She had made up her mind two days after her meeting with her fatherto forget him for ever, and she had resolved not to let her illegitimacyworry her any longer' (174). But this is what we get to know after shehasbeenrescuedfromseriousillnessanddepressionresultingfromher overhearing a girl in the office where she is doing her vacation jobrefer to her as illegitimate. The intention is to try and discourage theyoung engineer in the establishment from paying court to her. Therebyis disclosed yet, another point of discontinuity in what was to havebeen a solid wall of silence around Chimere. Even if she does notknow who she is, there are others who do; and she is chancing uponthem infar-flung placesand in unexpected circumstances.
It is this young man Weluche who comes to the rescue. But hedoes more than rescue her from grave illness. He proposes marriage toher,laughingoffher illegitimacy:
'Chim,dear,'hesaidseriously,'itwilltakemorethanillegitimacytotakemeawayfromyou.Afterall,yourillegitimacywas notofyourown making.
Chimerecouldnotbelievewhatshehadjustheard. 'Doyou
mean what you have just said Weluche?' she asked. Tears hadfilledher voice,choking downto a whisper.
'Ofcourse,I do, mysillydarling '
Chimereheaved asighofrelief(168-369).
In having a fiancé, Chimere also gains psychologically. Now she hasthe ingredient essential to her sense of personhood, and she can nowsee herself as someone. This essential ingredient is strangely anotherperson, to whom she may attach herself in a dependent relationship.This, really, is why she has sought her father. Now she has Weluche,she has someone to hang on to. Her resolve to forget her father maytakeeffect, as shehassecured a substitute.
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Weluche, however, offers to restore her father to her; and thissurprisesher:
'What's your plan?' she heard herself saying after an interval.ShehadcometodependverymuchonWeluche,soyoungbutsolevel-headedand sowiseand sympathetic(174).
That her lack of attention in the above is because she has 'come todepend very much on Weluche,' that is to say, that he is all she needs,comesoutinherencouraginghiminhisplansfromtheconvictionthat this is something they would be doing for her mother. She tooneedssomeonetodepend on. Weread,
Chimerewasdeeplytouchedandherwateringeyesdidnotcover up her gratitude to Weluche. She knew from experiencethat nothing was too difficult for him once he set his mind to it.'I'vediscoveredlately,'sheconfessed,'thatmymotherstillhasa soft spot for my father. She was as disappointed as I was abouttheoutcomeofmyvisittoMakurdiandEnuguandIhavenoticed lately that her eyes often soften a little whenever shespeaksaboutmy father(175).
Chimereisbuildingquiteanothermytharound Weluche.Heisaproblem solver. Her mother may need one such for herself. In all this,she entertains no fear at all that she may be disappointed, in the sameway that the absent father she had pinned hope on as a basis of herselfhood had disappointed her. Even if she knows Weluche's abilitiesfrom experience, is not the prop she is laying out for her mother thesame person who had disappointed her own hopes, who both she andhermotherknowfrom experienceto lackinnerstrength?
In Buchi Emecheta's Double Yoke, the young woman Nko isself-confident,anddoesnotseeherselfinthemouldcreatedandsustained in the ideology of traditional society. This is a shock to theyoung man Ete Kamba when he gets to know it. In his view, roles,functions,andwhatoughttobepsychologicaltraitsarepredeterminedandgivenaspartofasystemofvalueswhichweare
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uncertainastowhethertheybelong totraditionalsocietyortoa
mythologyofhismother'smaking.Forwereadthat,
His mother, to him, had been the epitome of womanhood, thetype whose price was above the biblical rubies. The type whotook pride not in herself but in her man. The type who wouldalways obeyher man,no matterwhat, even if he commandedher to walk through fire, the type that never questioned. He hadthought all women were like that, and should be like that. Weresome women different then? Was his mother becoming one ofthe older generation? Or was she just filling his head with allthese nice words simply because he was her son and she lovedandadoredhim…?(42).
The narrative shows that Ete Kamba commits himself to this ideologyarticulated by his mother, and this is unchanged by what we read onpage43, thatheismentallypreparedto detachhimselffromhervalues,andhasexpectationsthat hismatchwill bethe'newwoman.'
