UNIVERSITY OF OUAGADOUGOU BURKINA FASO

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT Unity-Progress-Justice

3nd year, 5th semester

African Anglophone Literature

Lecturer: Dr.
HIEN Donath
l

Objective of the course

By and large, the objective of this course is to get
students in the humanities to cast a meaningful
glance at the landscape of the aesthetico-social and
political realities which have affected the continent
ever since slavery days through colonization up to
the contemporary stage, in the prism of West
African Anglophone literary productions.
It focuses mainly on the novel as a genre,
assessing its emergence and development and
leading the student of literature through a modicum
of theoretical sinews as well as it moulds their
consciousness through some critical issues of
burning importance.
Hence it provides the students with significant
insights (perceptiveness; perceptivity) as to how to
 iron them out. But above all, the course is an
invitation to take due stock of the destiny of the
black man and foster (promote) a productive
awareness in him at a moment when globalization
does no bid fair for lesser socio-economic entities.

AFRICAN ANGLOPHONE
LITERATURE
I. The African novel: a developmental assessment
(process)
Nothing exists without a beginning; therefore,
the discussion on the African novel will start
with a consideration of the genesis of the genre
in Africa. It is pertinent to ask first of all if such
a thing as African novel exists. The reason for
this question is that it has been claimed in certain
quarters that in fact the African novel does not
exists:
“The colonialist critic, unwilling to accept
the validity of sensibilities other than his
 own, has made it a particular point of
dismissing the African novel. He has
written lengthy articles that it is a
peculiarly Western genre…”

Naturally, a claim such as this could not go

unchallenged and ACHEBE’s response is not to
deny that the novel as a genre originated from
the West but to insist that it does not therefore
follow that this genre cannot be indigenized and
perfected in places other than the West. To
buttress this view, Achebe illustrates with
example form the history of music that “the
black people in America, deprived of their own
music instruments take the trumpet and the
trombone and blow them as they had never
been blown before, as indeed, they were not
designed to be blown. And the result was Jazz.”
Jazz is for the Blacks and not for the Europeans.
It is obvious that Achebe is correct. And we
must regard European origin of the genre called
the novel, a historical accident which does not
deny validity to its existence elsewhere in the
world.
Europeans might have been writing novels
for millions of years but for all that they could do
is the European novel; similarly African could
only create African novels. Therefore, though of
late birth, does not qualify as a bastard.
Moreover, there is another reason which
justifies us to speak of the existence of the
African novel. We shall arrive gradually at this
reason by considering the elements which
constitute the essence of this genre of prose
fiction.
The novel is defined as “any extended
fictional prose narrative” whose “backbone” is
the story and the story itself, “a narrative of
events arranged in their time sequence”. It is
usually about human beings, the things that
happen to the human beings or characters should
be presented in such a way as to have logical
explanation in cause-effect-relationship. This
presentation is known as the plot or the “sujet”.
And in the end, the reader is convinced that the
novel is an authentic account of the actual
experience of individuals, this is known as
realism.
It would appear therefore that the essential
characteristics of the novel consist in the story,
character, and plot, realism with the theme,
point of view, narrative and linguistic
techniques and so on. Can’t we find these
characteristics of the novel in our oral literature?
Were these elements of the novel absent in
Africa prior to the introduction of European
novel? These questions are asked with a view to
demonstrating that their existence automatically
implies that Africa had her novel before the
white man arrived. That would be naïve indeed.
The purpose is to show that Europe did not start
writing novels about two centuries ago. And
prior to that Europe had her folk-tales, the
Italians novelia and the medieval romance
which had been identified as the ingredients out
of which the novel eventually emerged. From
this, we can see that the European novel had its
roots in European oral prose tradition.
Oral prose literature all over the world
exhibits essentially the same characteristics.
Every folk-tale tells a story, has a character or
characters and manipulates the story for an
effect (its plot), but it lacks realism. European
prose narrative retained the fantastic mode of
presentation until the 18th century.
Due to the industrial revolution and the
emergence of the new class, they arose the need
to produce new literature to the taste of the new
class, they arose the need to produce new
literature to the taste of the new emergent class.
This led to the displacement of the romance by
the development of a new type of prose fiction
that did not seek to escape reality but on the
contrary explored all aspects of reality. This was
how the novel come into being. The role of the
industrial revolution as a catalyst for the
emergence of the novel in Europe is
comparable to the role of colonialism in the
development of the African novel. The
industrial revolution produced a new power
structure in Europe as did colonialism in Africa.
When the first African (novel) written
extended prose fiction, The Palmwine
Drinkard, was published in 1952 by Amos
Tutuola, not surprisingly it resembled the oral
African literary tradition just as the European
romance. Soon enough the African writer
recognized the need for himself realistically,
just as the 18th century European writer
switched from fantasy to realism.
The situation is that just as the industrial
revolution brought about the development of the
African nov[el. Another factor or argument
against the existence of the African novel is the
linguistic dimension.
Obiajunwa Wali in his famous article
“The Dead End of the African Literature”;
argued that we could not properly speak of an
African literature as long as our writers
continued to use borrowed European languages.
He said “until these writers and their Western
mid-wives accept the fact that any true African
Literature be written in African languages, they
would be merely pursuing a dead end which
can only lead to sterility, uncreativity and
frustration.” He went further to state that
language is one of the most concrete aspects in a
people’s culture and to pretend that we can
express African culture adequately in languages
of non-African cultures is an obvious self-deceit.
Critics have generally agreed that the
adequate way to express African culture is to
use African languages. What is controverted is
Wali’s denial of africanness to African literary
works in European languages.
As Maduka rightly observes, Wali’s
idealistic position has not taken into
consideration the complexity of the linguistic
situation in Africa. The problem of the right
language is not limited to literary dimension
but also political, economic and societal.
Africanisation of European language is
doubt one of the ways by which African writers
introduce innovations into the written literature.
African writers have been able to bend and twist
the English language to reflect its culture. Some
of these writers like Achebe, N’gugi and others
introduce their traditional language elements
into their novels. That is why we identify what
is described as African English in their novels.
However, some of the writers are presently
encouraging the use of African languages in the
production of African literature. A shining
example is N’gugi Wa Thiongo who
experimented the writing of a novel in his native
Kikuyu language instead of English. But one
thing is clear: though the use of African language
in African literature is bleak as at present it
would be overcome in the near foreseeable
future.
Another of the charges against the existence
of the true African novel is the purported claim
by Phanuel Ejejuro that African writers create
or write for the European audience and not for
the African audience. She says in her article:
“Who is the audience of African Modern
Literature?” that although the African writer
claims to create primarily for an African, their
works as matter of fact are written for a
European audience. The reason for this
contradiction, according to the article, is that our
literary artists are motivated to write not mainly
out of patriotic considerations as they claim but
largely by economic factors.
In as much as the article is a courageous
attempt to give the lie to the empty claims of
some of our writers, the author must be praised.
The article is however misleading in ways. To
begin with, its claims are too sweeping and
generalized.
A careful study of African literature
however, will reveal three board periods as far as
the subject of the discussion is concerned. First
of all, there is the slavery period when 18 th
century African writers such as Ignatius Sancho,
OLuadah Equiano and others addressed
themselves primarily to a white audience. This
was the assimilation phase and they wrote with a
distinct western linguistic decorum. The purpose
was to awaken to the conscience of white slavers
and promote the cause for emancipation.
The second period spans the colonial era
up till the 1960s. The task before the African
writers of this period was in some ways similar
to the one that had confronted their 18th century
counterparts. They had the duty of undermining
colonialism and exposing its inhumanity so as to
accelerate the process of winning independence.
However, there are already a significant
distinction between these two periods. In the 18 th
century, few Africans apart from the slaves were
literate.
In the 20th century, on the other hand,
literacy had spread over most of Africa. African
writers of the first period could comfortably, and
in fact had no option but to choose the European
world as their sole audience. They were
appealing to the conscience of the slavers. At the
second period, the audience of African literature
was no longer exclusively European but dual i.e.,
European and African. But a fundamental change
in the composition of the audience of African
literature occurred during the third (3rd ) period.
This is the post-independence era, beginning
approximately around 1970. At this stage, the
audience of African literature is undoubtedly
African. The main task of those writers is to
expose the ills of the society to the common
man. Hence there were no more glossaries at the
end of their novels. The Audience of the African
modern literature therefore is in three phases:
solely European, European and African and
completely African.
It is wrong, therefore, for Phanuel to have
lumped writers together into one
undistinguishable group of people who seek
economic patronage for economic reasons.
At this stage, it is already quite clear that
African writers fall into two distinct camps: there
are the bourgeois humanists who are concerned
 with the well-being of African people, even
though they are essentially individualist whose
personal welfare supersedes the communal well-
being.
And there is the second camp which belongs
to socialist-oriented African writers who
condemn individualist ethics and who see
themselves as indivisible from the common man:
e.g. N’gugi Wa Thiongo, Sembene Ousmane.

