Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov Series IV: Philology and Cultural Studies • Vol. 6 (55) No. 2 - 2013

TRADITION VERSUS MODERNITY IN ’S “NO LONGER AT EASE”

Adina CÂMPU1

Abstract: This paper aims to find elements which point out the Achebe’s reinforcement of the difference between African and European ways. “No Longer at Ease” explores the decadence of modern urban environment which is contrasted with the idea of rural piety and stability. The paper provides an analysis of various instances which point to this opposition and renders Achebe’s position of siding with tradition and even manifesting nostalgia for the past. The conclusion is that the novel can be seen as a display of the conflict between the desire to retain traditional values and the recognition that change and assimilation are absolutely necessary for survival.

Key words: conflict, colonialism, rural, urban, tradition.

1. Introduction People” (1966). These novels are concerned with traditional Igbo life as it Briefly speaking, Achebe was born in clashed with colonial powers in the form Eastern Nigeria, in an area first colonized of missionaries and colonial government. by the British at the end of the nineteenth These early writings are also programmatic century. He obtained outstanding results at novels of nationalist self-assertion that school and after graduating from university interrogate the Eurocentric assumptions of he became involved in journalism and colonial writing on Africa. writing. His interests include: the conflict His deconstruction of Joseph Conrad’s between tradition and modernity, Christian “Heart of Darkness” is also to be noted as history, African traditional religions, etc. its impact was so huge that nowadays His first novel “” has Conrad criticism is divided into two stages: been translated into more than fifty before and after Achebe. languages and has achieved the status of “No Longer at Ease” is Achebe’s archetypal modern African novel in second novel initially envisioned by the English with many critics hailing Achebe author as forming one final section of a as “the father of African fiction.” (Booker single book. In the end that section and the & Gikandi 54) It was followed two years projected preliminary one evolved into two later by “No Longer at Ease” (1960), separate novels. The preliminary section “” (1964) and “A Man of the became Achebe’s first novel, “Things Fall

1 Department of Literature and Cultural Studies, Transilvania University of Brasov.

2 Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov • Series IV • Vol. 6 (55) No.2 - 2013