In terms of the succession of incidents, the announcing of thisexpectation is older than the announcing on page 17 of an attitude anda settled position which is antipathetic to it. The latter is encounteredwhere Ete Kamba is considering a post-university career, and catcheshimselfmentallysettinguphisnewlecturer,thebrilliantMissBulewaoas hismodel:
But the reality crashed into his thoughts.He was wishing to beas successful as a woman: he was wishing to adopt the methodused by an ordinary woman in the field of Arts! How low couldone sink?
ThissumsupEteKamba'sbeliefsaboutmenandwomen,theirdifferent roles, and the approved behaviour patterns marking each out.Nevertheless,heisasociallyactiveandintelligentyoungmanwhohasgonetothebestandmostexclusiveschoolsandisnowanundergraduate student in a university, where he is studying under ascholarship scheme. Not even bitter novelistic experience is able towork a changeinhim.
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Forexample,attwentyyearsofage,fouryearsbeforetheencounter with Miss Bulewao, he had fallen in love with eighteen-year-old Nko from the next village, and it is settled in his and hisparents' minds that they are going to marry. He sleeps with her at thefirst opportunity and finds her not to be a virgin. This fact only occursto him after they have been together and parted. But it is a great let-down for him, and he takes it up withher when they meet again,insults her, calling her a prostitute, a whore, and so on. He is quitebesidehimself.
Although the outburst proceeds from the ways of seeing andinterpreting the world he has learned from his mother, the narrator ispersonally provoked by it all, and retaliates with great sarcasm againstEteKamba.Theresultisthatthereisnosenseofrestorationofbalance,whereEteKamba'smodeofreactionhasprovedunreasonable. For her own part, Nko makes retort that the man whosleeps with a prostitute is as much a prostitute as herself. All this, notexcepting the easewith which she pronouncesthe word 'prostitute,'weread,
wastoo much forhim.He knew himself to be a cleverpersonandforthathethoughthedeservedsomeonewhowasintelligent,and yetable tobe ordinary (63).
Itisnot'ordinary'tobeeighteenandintelligent,andatthesametimea virgin. Equally, it is unthinkable that a young woman of eighteenwho is intelligent may find the word 'prostitute' somewhat unsavoury.Ete Kamba then reacts 'the way his father would have reacted.' Hegivesher a savage beating.
The social awareness of Ete Kamba remains throughout at thelevel where he passes out of the mother's training regime. He learnsnothing, but passes through the space of the novel without any of theincidentschallenginghimoraffectinghiminanyway.Forthatmatter, Nko herself undergoes no change. The two characters are infactoutwardprojectionsofcertainideas.Hencetheyareflatcharacters.EteKambais,asNkocallshim,'ancient'(68),whilesheis the 'young modern African woman' (65). The characterizing featureofthismodernityappearstobethatonemakesuptherulesofone's
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conduct based on one's understanding of one's specific circumstances.Andthese rules are unassailable, as the ethos of this narrator permitthe existence ofno other principlesofbehaviour morebasic thanexperience. Thus Nko knows what she is going into when she entersinto a liaison with Professor Elder Ikot, under cover of his supervisingher work:
Students whose work was so supervised usually came out with agood honours degree. Was such a degree worth her losing hergood name, and maybe Ete? But she did not want to lose either.Then what was left for her to do when people were now tellingherthatshecouldnothaveboth?Shemusteither haveherdegree and be a bad, loose, feminist, shameless, career womanwho would have to fight men all her life; or do without herdegree, and be a good loving wife and Christian woman to EteKamba and meanwhile reduce her family and herself to beingbeggars at Ete's table. Oh blast it all! She was going to haveboth. She was going to manoeuvre these men to give her both(133).
She will back up her demand for a first-class honours degree fromProf. Elder Ikot as her remuneration for sleeping with him with thethreat of blackmail. For her part, Miss Bulewao lets Ete Kamba knowthat the real question is whether he is 'strong enough to be a modernAfrican man? Nko is already a modern African lady, but you are stilllagging ... so far far behind' (158). The last word of the narrative is infact Miss Bulewao's. For her, who the subject is may only be thoughtofintermsofmodernorancientspecimens,andthequestionisdecided in favour of the former. 'Modern' is what the subject mustbecome to be able to participate in the social discourse which shesupervises; and this is entirely in opposition to Ifeoma Okoye, Nwapa,orAlkali.