II. The development of the African novel

Despite the problems facing the African
novel, problems of recognition, it has maintained a
sort of encouraging development. It started in 1952
with the phantasmagoric tales of Amos Tutuola
who was preceded in this genre by D.O.Fagunwa
in his classic Yoruba novels in the late 30s. Next
were the realistic novels typified by the works of
Chinua Achebe and early N’gugi’s at the close of
the 50s. Realism has since then remained a
dominant aspect of African novels. Some of the
writers have so applied realism that their works are
more realistic than naturalistic, being nurtured by
the principles of socialist reforms.
 Of recent, there has been a tendency to
abandon realism to return to at least in part to the
fantasy characteristic of Tutuola’s works and folk-
tales. This tendency is evident in the myth-
informed novels such as The season of Anomy
and Ayi Kwei Armah’s two historical novels.
Could this return to fantasy be an indication that
the African novel is about to complete its
development? The genre of war novel manifested
itself in novels like Okpewho’s Last Duty, and
Ike’s Sunset at Biafra, etc. These vertical and
horizontal generic developments attest the
continuous growth of the African novel. The same
truth of growth is evident in the fact that the
African novel has matured so much that it is no
longer limited to audience appeals. We can
distinguish between the highbrow novels of
Soyinka patronized by academicians and critics
from the novels of Cyprien Ekwensi which have
popular appeal. In between, lie the novels of
Achebe which cut across audience stratification.
African writers no longer write in the tamed
predictable way as characterized in the earliest
novels. But now, they write in matured confident
manner and often times they venture into
experimentations of various types. This is a sort of
development in the African novel.
Thematic preoccupations of the African novel
also give us an insight into its development. When
Equiqno and wrote in the 18thcentury, their main
concern was to argue their humanity before white
slavers. In the 50’s, the issues were similar and
they were associated with the white and black
culture as a legacy of colonialism. In the 70’s, the
theme of the contemporary novel shifted to
criticizing the African leaders who took over from
the white men. Thus, the African novel has been
critical from the beginning. What we notice as the
novel develops is the heightening of the intensity
of the criticism as its target shifted from white men
to black men. While the criticism has been solely
motivated by liberal humanistic considerations in
the past, it has acquired a proletarian class
perspective in the hands of the writers like N’gugi
and others.
The number of novels and novelists has
risen considerably. This is a sort of development
too. It is a significant element in the growth of the
African novel. With the increase in novelists, we
have not only witnessed a quantitative increase in
 the number of novels published but a quantitative
increase in terms of artistic excellence.
A significant aspect of the African novel as
compared to the Western novel is the former’s
accelerated speed of development. The Europeans
used about two centuries in developing a real
realistic novel out of the romance, a thing the
African did in only about 6 years from 1952 to
1958. This phenomenon of the African novel to be
explained mainly by the fact that African writers
had the opportunity to learn from the two-century
old tradition of the western novel.
Finally, the prospect of future development of
the African novel is bright. While the older
generation of African novelists continuous still to
write, talented younger writers with promise are
continuing to spring up.

III. The Genesis of the African novel

It is recorded that Africans living outside
Africa in the 15thand 16thcenturies what
could assume the status of novel. But
African in Africa did not start writing until
the 20th century. This lateness can be
 attributed to the non-existence of the written
tradition in Africa. Moreover, the influence
of the writers in Europe on African s was
also non-existent because of their relative
unpopularity in Africa.
Most of our early writers wrote in their
indigenous language because they were not
articulate enough in the European and
confident to write in them. The Hausa people
of the Northern Nigeria and part Niger
started writing in Arabic language long ago.
In 1665, a person named Dan Malina
Moussa of Katsina wrote poems in Arabic.
In the 18th century, another writer
Muhammad, wrote poems in the 1741 and
Shehu Usman Dan Fodio also wrote poetry
in Arabic. Writing in Hausa started in
19thcentury when one Ibrahim Tahir wrote
poems in Hausa. Other writers wrote in
Hausa in this century.
 Igbo: they did not begin early enough
because orthography was not developed. And
when it was developed there was an argument
as to what brand of dialect to write in thus
delayed writing till about 1933 when Nwanna
 wrote Omenuko.
In 1952, D.N Achara wrote
Alabingo.
 Yoruba: by 1929s a short story was
serialized in a Lagos paper “Akede Eko”.
Fagunwa started writing in the’ 30s. he wrote 5
classic Yoruba novels which look like the
European 18thcentury picaresque novels. In
1965, Isaac Adelola wrote poems.

 TIV: in 193 Akigas Story, an

autobiography was written. There
was also an epic poem.