Apart”, while the final section became 2. A plethora of contrasts “No Longer at Ease”, published in 1960, the year of Nigerian independence. “No This novel is relevant to the building of a Longer at Ease” forms a kind of sequel to nation and it traces Obi’s course in life as ‘Things Fall Apart” but is set during a he fails to fulfill his own vision of personal period just prior to independence – that is, and governmental integrity. Thus, Achebe not one but two generations after the presents us a number of forces allied period treated in “Things Fall Apart”. against the building of a future strong Although the second novel has not gained nation. In particular these forces as large an audience as the first one it undermine a sense of unity, as in the deserves acclaim as an influential, finely narrow factionalism to which one pompous written and engaging work. The speaker pays tribute at a UPU meeting: extraordinary effect of reading both should be noted. “Every town and village struggles at this “No Longer at Ease” traces the long- momentous epoch in our political term impact of British colonialism in West evolution to possess that of which it can Africa, dramatizes social and economic say: 'This is mine”. (Achebe 36) dilemmas still facing modern Africa and has helped lay a vital part of the stylistic as Later, in the same scene, the narrator well as thematic groundwork for important almost explicitly condemns the self- works of African literature that have centeredness of the national outlook: followed. The book opens with the trial of Michael “In Nigeria the government was 'they.' It Obiajulu Okonkwo, referred to as Obi had nothing to do with you or me. It was throughout the novel, who is accused of an alien institution and people's business having accepted a twenty pound bribe. was to get as much from it as they could Then it jumps back in time to provide an without getting into trouble” (Achebe 37) account of how Obi ended up in that position. Thus, we find out that he had This selfish outlook clearly overlaps with been the recipient of a scholarship to study the acceptance and practice of official in England and that, following his return corruption that the novel explores. From he took a job as a civil servant. Obi had a the very beginning, that is in the opening radical position against corruption and he scene alone, we are told that civil servants firmly believed in the young generation. A frequently pay bribes to obtain a doctor's detail to be noticed is that the protagonist certificate of illness for the day so that they is the son of Nwoye, now Isaac Okonkwo, might leave work and hear the verdict in therefore the grandson of the central Obi's bribery trial. The writer shows that character in “Things Fall Apart”. A series the problem lies not entirely in corrupt of unfortunate events, among which a practices but in the wide social acceptance failed romantic relationship, the death of of corruption. his mother and a poor management of In “No Longer at Ease” official resources, all transform Obi and lead to his corruption is only one manifestation of the accepting bribes in a reluctant decadence that is tied to the modern urban acknowledgement that it was the way of environment. Contrasted with the idea of the world he lived in. urban decadence and volatility is the idea of rural piety and stability. The conflict tradition versus modernity also translates A. CAMPU: Tradition versus Modernity in Chinua Achebe’s “No Longer at Ease” 3 as the conflict between rural values and education only to set themselves apart urban ones. from the rest of the people. All this is Among the attractions of the city suggested when someone waiting in a long depicted in “No Longer at Ease” are line to see a doctor yells at Obi a telling cultural sophistication and variety, sexual rebuke in Pidgin for forcing himself ahead freedom, and the availability of glamorous of the others: consumer items. The musical and erotic allure of the Lagos nightclub scene is “You tink because Government give you vividly evoked in the novel. “No Longer car you fit do what you like? You see all of at Ease” also considers the seductiveness we de wait here and you just go in…. and the psychological and moral effects of Foolish man. He tink say because him get desiring and acquiring expensive consumer car so derefore he can do as he like. Beast items. Achebe views these matters from of no nation!” (Achebe 173) multiple angles. Obi's evening with Clara and friends at a Lagos nightclub, “The “No Longer At Ease” reminds the reader Imperial”, abounds in sexual insinuation of the immense gap existing between the and longing, and the author evokes a vital few rich people and the multitude of the beauty in the atmosphere, especially in the poor. This gap is highlighted in the second high life music and dancing; this scene of chapter when the writer juxtaposes the real and potential erotic license, in which slum area in Lagos, where there is poverty dance partners are interchangeable, is then but also a rich social mosaic, with the city's followed shortly by Obi's nearly sexual luxurious Ikoyi district. The building in encounter with Nora a young teacher from which Obi lives is in that district. In order Ireland. This is the first token of his fragile to emphasize further the dubious quality of loyalty to Clara. urban hierarchy, it is later revealed that Prior to these events and almost whereas he, a highly successful African in immediately after he is appointed to his the senior civil service, lives in this government post, Obi acquires a new building, all its other occupants are only Morris Oxford automobile, which becomes “unimportant Europeans on the lower a focal point of Achebe’s questioning of rungs of the service”. Achebe questions the materialism and uneven economic the social exclusiveness signified by Ikoyi development that are associated with an by likening it to “a graveyard” while urban, capitalist economy. Obi really characterizing the Lagos mainland, which cannot afford this car and its many related includes the slums, as “a bazaar” and as a expenses (he even hires, for a time, a palm-nut kernel, “shiny black and alive” chauffeur), but he considers neither (Achebe 20) However the author cannot be delaying its acquisition nor selling it when accused of glamorizing the lives of the his debt takes on alarming proportions. In poor in the city, as is evident in his this and other respects he finds himself in description of the slum, with its the position of so many people in consumer cultures: unable to live without “wide-open storm drain from which came debts despite the fact that he had made so a very strong smell of rotting flesh from the much money. This disproportion remains of a dog which had no doubt been symbolized by Obi's car, is regarded as run over by a taxi” and its “night- unhealthy for the future independent soilman…trailing clouds of putrefaction” nation, which requires unity rather than (Achebe 17-18). leaders who use its wealth and formal 4 Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov • Series IV • Vol. 6 (55) No.2 - 2013

