I should be glad of another death

This week I read Chinua Achebe's No Longer At Ease in preparation for the weekly discussion portion of my History 202 course. Although its not as well regarded as Things Fall Apart, another of Achebe's books, I found it to be a very interesting read. I highly recommend it to those of you looking for an example of good post-colonial literature.

No Longer at Ease relates the experiences of Obi, a young man who returns to his native Nigerian after spending four years at university in England. He arrives in Lagos with dreams of lifting his homeland out of bonds of colonialism, but becomes increasingly disillusioned as his idealism is frustrated by both traditional and modern barriers. At its core, the book is a tale of alienation. Obi struggles to reconcile the demands of family and acquaintances with his new position and status in the government ministry. He becomes aware that his experience abroad, along with his Christian upbringing, has made him a stranger in his own country. He loves and hates Nigeria as he loves and hates himself.

Achebe is both insightful and impartial in his discussion of how racism immobilizes and embitters a society. Obi experiences racism while in England and again from his white superiors in the government ministry. But on arrival in his home village, his relatives express their joy that he has not married a white woman. Most tragically, Obi is to distraught to learn that his family and community reject his fiance Clara because of her disreputable tribal origins. By attempting to defy these social conventions he brings disaster on himself and Clara.

Within this narrative Achebe explores the unintended effects of educating young Africans in the western model. He asks "What is the purpose and result of this education?" Obi's supervisor, Mr. Green, denounces the practice of educating Africans, claiming they only use their diplomas to grab all they can for themselves and their kin. Obi himself believes knowledge is a power to be utilized in modernizing his country, but he feels overwhelmed and inadequate at the impossibility of his task. In the end, he is slowly crushed between traditional expectations and modern limitations.