 Ghana: the first writing in English

did begin in 1911 when Casely
Heyford wrote a work that could
be classified as a novel called
Eighteen Pence. These works are
much earlier than Achebe’s; even
Camara Laye’s African Child
(1955) is earlier than Achebe’s
Things Fall Apart (1958). But the
latter because of its value got
 precedence over the others.

IV. Characteristics of the African novel

The African novel as has been criticized by
both outsiders and insiders is said to have “a
thin plot”, a thin narrative texture and
underdeveloped characters”.
The African novel is not homogenous.
That is, there is no one particular novel that
has got the characteristics that can be
attributable to the African novel. Some are
voluminous. Some have small volumes. This
is the one quality that distinguishes the
African novel from the European and Asian
novel.
It is not easy to identify the African
novel because there are no exclusive
characteristics of the African novel. Though
they are very close to each other, yet they are
different. Nonetheless there are some
common qualities.

THEME
The European writers and generally the
European society tend to place emphasis on
the formal aspects of the work or the novel,
in terms of theme, style, characterization,
etc. i.e., Europeans are more formalistic in
their approach of criticism. Africans, on the
other hand, lay emphasis more on the
sociological aspects of the works of art, its
relevance and significance to the society. A
good critic should pay equal attention to both
the form and theme of the work. African
writers are uphold humanistic and idealistic
qualities. They abhor think like corruption,
nepotism and tribalism in society. White
critics emphasize formal aspects and run
away from sociological aspects because they
are the roots of these evils in African
societies. African writers emphasize what is
said while Europeans emphasize how it is
said.
African writers are sociologically
inclined in their attempt to improve the well-
being of the society. They are committed
writers and that is why their works are
always centered on some issues of burning
importance to African society. The African
novel therefore, is political and very critical
 about the social realities of our existence.
Some present situation e.g. Achebe’s Thing
Fall Apart. Our writers’ main task is to make
us conscious and aware of the situation.
Hence African novels always deal with
national issues. “Why were we so caught
unprepared by the white man?”
This is an answer from Things Fall
Apart: the essence of delving into the past is
to make us apprehensive of the current
situation. Most African writers are openly
committed like N’gugi Wa Thiongo whose
works have been termed as propaganda.
African writers express a sociological
concern as it affects the African. The
dominant trend of African novel is that
presence of critical is that presence of critical
realism juxtaposed with sociological
concerns. Europeans are not sociologically
inclined.

PLOT
White and euro-centric critics describe
African novels as having “thin plot and thin
narrative texture”. These charges on the
African novels raise a question: must every
novel be tight and having a complicating
plot? It is to be noted that the nature of the
plot of the novel depends on the make or
type of the novel. Usually, a tragic novel
deserves a tight plot while a comic one will
have a loose plot.

Picaresque narratives and novels of

adventure have loose plots, e.g.: The
Palmwine Drinkard, by Amos Tutuola. The
important thing about plot of a novel is its
believability, the linking of cause and effect.
The African novel is not bound to have novel
combines realistic and non-realistic features.
It is quite unavoidable considering the nature
of African society. This does not mean that
European novels do not combine fantastic
elements. But this is more so with African
novels as our oral tradition has much to do
with fantasy. But in African novels fantasy is
usually and sometimes used to achieve
reality.
CHARACTERIZATION
In The Emergence of African Fiction,
Charles Larson observes that “characters in
African novels are not adequately described
psychologically.
The validity of these criticisms is very
obscure. Because the yardstick for measuring
efficiency of characterization in African
novels is not one of those in Europe. African
characters are created by Africans and must
different by those created by Europeans. One
question is: do these characters achieve the
purpose for which they are created? If they
achieve the purpose, then, there is efficiency
of characterization.
In Europe, writers lay emphasis on
individuality and self-oriented traits of a
character. Unlike the African character that
is portrayed according to the role he plays in
the communal context in which he finds
himself. Sometimes, the African individual’s
experience reflects communal experience;
whereas the European individual reflects his
individualistic society. It is the role that
matters in the communal context in which he
 finds himself and not his psychological and
emotional feelings.
Contrariwise, the European wealth is
in the individual. This is because the
European have lost confidence in
communalism. Africans on the other hand
believe that the existence of any community
depends on the role of the individual, or a
leader. Emphasis on community necessitates
characters that are flat. The African novel,
therefore, cannot be faulted for not creating
round characters (ref. to Decolonization of
African Literature, by Chinweizu et al,
pp.114, 122-123).
The need to propound individualistic
philosophy necessitates the European round
characterization. It is just the angle of
approach that differs: Africans stand for
what is communal Europeans stand for
individualism.
LENGTH
The African novel has been charged
with being too slim. There are two things
against this claim:
First: it is a very fraudulent claim
 because the novels of Europe in the
19thcentury were largely voluminous. But
coming to the 20thcentury, they became
slimmer. Then, if they can turn from
voluminous to slim novels, the reason why it
is so? The 20th century people do not have
time to read because of other forms of
entertainment; so, 20thcentury tempo of life
demands brevity of the novel. African
writers deliberately make their novels brief
to appeal to an audience which has not been
hitherto exposed to the reading tradition. So,
African writers tailored their novels to suit
their culture. One thing again is the size of
the novel does not affect its quality.

The issue of time and space in the African

novel
White critics see the African novel or work
as not being universal. This criticism is not worth
the salt. It is a deceitful method of criticism
because the African novel has universality in time
and space.
Universality in time and space only be achieved
through particularization, i.e., writing about a
locality so that it can reflect a wider context.
African novels are universal if the above claim is
taken seriously. Achebe’s Umuofia in Things Fall
Apart is a typical representation of African and
Asian countries and towns where there was a form
of colonialism. It is not restricted to the Igbo
society alone.
The question of measuring time in Africa is
different from the one in Europe. For Charles
Larson and his euro-centric critics, to lump the
charges of no fixed measurement of time in Africa
is very misleading and wrong. In fact, there are
different ways of measuring time all over the
world.