In Festus Iyayi's Violence, it is more a question of where thesubject is settling his existence than who he is. And it arises becauseboth the protagonists, Idemudia and Adisa, have been initiated into themodern world by virtue of their formal Western education which,however,isbrokenoffearly.Theyarenotabletofitintotheold
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system afterwards because in the case of Idemudia especially, he isresentful that his education has been broken off right at the point he istosithisleavingcertificateexamination.Thepersonheholdsresponsibleforthisishisimprovidentfather,whosefulfilmentisapparently in acquiring more and more wives and having children,whom heleavestothemothersto providefor.
Hissituationiscompoundedbecauseheisunabletofindemployment in the city to which he has drifted. There seem to be fartoo many people for the jobs available, with the result that educationalqualifications are used as a filter to get rid of large numbers of jobseekers, leaving the few jobs available, sometimes quite lowly ones,for persons with high qualifications. Nor has he any skills to fall backupon.Sohejoinsthehordesofthecity'sunemployedintheirgathering places where they fight over the few ill-paid occasional jobsgoing.Hefindsmembershipinthismobofthecity'sunemployedvery humiliating. But still more humiliating is failing to get hired for ajob, and having to give his own blood in exchange for money toprovide food for his wife and himself to rich people whose relativesneed atransfusion.
Therichwhoneedbloodgotothegatheringplaceoftheunemployed at Iyaro, just like those who want labourers. There isbargaining too, except that there is embarrassment on both sides. Inthat case, the unemployed are more forthcoming, because they havegonethroughtheprocessoftenenough.Idemudiahererecallsanencounterina kind of reverie:
'Iwant...' andasalways, themanhesitated.
Idemudia saw himself nodding and saying, 'Blood, sir?''Yes.'
'Howmuchwill youpay?Osaroasked(154).
For all this forthrightness and bare-faced bargaining over their ownblood, however, the experience affects the men deeply at the level ofconsciousness, and leaves them with guilt feelings. This is somethingthat comesoutstrongly aswe followIdernudia'sreflection:
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Andeach time after hehadsoldhisblood,hehad returnedhome,subduedandforareasonhecouldnotunderstand,ashamed. And he never told Adisa that the money he broughthome had come from selling his blood at fifteen naira a pint. Buthe guessed that Adisa knew. The defeated, furtive look in hiseyes told her. The punctures that the needles made on his skintold her. Yes, everything told her, including the gradual thinnessof his body. But Adisa never said anything about it to him. Notonce.
'The things an empty stomach can drive a man to,' he said tohimself now, and shook his head. The things hunger can make amando!' (157).
Decisionssomeofwhichmaybemadebytheindividualintheprocess of self-construction have mostly been made at other levels andby other people for Idemudia. Such are the decisions pertaining to hiseducation, and to theconditionsofchildhood experience, whetherthey are to be happy, with positive influences, or whether they areunhappy and brutish. He does not have much of a home, and whatthere is of that institution breaks up soon after he is forced to leave offschooling. He has seen enough of his father's selfish indifference,crueltyandbrutality,andcowardlyevasionsofresponsibilitythatwhen he overtakes him punching his mother almost to death becauseshe has asked for assistance on his behalf, it is all he could do torestrain himself from committing patricide. The punishment for thisintervention is expulsion of the mother and her children, and theirfleeingforsafetytothevillageshehadoriginallycomefrom.
Unable to find a place for himself in this village communitywhere his talents count for little, he migrates to the city. He has a wifearranged forhimbyhispoor,dispossessedmother.Whateverherpurpose in this, it only adds to his troubles, as the wife is entirelydependentonhim.Lifeissodifficultforthemthattheysendtheironly child to his mother in the remote village to bring up. For his part,he finds himself increasingly forced by the demands of trying to makea living to settle his existence between the one-room apartment in adepressedpartofthecityandIyaro,thegatheringplaceoftheunemployedand humiliated.