Further, at the end of the scene set in a However, there are so few university Lagos nightclub, the writer presents the scholarships as compared to the demand realities of urban blight and again of social that men and women are willing to resort division in relation to Obi's car. When to monetary bribery, and some women returning to it after dancing, Obi and Clara offer their bodies, to obtain them. From find that the fifty pounds in cash that was this angle one problem with urban temporarily in the glove box has been modernity in Africa is not the economic stolen by the “half-clad little urchins” and educational opportunities themselves, whom they encountered when they parked but rather the scarcity of such the car earlier that evening. One child opportunities. Such scarcity makes it rather sought, perhaps on behalf of his group, a likely that a person in Obi's position will three pence tip for looking after the car, fall into debt. Despite having found a but “in principle Obi never gave anything relatively well-paid job in Lagos, he is still to these juvenile delinquents” (Achebe, bound by strong kinship affiliations, so the “No Longer at Ease” 126). The fewer the number of well-payed positions, connection between Obi's car and the the greater the portion of his income will poverty of the children is not arbitrary. go to family members. Rather, it may be read as one of the novel's One should also note the novel's cautionary notes concerning freedom and descriptions of women wanting to obtain a prosperity: these cannot be enjoyed for scholarship by offering themselves to Obi long, either by the individual or the nation, who was in the position of helping them. It if the poor are ignored. is another way of presenting the city as the site of immorality and decadence while the 3. Rural versus urban values rural countryside is regarded as the site of virtues. An obvious contrast in this respect Achebe is not unjust though as he admits is offered by the singing. The only music to the merits of the city. It is through the in the city that the author depicts is that of work the city offers to migrants from Obi's the Imperial nightclub. The licentious home district of Umuofia that they are able nature of that music is reflected in its to collect enough money to establish the suggestive lyrics and in the rather lewd scholarship that provides him with an dancing it inspires. On the contrary, in education in England—an education that Iguego, when Obi leaves for England the they believe will benefit them (especially if Christian community members sing Obi becomes a lawyer) as well as Obi. The religious songs, while when he returns a city is the source of other, government- group of non-Christian women perform a sponsored university scholarships song teaching a moral lesson – the need to (including ones to England), and the cherish the members of one’s family and benefits of such an education and of place them before material wealth. university education in general are undeniable: He that has a brother must hold him to his heart, “It was rather sheer hypocrisy to ask if a For a kinsman cannot be bought in the scholarship was as important as all that or market, if university education was worth it. Every Neither is a brother bought with Nigerian knew the answer. It was yes. A money… university degree was the philosopher's He who has brothers stone” (Achebe 105) Has more riches than buy. (Achebe 129) A. CAMPU: Tradition versus Modernity in Chinua Achebe’s “No Longer at Ease” 5