LANGUAGE
The language of African novels is unique and
cannot be said to be the same as the one in the
English novel. Though the novels use English, the
way they use it is used in Europe. There is a kind
of indigenization of European languages. African
writers include some native and sometimes
translate some eulogistic vernacular words into
English. There is the use of proverbs, idiom, etc.
African lexical structures are literally translated.
SUMMARY OF THE NOVEL:
THINGS FALL APART

The major theme informing Things Fall

Apart is cross-cultural conflicts. The book was
published in 1958 in the heydays of the struggle
for independence in Africa. In this book, Chinua
Achebe attempts to portray the beginning of the
falling apart of the old established order in an Igbo
village, Umuofia, possibly even his own. The
events he deals with took place between 1895 and
1905, when Europeans were coming to settle in
Eastern Nigeria in order to carry out their colonial
policies. It was the first time the white missionaries
got in that part of Africa and the effects were
immediately felt. Things Fall Apart is divided
into two broad parts. In the first part, the author
gives us a careful depiction of the original African
society before the arrival of the British. The second
part reveals the consequences of the British arrival
i.e., the breaking-up of the society and its
traditional values: things falling apart as the title
indicate it clearly.
In the first part, the story focuses on
Okonkwo, the major character, one of the most
famous men in Umuofia before the coming of
colonialism. Okonkwo represents his society and
even the totality of Africa at a critical moment of
her history. He is portrayed as a proud, a fearless
and daring man, full of energy and physical
strength which he invested into farming life,
sporting events, wars and so on, that brought him
admiration, fame and consideration in the status of
manhood. It is reported that in his early youth, he
had thrown down “Amalinze the cat”, the great
wrestler who for seven years was unbeaten, from
Umuofia to Mbaino. In addition, Okonkwo was
intelligent, and had love for hard work. These very
qualities often led him into doing certain things
that he would not have done under normal
circumstances. He disliked everything loved and
done by his father because the latter, Unoka had no
good reputation through his life. Coward and lazy,
he was also poor, improvident and quite incapable
of thinking about tomorrow. Subsequently, as a
man, he has not recognized for anything good.
Despite his bad start in life, Okonkwo was unlike
his father. And this was a motto, a guiding
principle of his life. He was a good farmer, had
many wives, big farms of yams and was a well-to-
do by the standards of his time. In those days when
courage and bravery were extolled and very much
emphasized in the making of a man, Okonkwo’s
father, Unoka, had not the spirit of his age; he was
not courageous, no brave. He was womanly; he
feared war, was afraid of bloodshed and shivered
at the mere mention of warfare. But his son
Okonkwo, a daring warrior brought home human
heads and was a titled man enjoying respect
everywhere.
This section of the book goes on to show the
different phases of life in Umuofia: feasts and
seasonal festival rites. The section ends with
Okonkwo’s exile. During the funeral ceremony of
Ezeudu the oldest man in the village, Okonkwo’s
gun fired accidently and killed the sixteen years
old son of the dead man. The elders regarded it as a
crime against the land. Okonkwo fled to Mbanta,
his mother’s village and soon after his departure
his town’s people gathered and set his compound
in fire, not out of hatred, but to abide by the
appropriate customs of the land. If they did not
fulfill this destruction, the wrath of the great
goddess would loosen on all the land and not just
on the offender. As the elders put it, “if one finger
brought oil it soiled the others”. Achebe depicted
the round of everyday a seasonal activities with
great accuracy to reveal that Africa had organized
systems of life, a system of social values, a culture,
a sense of dignity, and societal orderliness.
Part two focuses on the falling apart of that
cultural orderliness as a result of the encounter of
the white man and the black man. It shows the
changes that took place in Umuofia during the
protagonist’s seven years exile at Mbanta. It was
during that exile that the European missionaries
came to Umuofia and prohibited those customs and
traditions which shaped the black man identify and
which had featured prominently before the arrival
of the white man. The missionaries condemned any
form of worship idols, human sacrifices and the
killing of twin-babies among other social evils.

Obierika, Okonkwo’s friend would

occasionally visit him from Umuofia and would
tell him about these changes, including permanents
settlement of missionaries at Umuofia. He also told
Okonkwo how the missionaries preached that the
people should have their gods: Ogwugwu
Amadioha, Idemili and instead worship the
Christian God, the “White man’s God”. Okonkwo
saw these things as abominations and crime against
his ancestors. His pride as a leader of his village
was deeply hurt and he regretted bitterly his being
in exile. When he found out that his first son,
Nwoye, was moving toward the white man’s
religion which Okonkwo described as lunatic, he
did not hesitate to disown him as a first reaction to
the situation.
On leaving Mbanta at the end of his exile, he
owed that he would restore Umuofia to its original
position. Soon after his arrival at home he
collected some fellow villagers and they went and
destroyed the Christian church. Arrested and
tortured, they were daily ill-treated during the days
they were detained in prison for trial. This
treatment was unbearable to Okonkwo the
superman of Umuofia. He has done more fearless
things before –after all, he had stretched his hand
and “slaughtered Ikemefuna the boy who called
him father”. Whenever his pride was injured, his
temper and not his reason dictated his next line of
action and often this was rush and unpredictable.
At this point in time, his hatred for the white man
knew no bounds. He saw the white man as a devil
and someone who had injured the gods of
Umuofia. He lamented “all our gods are weeping,
Idemili is weeping, Ogwugwu is weeping, and
Agbala is weeping and all the others. Our dead
fathers are weeping because the shameful sacrilege
they are suffering and the abomination we have all
seen in the land with our eyes”. Okonkwo,
therefore, felt it was his duty to fight for the gods
of the land. So at the first opportunity he got, he
accordingly murdered a court messenger of the
white man’s camp. It was said that Okonkwo
“sprang to his feet as soon as he saw who it was.
He confronted the head messenger, trembling with
hate, unable utter a word. The man was fearless
and stood his ground… in that brief moment, the
world seemed stand still, waiting… In a flash,
Okonkwo drew his matchet… Okonkwo’s matchet
descended twice and the man’s head laid beside his
uniformed body”.

Unfortunately however, Okonkwo looked for

support from his fellow townsmen but instead of
action, they had broken into tumult and some were
even wondering why he did it. This was the last
straw that broke the camel’s back. Okonkwo’s
pride had been injured the white man. His passion
has been exhausted by the lack of action of his
people when he went to exile and now face with
his people, he has been let down. For him that was
the end of the road. He went home and committed
suicide in agony for the loss of dignity of the
father’s land.

It is fickle reasoning to suggest that it was

necessary to overthrown the traditional system in
order to make away for the more beneficial
Western civilization. It is equally unreasonable to
feel that Achebe did not take stock of good effect
of the coming of the Europeans, especially when
there are modern technological amenities which
have come to African society because of the advent
the white man on the continent. What Achebe is
attacking in “Things Fall Apart” are inconsiderate
methods and approaches by which the early
European gained ground in this part of the world.
This is why the ending of the novel is so bitter and
ironical.