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Hehas no physical means to resist being forced to settlewherehe would rather not be. His resistance is alone through a moral refusalto identify with the place. When he comes to a realization that there isreally no place to go, he has an offer at a newly developing housingestate, which ought to keep him gainfully employed for a period ofperhaps up to four weeks. Better educated than most of the otherlabourers, he grasps much more quickly than the others the pattern ofexploitationtheyarebeingsubjectedto,andcreatesanopportunityout of this to try and improve his and his fellow labourers' lots. Hefinds,however,thattheymistrusthim.
Queen,thecontractor,usingdirectlabour,isunderpressurefrom the government to complete the contract immediately or have itrevoked, and the 'mobilization fee' she has already put into anotherbusiness refunded. Like Nko who wants both a good honours degreeand her own personal honour and good name, and wants to be both themistress of Prof. Elder Ikot and the fiancée of Ete Kamba, Queenwants to make no sacrifices whatever, and to meet the governmentrequirementsatnoextracost.Sheoffersverylowwagestothelabourers, and introduces compulsory overtime, without the matchingremuneration.
Idemudia is the one who organizes the labourers to take a stand,andisimmediatelyappointedforemanbyQueen'sexpatriatesiteengineer.Asaresult,hisformerfriendschargehimwithhavingdivided interests, when he suggests that the strike they have resolvedon having should not proceed until all the peaceful methods have beenexhausted:
Idemudia was angry at the accusation. 'Watch your tongue,' hecried out angrily. 'Once the strike starts, nobody knows when itwillend.We have ...'
The other man came back. 'What did I say? he said to the group.'Hewants todiscourage usnow.He sympathizes.'
'Withwhom?'Idemudiaaskedangrily.
'With her. Yesterday she offered you money. You said soyourself. Nobody knows the arrangement you made thereafter'(272).
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Queen is in fact doing everything in her power to get Idemudia on herside, against the labourers—the workers can draw the conclusion forthemselves already. But the man himself is a little naive, and sees thematter purely as an industrial dispute, with two sides, the managementand the workers. And he is the representative of the latter. So he goesfurther than he has warrant from the workers, and comes alone toQueen'sresidence atherrequest.
Sheincreaseshermonetaryoffertohim,whichherefuses.When she has softened him up a little with alcohol, she brings himovertoherbedroom,andmakesofferofherbody.Idemudiaistempted,but intheendrefuses becauseitwouldbeadultery:
'So you have never slept with another woman?' Queen askedagain....andshesmiled,buttherewasvenominhertonguewhen sheasked, 'Andher?'...
He tried to answer her with all the dignity he could muster.'We are poor, madam, yes, very poor, but my wife does not sellherself.'
Queen fell back on the bed. Now she was laughing. It was abitter laugh, insinuating, damaging. 'If I were you, I would gohomeandask her,nottakethings forgranted' (300-301).
Sheoffersstillmorehelp,andtellshimthatherownhusband,Obofun, certainly had had the honour, giving detailed specifications oftimeand place.
Adisa'sencounterwithObofunisnotasanoutcomeofthedecision who she is and where she is settling her existence. These shehas already decided irrevocably. But this momentous decision is theopening that must give rise to other decisions. For instance, there aremoment-to-momentdecisionstobemadeinregardtotheconditionsof living where she issettling her existence.
Theopeningofthenarrativeisamisunderstandingandexchangeofhardwordswithherhusband,endinginhergettingbeaten up. Her aunt to whom she complains is of the view that sheshould leave Idemudia at once, and try making her own way in theworld,justassheherselfhasdone,throughprostitution.Thissuggestionforceswhatshehaslivedwithforsolongatthe
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unconsciousleveltothefieldofconsciousness,namelyacertainbonding with Idemudia because of his having sold his blood to feedher.Simply,shesettlesherexistencewhere hesettleshis.