Therefore, the simple virtues associated imposed modernity (associated with the with the countryside and the people there city) and African tradition (associated with are highlighted by the singing of both the countryside). Achebe juxtaposes the Christian and non Christian songs. two in pronounced ways, as I have Another contrast between the city and suggested previously, but the situation the country is presented by the scenes with depicted in “No Longer At Ease” is more the pillowcases. When he is about twenty- complex than the one from the first novel one, Obi visits Lagos for the first time, partly due to the legacy of Christianity traveling the 500 miles from Iguedo, his among the Igbos. Whereas in the first rural Igbo village in Umuofia, to the city in novel Christian missionaries are closely order to take a plane to England for nearly allied with British administrators in the four years of study. In Lagos he shares a colonial effort to destroy Igbo traditions, room with his friend from school in Igbo Christians in the second novel both Umuofia, Joseph, who worked in the city suppress and sustain those traditions. The at that time. Obi is fascinated by the frank multifaceted role of these Christians sexuality in “this strange and sinful new demonstrates on the one hand, the long- world” (Achebe 16) and when Joseph tells term success of missionary efforts, and, on him about a former girlfriend, he mentions the other hand, the endurance of Igbo that she made the pillowcases in his culture. As a pillar of the Christian apartment. On one of these Joy sewed the community in the district of Umuofia, word “osculate” in multicolored letters. Isaac Okonkwo has asserted the priority of This word on the pillowcase as well as the the new faith over and against Igbo appearance of Joseph's current, unnamed religion through much of his life. In his female companion, whose dress and own family he has done so with the makeup highlight some of her physical support of Hannah, who converted as an attributes, leave “a nasty taste in Obi's adult and who “sometimes showed more mouth” (Achebe 17) On the other hand, zeal than even her husband” (Achebe 67). when Obi is back in his room at his Obi remembers that at the age of four he parents' home in Iguedo four years later, he refused, like his older sisters, to accept a notices the brand new white sheet and neighbor's gift, a result of their mother's “pillow-slips with their delicate floral teaching, but embarrassed the sisters by designs” which are “no doubt Esther’s s adding aloud that they never eat “heathen work.” He thinks, “Good old Esther!” food”. (Achebe 67) Isaac does not rigidly (Achebe 17) and remembers that she, his dismiss all aspects of the culture that he eldest sister, became a schoolteacher when was born into as Nwoye, thus permitting Obi was a young child. These details, the traditional presentation of the kola nut along with the devoutly Christian home, to guests, as long as it is not sacrificed to make the second allusion to a pillowcase idols. Adult Obi's faith, however, has standing in contrast to the previous one, a weakened, and he wonders about the contrast that reinforces the novel's moral consequences of saying to Isaac, “Father, I distinction between the urban and rural no longer believe in your God”. (Achebe areas. 65) In addition Obi The main conflict in “Things Fall Apart” between Africa and Europe and especially “used to wonder whether …his mother that between the Igbo and the British may would not have preferred telling her appear to have turned in “No Longer At children the folk stories that her mother Ease” into the conflict between British- had told her.” (Achebe 67) 6 Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov • Series IV • Vol. 6 (55) No.2 - 2013

Hannah had done so with her daughters cultures. But while Achebe criticizes the before Obi was born, but later Isaac ossification of his character he seems to forbade the practice because such tales admire his values. While the protagonist’s were for “heathens…not for the people of decline is due to his ossification, the the Church” (Achebe 66). But Achebe society to which he belongs manages to shows that the oral tradition is not so easily survive because if its adaptability. The forgotten. The prohibition against folk process of adaptation is a slow and painful stories by Isaac—who himself uses Igbo one during which various aspects of proverbs—was eventually breached by indigenous and European cultures are Hannah when she taught the young Obi a combined during which the colonized must tale about the wicked leopardess in order look for synthesis. Colonialism inevitably that he could tell it to his class at school. produces in the colonized society a period The teacher encouraged the students to do of chaos during which old values no longer so, and when Obi recounted the story he apply and the new ones have not yet been added some details of his own. found. Thus, the novel can be seen as a display 4. Conclusion of the conflict between the desire to retain traditional values and the recognition that It can be noticed that Achebe manifests change and assimilation are absolutely nostalgia for the past. Abdul Jan Mohamed necessary for survival. says that References “the protagonist ultimately falls not because he is alienated from society but 1. Achebe, C.: No Longer at Ease. New because his character is ossified around York. Anchor Books A Division of certain traditional values.” (Janmohamed Random House Inc., 1994. 168) 2. Booker, K. M., Gikandi, S.: The Chinua Achebe Encyclopedia. London. His decline is due to the fact that his Greenwood Press, 2003. naïve idealism prevents him from adjusting 3. Janmohamed, A. R.: Manichean to the practical nature of a corrupt society. Aesthetics: The Politics of Literature in Obi’s valorization of honesty and integrity Colonial Africa. The University of represents a common aspiration of all Massachusetts Press, 1983.