It is impossible to see in Okonkwo’s suicide

the white man’s triumph in the massacre of African
cultures, traditions and customs. Okonkwo is the
hero of the book, but he died more from pride and
fear than a selfless preservation of the tradition of
his people. His death serves to illustrate the bitter
experiences which were the results of the hardness
and handedness of the early Europeans over
Africans. In this context, the ending of the book is
therefore not a surprise. Thus, a missionary
advised his followers to attack the tradition of the
people, temper with the sacred “python” assault the
relics of culture, tradition and customs, dismantle
and destroy the Egwugwu (masquerades) etc. the
image of African personality, culture, tradition and
arts became grossly distorted and it was to take
over half a century before the Africans could talk
about the restauration and revival of his culture.
Whatever advantages the imperialists, brought by
the way of civilization and westernization that they
were able to do harm African traditional heritage
and values condemn them. This is what Achebe
attacks in Things Fall Apart and not the Europeans
themselves. The following passage from the book
reflects some of these cross cultural conflicts.
(pp.123-125). “Umuofia had indeed changed
during the seven years …… He has put knife on
the things that held us together and we have fallen
apart”.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Achebe, C. Things Fall Apart, London:
Heinemann, 1958.
Chinweizu et al. Towards the Decolonization of
African literature, vol.1, Nigeria: Fourth
Dimension Publishing Company, 1980.
Larson, Charles R. The Emergence of African
Fiction, Rev.ed., NEW York: Macmillan Press,
1978.
Palmer, Eustace. The Growth of the African
Novel, Ibadan University Press, 1986.
Sartre, jean Paul, What is Literature? Trans.
Bernard Frechman, Great Britain: 1978.
Singh, Amritgit. The Novels of Harlem
Renaissance, USA: Pennsylvania State University
Press, 1976.
Stevick, Philip. The Theory of the Novel, USA:
Macmillan, 1967.
Tutuola, Amos, The Palmwine Drinkard, 1952.

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

Achebe wrote the novel to expose the

stinking hypocrisy of Europeans. He wrote to
inform that we were not savages but people who
had a culture and social organization before the
coming of the “prophets” of civilization.

Themes in Things Fall

Apart

1. The novel, Things Fall Apart, tries to

show that the Ibo society, as a representation of
traditional African society, prior to the coming of
the white man, was a closely-knit, united society
which operated a viable socio-cultural, political
and economic system.
This fact is evident in the republican political
 set up of the government, the law and legal
system, marriage system, naming ceremony,
burial procedures, educational system, rules of
etiquette, sophisticated conversational custom
and the use of language as art, its balanced
mixture of worth and entertainment, its valid
system as demonstrated in reward of
excellence, a well-organized religious system
based on a well-structured cosmogonic and
cosmological myth. It is evident above all that
there was the presence of love and order,
accord and contentment and the fact that they
were basically happy.

2. To show the factor that led to the

disintegration of the society, the weakness of
culture, the attractiveness of the Christian
religion vis-à-vis the weakness of traditional
culture and the military superiority of white
colonizers etc.

3. To show that conflict arose between

Africans and the white colonizers because of the
refusal of Africans to change their system of
economical, political and social organization or
 system, the white man’s ignorance of these
systems of organization and which was the basis
for the presumptuous claims by the white to
superiority; the arrogance of some white
missionaries and administrators, the
unscrupulous and overzealous behavior of some
African converts and administrators in the
colonial government, the economic motives of
the colonizers and the white slavers that
preceded them.

4. Other minor themes are the generation

gaps which always create rifts between father
and son; the internal theme of love and the
theme of motherhood.

Structure of the novel Things Fall

Apart
The novel, unlike The Palmwine
Drinkard by Amos Tutuola, is a realistic one and
we expect a logical cause and effect relationship.
The setting is concrete: Umuofia. The characters
are particularized, they have names, their language
is individualized, and they have negative and
positive influences. The subject matter is historical,
and deals essentially with the issue of cross
cultural conflicts.

Characterization

The novel is narrated as a portrait of a major

character. The main character is a tragic hero going
from fortune to misfortune, and actually his tragic
fate is a reflection of the African race. Obi
Okonkwo contrasted with Unoka, his father who is
a foil to his son.

Narrative point of view

Achebe uses the third person point of view.

The author is objective because he both brought
the weakness of the traditional society and her
values and amply stated the negative roles or
impacts of whitemen in African society. He
eliminates himself totally from the narrative.
Everything is put into the mouth of the characters.
Every character was allowed to say his/her mind.
Certain characters and situations are
ironically presented to look humorous.

Language
The language used in the novel is simple and
however complex. The sentence pattern and
structure is that of the Ibo language. The English is
somehow modified by the use of proverbs and
direct translations of the Ibo sentences into
English. He also uses transliterations e.g. “Go there
and be my eye”.
In standard British we must say instead
“Go there and represent me”. By doing this
Achebe succeeds in conveying his subject matter
in the good light and more vividly while he
preserves his African identity to westerners.
The Palmwine Drinkard by Amos Tutuola

Theme
There is a strong influence of the
traditional folklore on the story, the purpose of
which is to entertain and teach some few things
about life. The work takes note of some attitudes of
human nature –that man is given to pride and that
pride dictates some of the things that human being
does e.g., quarrel between heaven and earth, the
case of the beautiful girl who refuses her suitors.
The main character also exhibits some pride. He
calls himself “the father of all gods can do
anything in the world”. Consider the incident in the
mixed town – he did not confess he could not
accomplish the task before him just because of his
pride.
The ingratitude of human being is also
conspicuously displayed. When palmwine was in
abundance he, the palmwine drunkard, had many
friends swarming around him but all of them
disappeared with the stop of the flow of palmwine.
Human beings are also portrayed as being
selfish: for egocentric reasons the palmwine
drunkard is so self-centered that he decided to trace
his palmwine tapper, to wherever he is, not
because he loved him. The palmwine drinkard at a
stage pushed his wife to face danger instead of
protecting her. The novel also tried to portray to
what extent relationship is established between the
individual on the one hand, and the society on the
other. He hails from a rich home, so rich that the
parents could afford to provide him with a
palmwine tapper. At the beginning of the novel we
see somebody who seems to himself at the center
of the novel, but at the end of the story he is
different, changed man, our idea or opinion of him
is reversed. There is an occasion he provided food
for the whole community. There are other facts to
show his present generosity –when he returned he
became concerned with the problems of the
society. He became interested in solving the
problem of famine. With this, he is no longer the
squanderer he was at the beginning; he has been
the creator of wealth and harnesses this wealth
towards the betterment of the society as a whole.
What are the things attributable to the sudden
change of heart? The principal factor is the
tapster’s death. This took him to many lands far
and away, engaged him in mentally and physically
arduous and exerting task and so made him to see
the virtue inherent in work.
Also obvious in the novel is the internal or
innate curiosity of man to learn that which is new,
i.e., his non-satisfaction with the ordinary. From
the story we learn that nothing is impossible, i.e.,
that there is no task a man cannot accomplish if he
is determined about it. The novel in essence
elaborates and emphasizes the virtue of
fearlessness, courage, industry, perseverance etc.

Nature of the novel

What type of novel is Tutuola’s The
Palmwine Drinkard? To what genre does it
belong?
The novel is the picaresque type. That is, it
is a novel of adventure. There are different types of
adventure. This one belongs to the real world but
to the inner mind. The novel tells a story of a
purposeful journey. This makes it a quest novel or
quest narrative. Specifically, it is a mythical quest
novel. The genre is thus by no means realistic.