But he is immediately invalided by illness. There is no source ofhelp anywhere. All the money available to care for the hospitalizedhusband and feed herself is five naira. Under a great emotional stresswhichputsherfairlyinadaze,Obofunrunsintoherandtakesadvantage of her. But he also gives her money, and some smuggledwhiskey to market for him for a commission. She has not begun tomarket the goods when her husband returns from hospital. Now thatIdemudia knows of her affair with Obofun, he sees how unconvincingisthelieshehastoldhimaboutthesource of thewhiskey,
He hurries home from Queen's rooms with murder in his heart,andeventakestheinitialstepstowardsaccomplishingtheact,whenhehasa flash ofcomprehension:
'Oh my God!' he cried to himself. 'Why didn't she tell me?Why?Hewouldnotaskwhyshehaddoneitbecauseheunderstoodveryclearly now…
Hadn't he sold his own blood so that they would not starve?And wasn't that a sacrifice, this frequent selling of pints of hisownblood?Yes,hesaidtohimself,asacrificeasgreatorperhaps even less than the one Adisa had made on his behalf(307).
A key element in the mode and manner of Idemudia's and Adisa'ssettling of their existence is here named: mutual self-sacrifice, withoutregardto the cost.
In the split discourse of Achebe's Anthills of the Savannah, themovements of thought on the question of who man is and where he issettling his existence follow conflicting patterns. For instance, fromSam'sviewpoint,whomanis,isthesameaswhereheseeshimself.He sees himself in the eyes of the other, and he identifies himself withhis perception of himself in those strange eyes. Hence he perceiveshimself under Western eyes as the favoured one; for this reason, heprojectshimselfintheeyesofhisownpeopleasakindofdivineform.Theresultisthathiswholelifeisplay,andheisthespectacle:
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nowheisperformingfortheadmirationandapprovalofhisowngods,thenheisperformingtodazzleandenthralhislocalspectators.
The mode of self-presentation which Sam finds congenial to hisown self-image is as a spectacleof power. But he haslearned tomanage and direct this spectacle to achieve certain ends. For instance,he can withhold himself from view, and this could make his power feltall the more keenly. When the people of Abazon request him to cometo them, it is in the hope that work may restart on their bore holes, sothattheydonotdieasaresultoftheangerofthesun.Butherefusesto let himself be seen, withholding, that is, water and life, and keepingthem, in consequence, under the full glare of power. In this particularpassage with the people of Abazon, therefore, the spectacle gives wayto its opposite, and power instead of merely dazzling the audiencescorches.
The opposition which Sam receives from Ikem is because Ikemratherseespowerasaresponsibility.Evenordinaryeverydayindividuality shares in this responsibility, as his basis of judgement isin terms of the contribution one makes towards 'the solution of ourproblems.' This moral imperative is by reason of his unshakable beliefthat 'society is an extension of the individual' (99). Accordingly, his isa moral universe, where it matters little who one is, but where one iswhere one settles one's existence. But this means that the manner ofopposition to Sam is as the other side of a coin. For Sam equallyassimilatesthequestionofbeingintothatofexistence,thatwhooneis,is reallya function of whereoneis.
Similarly,ChrisandBeatriceconnecttogetherinasupplementaryrelationship.Whatexercisestheirmindsfirstandforemost is who one is. To Chris, however, the question is an enigmahe cannothope to unravel, and he tries toattain some sort of insightby observing its variousness. We have a glimpse of this, for example,in his account as to why he remains in Sam's cabinet, despite that hehas come to a decision that it has long ceased being a cabinet, and thatthere is any chance of doing meaningful work there. Like Ezeulu, hegivesseveralreasonsforstayingon.Forexample,heconsidersthatthealternativeisexile,wherehecandostilllessgood.Exile,therefore, is an option, but not an attractive one for someone whoknowsthat beingwhohe isgoeswithdoing workofacertain kind.He
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does not dismiss the fear ofbeing arrested and detained, as he hadbeenthreatened,shouldheoffertoresignhisposition.Heevenentertainsthenotionthatheisstayingonsimplyfrominertia.Whatever the real reason, he is certain of one thing, that in remainingin the cabinet, he has an excellent 'observation post,' where he canfollowthe goingson with a'detached clinicalinterest'(2).