Sources of inspiration
Folklore is the most evasive source that
influenced Tutuola in writing the novel. The
Yoruba literary giant, D.O.Fagunwa, is also
another influential source of Tutuola’s novel.
Fagunwa deals with the same story as Tutuola.
Both possesses similar narrative techniques, even,
though they are writing in different languages.
 The fact that the author has lived around
people who are capable of reading the English
novel affords him the opportunity to know what to
do about his own work. Some people believed that
the writer would have been familiar with Arabian
Knight and/or The Pilgrims Progress.

Plot
The novel has a loose plot. This loose narrative
plot structure is attributable to the nature of the
novel being made up of series of episodes. In spite
of the looseness, there is some element of unity
and cohesion in the narrative. The central unifying
factor in the novel is the search for the dead
palmwine tapper. There is another factor, that of
the main protagonist, the palmwine drinkard –
everything happens to or affects him one way or
the other. Besides, all episodes apparently teach or
say something of the philosophy of “all work no
play”.
There is some element of arrangement in
the novel whether it is conscious or otherwise. The
novel starts with the conflict: he is to trace the dead
palmwine tapper; the complication is this: he has to
perform certain duties or tasks before he is told
where to find the tapper; climax is reached when
he gets to where his tapper is and at least we have
an anti-climax because he is unable to go back
with the tapper and he has to return home without
him –all complication at this point became
resolved; this is the point of resolution.

Characterization

Characters like all other things in the novel

are far from being realistic. Some of the things the
character does lack logic: he is as fantastic as the
story itself.
Though the concentrates on a particular
geographical region, it enjoys a considerable
degree of universality. Many of the experiences
portrayed are archetypal.

THE ELEMENTS OF FOLKLORE IN

TUTUOLA’S THE PALMWINE DRINKARD
There is need to concretized the elements of
folklore present in the novel.
One of the elements is the repetition. Repetition is
used throughout the narrative.
There is also the personification of inanimate
objects, making them behave as human beings,
which is a basic aspects of folklore.
The setting of the novel is typical of the
settings of oral narrative and folklore. Just as
barriers abound in the setting of oral prose
narratives so they abound in the novel. The novel
is very faithful to the conception of the traditional
life where there is no boundary between the living
and the dead. The mixture of reality and fantasy is
also applied in the novel.
The mode of narration is borrowed from the
traditional folklore. Instead of the novel stating the
moral –the need to combine work with pleasure –it
went to discuss the moral in parabolic manner just
in the way it is done in folklore.
There are so many folklore motifs in the
novel; such as the motif of transforming a human
or perfect gentleman into a skull, the motif of
wrestling with the death etc.

THE BEAUTYFUL ONES ARE NOT YET

BORN BY AYI KWEI ARMAH
Ayi Kwei Armah is very prolific and shows
elements of talent. His novel The Beautyful
Ones are not yet Born was published in 1969.
It deals with corruption and moral decay in
post-independent Ghana. The author is
remorselessly honest. He does not mince
words, whether what he is writing is ugly or
fine or good. He has no room for hiding facts.
He paints them with shocking vivid imageries.
Chinua Achebe reacted negatively to his
novel in his article “Africa and her writers”
and his objection to Ayi Kwei Armah’s writing
is that he believes that the author was
influenced by Western modernism, i.e., how he
tended to exaggerate the ugliness of
Ghanaians, that he borrowed foreign
metaphors and imagery to depict Ghana,
thereby making it and Nigeria more ugly than
they are. Achebe’s fear was that a brilliant
writer like Armah was following the
Europeans style of writing instead.
Charles Nnolim also criticizes Armah
in his work “Pejorism”. Their criticism is not
 ill-intended but nonetheless wrong as would
be seen. Robert Frazer wrote a book of
criticism on Armah. He sees Armah as not
humanly affected by this treatment of non-
black characters. He does not take the feelings
of the whites into account when criticizing
them e.g., Why are we so Blest.
Bernth Lindfors has written an article
on the same issue as Robert Frazer. In an article
called “Armah Histories” ‘refering to Two
Thousand Seasons, he says “Armah is an anti-
racist and in trying to fight racism he becomes
himself a racist”. But neither did Bernth Lindfors
nor Robert Fraser say anything about The
Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born, where
Africans were portrayed in a bleak light. They see
it as a fine treatment of the theme of corruption…
the contamination wrought (brought) by poverty.
They saw it as a clever and uncomfortable moral
fable handling human value without withholding
sympathy from the leaders and all those whom
weakness […] to a pursuit of power.
Armah is seen as being indecent because he
talks openly of a dirty life using vivid words, but
this is not true of him for he wanted to shock the
public; by writing this way he is attracting
attention from the public. The novel as a whole
seems to say “when a thing gets to an extreme
level. It should be treated extremely”.

THEMATIC CONCERNS
The novel paints for us an image of modern
Africa as reflected through post-independence
Ghana of the 1960s. From this picture we discover
that in modern Africa, African culture and tradition
have been falling apart beyond repairs and what
exists now is a state of anomy, confusion of moral
and ethical values, selfish individualism, political
opportunism, the absence of primary purpose of
politics. The novel presents the image of modern
Africa dominated by physical, political and moral
corruption. What is seen through the major
character called “Man” is the difficulty of
remaining moral and upright in a society which
has become rotten and maggoty at the center. This
difficulty of remaining upright is compounded by
the society and even from the “loved Ones”. The
best option left to an upright individual is that of
the lone heart of passive resistance. An honest man
left with sympathy even from the loved ones can
also be pursed by a resistance which is not active.
This is a society where good things easily wither
and die.

STYLE AND STRUCTURE OF

THE BEAUTIFUL ONES ARE NOT
YET BORN
The novel is a very carefully woven work
of images of corruption as well as regeneration.
There are images of physical corruption which
reflects the inner corruption. For example the
conductor is the human symbol of corruption. The
dustbins are symbols of physical corruption and
ugliness.
This also applies to the latrines, the banisters
rails etc. Symbols of regeneration are perceived
through the decomposition, ugliness and rot of
things which necessitate the ultimate regeneration.
Having passed through the latrine Koomson and
the Manwere formally cleansed by the ocean.
The novel is narrated with probing intensity.
There are not many events in the work. Armah pay
attention to every detail. He probes deeply into the
feelings of the major character, the Man. The
narrative is detailed methodically and very slow.
The major technique is the use of shock therapy.
This novel is the real one. The novel is explicit.
Armah calls a spade a spade. Everything is detailed
and made prominent in the novel. This is a short of
existentialist work because the hero confronts the
existence of being alone and holds himself
responsible for what happened. The protagonist is
always looking inward to himself. It is not a true
work of existentialism because it still maintains
that our salvation still needs a communal one
unlike that which obtains in the existentialist novel.
The character of the Man is universal.
The language is lyrical, beautifully and poetically
presented. Sentences are structured in a particular
way, flowing mellifluously. Certain syntactic
structures representing themselves in the same
way. Though the author is saying something sad
the work is light.

SOCIAL REALISM
 Realism portrays life as it really is in the
works of art by being specific in names, contents
etc. Social realism are these works of art that are
realistic in a socialist manner. Works which
attempt to portray human history as perceived by
the socialist.
The socialist perception of human history
is in their belief in what they call Historical –
Materialism – a theory that entrenches the belief
that the oppressive system –capitalism and
imperialism –create the condition for their own
destruction and replacement by the more humane
system of socialism and ultimately communism.
Writers of socialism orientation create
fiction that reflects this view of history – that the
negative forces create conditions for their
destruction and replacement. This is because the
capitalist who is always greedy aims at profiling at
the expense of the proletariat. As the capitalist
gets richer and employs more of the proletariat,
the condition, of his workers progressively
deteriorates to the extent that it is unbearable,
and revolution takes place.
Socialist writers create their realism to the
extent that their works reflect the historical
perception of socialism. Writers associated with
this kind of realism are Mongo Beti, Sembene
Ousmane, Festus Iyayi (from Nigeria) and Ngugi
Wa Thiongo. These people’s works persistently
reflect the socialist perception. One fundamental
element with their novels is their being optimistic
that negative forces will be destroyed and replaced
by the more humane system of socialism –that
loppression will end.
Ngugi changed his name (from James Ngugi
to Ngugi Wa Thiongo) in order to demonstrate
his liberation from the inferiority complex. His
novels are the River Between (first written but
second to be published [1965]), Weep Not, Child
(first published [1964]), A Grain of wheat [1970]
and Petals of Blood (1977). There is an element of
gradual radicalism in his novels Weep Not, Child
is little more radical than the mild liberal
nationalistic work entitled The River Between. In
Weep Not, Child there is the belief that
oppression and exploitation must come to a stop
through violent means i.e., the Mau Mau
Movement. The Bible paved the way for the
sword (page 57).
 Ngugi’s third novel, A Grain of
Wheat is more radical nationalistic novel. Ngugi
by writing his fourth novel from radical
nationalism to radical socialism as portrayed in
Petals of Blood. This novel transcends national
boundaries and draws parallel line between the
capitalist (the oppressors) and oppressed. The
major character in the work is Karega.

PETALS OF BLOOD
The major character is different from the
other characters in Ngugi’s previous novels. Ngugi
published Petals of Blood in 1977. Prior to the
publication, the last novel he wrote was in 1967
and it was the Grain of Wheat. It took him 10
years to reorganize and structure his mode of
presentation, his outlook of life and the last way he
could help his people. Ngugi is a dedicated writer.
He wanted to bring consciousness to the
common man in Kenya. Hence he decided to
write in his native Kikuyu language. Because of
his political dedication some of his critics
especially those of the bourgeois class have
criticized him as a political propagandist.
Petals of Blood is conceived in the
global perspective of social realism. The novel is
provoked into existence by the fact that the
Europeans and their imperialists have turned
Africa into a land where the poverty of the many
demonstrates the inequality in the share of national
cake. The question that confronts Kenya and which
motivated him to his positive action is expressed
on pp 198-9 in the novel: “How do we come to
where we are?” How come about that the 75% of
those that produce food are poor? Etc…These
questions baffle Karega, the major character, led
him to his positive action of educating the young
and upcoming Kenyans of the true nature of things.
Representatives of the exploited are Abdulah,
Wanja, Karega, Munira and the villagers.
Representatives of the exploiters are Chin, and
Inspector Geoffrey.
Wanja has no illusion of what is
happening. She, however, knows the actions of the
oppressor (p.291). Everybody in the society either
belongs to any of these two groups. On page 200 it
is said: “you serve the people who struggle or the
people who rob there is no neutrality.”
 The position in Petals of Blood is not
based on specified objects but on a definite class
struggle. From the lawyer, Karega learnt that there
is no social-political system that is sacrosanct or
that is untouchable. The basic truth of existence is
that that which is created by me. The lawyer is a
liberalist who has not the backbone to throw his
weight behind the novels for liberation.
Karega devoted himself for the
reorganization of socio-political system to suit the
masses; fighting for an egalitarian society. His
major and immediate task was to organize the
trade unions. In the attempt to change the society
the novel ends in a very optimistic mood (p.
344).

THEMES IN PETALS OF BLOOD

The novel is centered on the community of
Ylmorog in order to expose corruption, religious
struggle etc. Independence as shown was a
complete waste of human resources and a
disappointment. Black-rule after independence
turned out to be worse than the colonial rule.
This time around the evils are being perpetrated by
their fellow black men. The novel portrays those at
the helm of affairs as not being true Africans p.345
“Black Zombies dancing the Western…” These
black rich men steal land from their right owners
because of political power. The rightful owner’s
ironical, become helpless factory workers they pay
rents on houses built on land taken from them.
The novel is a duty in the nature of
cruelty which manifests itself in advance. Mr.
Hadokins is a typical example of African elite. He
is cruel (p.160). He shows his cruelty to a people
who asked for direction. There is also the cruelty
of the holyman of God, the cruelty of foreigners
who came to colonize Africa is not left out. They
have more regard for their dogs than human
beings. Africans collaborate with Europeans to
steal gemstones, animal skins etc. p.334. The
privileged people lived at expense of the poor
man. The last part of the novel states that the
struggle continues and victory is certain. Ngugi is
bised against the privileged people of Kenya.
There are also sub-theme in the novel it is
education; the traditional educational system
being used is defective it throws peoples off
from the struggle.
 Elements of style
This is a typical novel from the point of view
of the representation of reality. In terms of the
mode of convergence, narrative technique, it is
kind report of an investigation into an incident. A
somewhat detective novel. It is voluminous and
boring. The author presents his materials
subjectivity. It has a panoramic view of the
perception of the lives of the common men in
Kenya i.e., it covers a wide range of materials.
Because of his subjectively the author is not
distanced from the narrative. The novel starts in
the middle with the arson (incendie) from where it
went to the beginning and then commenced again
in the middle which led to the end.
The novel covers a large period of history-
from the Mau Mau Movement of independence the
area of history it deals with is very essential to the
lives of the people in Kenya and to Africans in
general. It spans from pre-independence,
independence to contemporary period. It deals with
almost all the aspects of life in Kenya: religious,
political and even economic. It can be referred to
as an encyclopedia of the lives of the people in
Kenya in respect to the particular time in question.
There is a mass movement of people from one
people to another: from Ilmorog to Nairobi and
back to Ilmorog. Usually a novel that has these
characteristics is often identified as an epic novel.
It is far more ambitious than other novels in terms
of material coverage and epic in nature.
The novel is the first of detective novelist
in Africa: a crime is committed and there are
investigations to find the culprit. There is suspense
in the fact that it with –holds information. The
mode of investigation is that of a character imaging
into his past. The notes written by Munira are both
confessional and auto-biographical, making it an
autobiographical confessional novel. It is very
complex. It is not easy to define in one word the
genre of this novel.
 The structure of
the novel
The novel is divided into 4 segments, not
chronologically arranged. There is extensive use of
trash backs. Each division begins with quotations
from some sources. These quotations are a sort of
extensive epigrams which are taken from the Bible,
poets etc. These epigrams foreshadow the themes
of the novel-prostitution, oppression, political
power, famine, danger and evil inherent in
society etc.