Chris'sattitudetowardsBeatriceherselfalsoreflectsthiscommitment to observation and the sense of variousness in life. Wereadin his ownnarration:
Of course she had been to my place quite a few times before buttheinitiativehadnevercomefromher.Itwasnotcoynessbutshe had a style and above all a pace that I decided from the verybeginningtorespect.AfterthefewwhirlwindaffairsIhadhadin my time including a full-fledged marriage in London for sixmonths I was actually ready and grateful for BB's conservativestyle. Sometimes when I thought of her what came most readilyto my mind was not roses or music but a good and tastefullyproducedbook, easy ontheeye (63).
Chris observes individuality, and wishes to see each and every personorobjectinitsspecificcharacteristics.Theresultisthathisjudgements of character are based on reasonable grounds. Ikem, forinstance, he calls a fanatic (118). But Beatrice seems to think that'revolutionary'wouldbemoreappropriate.Chrisalsousesthistermin regard to Ikem (65). Possibly, 'revolutionary' is more indulgent,thoughthesemanticpurportisnotfar fromthat of'fanatic.'
Beatrice shares Chris's interest in observing the variety of being,but she is able to think the function at the same time. Even though shecallsIkem,Chris,andSam'incrediblyconceited'becausethe'storyofthis country, as far asyou areconcerned, is thestory ofthree ofyou' (66), she nevertheless grants Sam the epithet, 'the sacred symbolof my nation's pride' (80). Proper self-knowledge, in her terms, wouldcomprise having a sense of one's identity as a certain individual onwhom is invested a certain role. She appears to settle the questionwhereonesettlesone'sexistenceinthefunction.Butthisisunlike
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Ikem'srevolutionarypractice,wherethefunctionisdefinedinterms
ofsocialandmoralresponsibility.
Beatrice's self-knowledge leads her to settle into the role of thepriestessofadeitywhosecultshehasn'taclueof.Whensheparticipates in Agatha's praise-singing to Jehovah, she is aware thatthisactofhomageisnotinconcertwithhercharacterandmission.But she is prepared to adjust to the spirit of the occasion, not beingfanatical in her commitment. To Aina, a 'proper grade one Moslem,'there seems to be no troubled consciousness whatever in submitting tothe spirit of the occasion. She has already joined in the homage to thestrangedeity. So Beatricesays toherself:
'Well, if a daughter of Allah could join his rival's daughter in aholy dance, what is to stop the priestess of an unknown god fromshaking aleg?'(224).
Of course, we know nothing of the transition she has apparently madefromnotknowinganythingaboutthetraditionsofherpeopleconcerning the cult of Idemili, and her being known and put to work,notwithstanding, and her new self-awareness as 'the priestess of anunknown god'. At any rate, her noticing Aina to the point of drawingoutthesymbolicvalueofheraction,andshapingherreactionaccordinglytakesobservationbeyondChris'sclinicaldetachment.
Herview on the matterof where one settlesone's existenceisnot stated as precisely as Ikem attempts to do. She leaves the issueopen, just as she does the question of the role appropriate to women inmodern society. Decidedly, the role of 'the court of last resort' whichis said to have been assigned them in traditional society is no longeracceptable 'because the last resort is a damn sight too far and too late'(92). Her practice suggests that what cannot be accepted in modernsocietyistheassigningofrolesonthebasisofsex,orsuchpredetermined criteria. The function attaches to the individual who isgood for it,' as the Singer would say in Brecht's The Caucasian ChalkCircle.OnthesegroundssheperformsthenamingceremonyofElewa'sbaby, andgivesthe child aboy'sname.
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Of all those who have suffered in the tragic history of Anthills ofthe Savannah, only Elewa has produced 'something wonderful.,.toshowSomething aliveand kicking' (223).
Thiswonderfuloutcomeismemorializedinthechild'sname,'AMAECH1NA:May-the-path-never-close'.The'somethingaliveand kicking' is 'The Path ofIkem…TheShiningPathofIkem'(222).
Ikem's revolutionary ideal polarizes, while Chris's desire to seeevery form manifestand play itself out threatensthefabricwith awant of pattern. Beatrice's approach allows the interplay of differenceanditallows atthesametimethatwhat isneedfulbedone.