Part I –The epigrams are taken from the Book of

Revelation and from Walt Whitman. The epigrams
of this section foreshadow the themes of the novel
as reflecting to the section. Themes of the ruler
and the ruled, oppressors and the oppressed etc.

Part II –The epigrams are taken from Blake and

they are related to Munira’s life. Themes of
prostitution, the danger and evil in society are
highlighted.

Part III –The epigrams are from Blake and the

Bible (Songs of Solomon). The separate parts do
not seem to coherce. The events seem episodic and
they can stand by themselves considering their
panoramic nature. The novel has very broad
coverage of time.
The narrative style is that of shifting
narrative point of view. There is the
combination of both direct and indirect
speeches. Characters narrate events from there are
own perspectives, the experiences being recalled
by Munira and Wanja. The narrative is subtle and
subjective, taking sides with the oppressed.
There are detailed descriptions of events which
make the novel look like a journalistic reportage.
In terms of language it is mostly accurate,
powerful, highly imaginative and striking. The
language is the direct original phrases of the
common men. The use is us of long humour,
symbolism, characterization. The novel is a
proletariat prose epic.
 Language and Irony
The tone of narration is ironic in the
treatment of religious hypocrites, politicians etc.
(Cf. p. 135, 147, 27 and 145). There is ironic
treatment of colonialism (p.32). When it returns to
the Africans who hide away from their identity the
language is also ironic. These Africans are
anxious to be Europeans. This ironic treatment is
contained in the advertisement of Munira –“be a
blonde, red-head, a whole new you”.
In the treatment of characters there is also
this irony –Munira’s is most ironic. A district of
Ilmorog is called Jerusalem, another, Capetown.
These names evoke South Africa and Apartheid
and racial discrimination of whites against
blacks. Here, it symbolizes the acceptance of the
prevailing condition in South Africa. Actually
irony pervades the novel in terms of
characterization and descriptions of situations.
As serious as the novel, it is also pervaded
by elements of humor. It deals with a serious
matter as it effects Africans. The humor is created
by the irony involved. What inspectors Geoffrey
does and says is ironic and generates an element of
humour (p.26). Most of the ironies are subtle and
harmless.
There are lots of symbolisms in the novel
(cf Eustace Palmer in African literature today №
10). The novel is very symbolic and hence its title.
“The Petals of Blood” is symbol in that the land of
Kenya and its vegetation are represented by the
flowers. The blood on it, is symbolic of the
suffering -the blood Aldula has spilled to regain
the land during the Mau Mau War. It is a living
condemnation of those who sabotaged the efforts
of the freedom fighters who are mainly common
men. The flower is called Kenyatta used for wine
–a protest wine. The common men are the first
ones to make money from wine made from the
Kenyatta but their efforts are being clamped down
by the capitalists – who established a bigger
company and employs the common men as
laborers.

Characters are also symbolic, characters like

Chui, Nandi Hawkins represent a class (the
oppressive class) quite different from Munira,
Karega, Abdula and Wanja (the oppressed). In
traditional characterization one usually have
characters which serve as the major character on
which the story is unraveled. Instead, we have 4
characters which serve as the major character.
This a conscious attempt by the author to make the
struggle for nationalism a matter of the people and
the belief that a nation’s faith is communal.
Characters are sympathetically depicted for
example Munira. Munira committed the arson
purposely to have a sense of belonging to the
people that make things happen and to purify his
thoughts and deeds. He is sympathetically
presented nevertheless ironic –a man who has the
chance of climbing the ladder of the oppression up
to the situation he chose to identify himself.

Naturalism
The novel is a naturalist, proletarian prose
epic. Naturalism takes off from realism stops. It is
an extreme from realism. Naturalist writer’s
attachment to particular details explains the
naturalistic qualities of Petals of Blood. It seems a
journalistic reportage giving details of events. It
does not have mush of redundant details. The
language of the naturalist novel is exactly the same
as the language of its characters. Petals of Blood,
in terms of language is a naturalistic novel. There
is an attempt to approximate the exact language of
the character.
As a proletarian novel
There is a link between naturalist and
proletariat writers. Proletarian writers mostly apply
the naturalist approach. The naturalist tends to be a
little pessimistic in the sense that when he has
examined the various causes of problems and the
nature of the problems he cannot advance
solutions. The naturalist shows how human
being are, why they are so, but does not provide
solutions. The proletarian writer not only
demonstrates what the problems are but also
provides solutions to the problems. Proletarian
writers believe in ideologies: Marxism (marseist
ideology). Marxism operates on the philosophy of
historical materialism, that capitalism and
imperialism have encourages ultimately lead to
their destruction. Thus the growth of capitalism
encourages the growth of labor force in number
and in intellect. A proletarian writer believes in
this philosophy and believes in the common men
are not as helpless as the naturalist will see them.
This philosophy is demonstrated in Petals of
Blood. We are told that the capitalists and the
imperialists have enriched themselves to a stage
that the common men have realized the situation
and want to remedy it. The villagers of Ilmorog
realized that if their MP (Member of Parliament)
cannot visit the area he is representing they have
to go to him to demand their fare share of the
national cake. They succeeded but what they got
was different. Government and the capitalists
promise them industrialization. What they got was
seizure of their lands and being made to work in
the capitalist’s firm. This opens the eyes of the
villagers to form trade unions to fight for their
rights of which they were successful. Though the
leader was arrested, the villagers have become
aware of the situation. The novel as a proletarian
novel seems to say that human condition is
human made and can be undone by men. At the
end of the novel one sees the common men
Karega, Munira, Wanja, and Abdula etc. are no
more helpless. They now have the support of the
vast majority of the people. There is even the
rumor of another Mau Mau activity afoot.
While the naturalist examines why there
are problem the proletarian writers go beyond that
to find means to how the situation can be reversed
to normal. As can be seen from this novel, the
proletarian writer’s main aim is not to entertain as
would do the bourgeois writer. They write to
educate the masses. In proletarian novels we have
the “positive hero”, while the leading characters in
capitalist works are anti-heroes. Karega is a
typical positive hero while Munira is not a positive
hero, nor a valiant hero, but an “anti-hero” he has
the aspirations to be good but trying to be good.
Positive heroes are in proletarian
novels, poetry, and drama to act as model for
people to imitate. The proletarian novel is similar
to naturalist novel in that they both diagnose the
cause of human problems but the proletarian one
differs because it goes beyond to positive
solutions.