No Longer at Ease

“Mr. Green was famous for speaking his mind. He wiped his red face with the white towel on his neck. ‘The African is corrupt through and through.’”

This above quote is part of a passage that characterizes Mr. Green, who represents a colonizer. The quote illustrates the colonizer’s mentality and the superiority of European authority in the colonial Nigerian state. Mr. Green’s racist comments indicate that European authorities considered Nigerians inherently inferior. People like Green think their duty is to civilize Africans, but he ultimately sees no benefit in trying to “educate” Nigerians’ corrupted “nature.”

“They wanted him to read law so that when he returned he would handle all their land cases against their neighbours. But when he got to England he read English; his self-will was not new.”

This passage illustrates Obi’s sense of individualism and determination, and how it clashes with the values of his community. While the Umuofia Progressive Union hoped that Obi would study law to help them with the community’s fight for equality, Obi decided for himself against their desires and chose English. They expect him to get a European job and repay the Union with state money. However, this does not work smoothly in the end.

“Obi was away in England for a little under four years. He sometimes found it difficult to believe that it was as short as that. It seemed more like a decade than four years, what with the miseries of winter when his longing to return home took on the sharpness of physical pain. It was in England that Nigeria first became more than just a name to him. That was the first great thing that England did for him. But the Nigeria he returned to was in many ways different from the picture he had carried in his mind during those four years. There were many things he could no longer recognize, and others—like the slums of Lagos—which he was seeing for the first time.”

While in England as a university student, Obi realized what home meant to him. The nostalgia for his country reinforced his sense of African identity. However, his absence also alienated him. Obi romanticized Nigeria in his mind and was not aware of its changing reality in the years leading up to its independence. Therefore, he lacked the socio-political consciousness to envision the country’s future.

“‘The Civil Service is corrupt because of these so-called experienced men at the top,’ said Obi. […] ‘To most [young men] bribery is no problem. They come straight to the top without bribing anyone. It’s not that they’re necessarily better than others, it’s simply that they can afford to be virtuous. But even that kind of virtue can become a habit.’”

Obi’s idealism guides him. He believes corruption is the result of a lack of education and intellectuality that characterizes old Nigerians. While he gained the position in the civil service with his qualifications, Obi ignores the social and political forces that allow bribery within the colonial state.

“‘What an Augean stable!’ he muttered to himself. ‘Where does one begin? With the masses? Educate the masses?’ He shook his head. ‘Not a chance there. It would take centuries. A handful of men at the top. Or even one man with vision—an enlightened dictator. People are scared of the word nowadays. But what kind of democracy can exist side by side with so much corruption and ignorance? Perhaps a half-way house—a sort of compromise.’ When Obi’s reasoning reached this point he reminded himself that England had been as corrupt not so very long ago. He was not really in the mood for consecutive reasoning. His mind was impatient to roam in a more pleasant landscape.”

Obi has not developed a conscious postcolonial perspective yet, though he is political and tries to envision a future for Nigeria as an independent country. His thoughts are confused and lack coherence, betraying his immaturity and lack of organized political thinking. However, the passage also establishes that he loves his country despite his criticism.

“Four years in England had filled Obi with a longing to be back in Umuofia. This feeling was sometimes so strong that he found himself feeling ashamed of studying English for his degree. He spoke Ibo whenever he had the least opportunity of doing so. Nothing gave him greater pleasure than to find another Ibo-speaking student in a London bus.”

The passage demonstrates Obi’s troubled consciousness as he tries to make sense of a double heritage. Obi’s thoughts highlight the importance of Native tongues for the preservation of indigenous culture and indicates his decolonizing mentality. Obi believes in the Nigerian worldview. However, English has also become part of his identity.

“His father too was all bones, although he did not look nearly as bad as his mother. It was clear to Obi that they did not have enough good food to eat. It was scandalous, he thought, that after nearly thirty years’ service in the church his father should retire on a salary of two pounds a month, a good slice of which went back to the same church by way of class fees and other contributions. And he had his two last children at school, each paying school fees and church fees.”

The passage portrays the financial struggle of Obi’s family and the way rural communities like Umuofia are marginalized by the colonial state. Despite Isaac’s years of work in the church, he does not receive a fair compensation in his old age. The family relies on Obi for financial assistance, which creates an additional economic burden for him. Within a colonial world, the community’s only chance for survival is Western education and a “European” job.

“She was a very devout woman, but Obi used to wonder whether, left to herself, she would not have preferred telling her children the folk-stories that her mother had told her. In fact, she used to tell her eldest daughters stories. But that was before Obi was born. She stopped because her husband forbade her to do so.”

Obi’s family is described as patriarchal. His mother remains silent and obedient to her husband, who is a catechist and a devout Christian. However, Obi understands that his mother is more traditional despite her conversion to Christianity. She used to teach traditional Igbo stories to her children, trying to preserve the Igbo culture. The patriarchal order limits her agency.

“But these intimacies which Obi regarded as love were neither deep nor sincere. There was always a part of him, the thinking part, which seemed to stand outside it all watching the passionate embrace with cynical disdain.”

Obi has had ambivalent connections with women. He did not take his relationships seriously, and he only fell in love with Clara. However, even with her, the relationship remains problematic. Obi struggles to share his inner life and feelings with her, and as a man he wants to lead their lives. Thus, they often quarrel and cannot communicate. 

“It was scandalous that in the middle of the twentieth century a man could be barred from marrying a girl simply because her great-great-great-great-grandfather had been dedicated to serve a god, thereby setting himself apart and turning his descendants into a forbidden caste to the end of Time.”

Despite his anti-colonial mentality and pride in his African identity, Obi also rejects aspects of the Igbo tradition. He cannot accept the osu custom that inhibits his marriage to Clara. Obi thinks that he has a modern perspective that questions parts of Igbo tradition. However, societal and cultural pressures prove stronger than his relationship with Clara.

“‘You may ask why I am saying all this. I have heard that you are moving around with a girl of doubtful ancestry, and even thinking of marrying her…’ Obi leapt to his feet trembling with rage. At such times words always deserted him.”

Obi values community. However, when the Umuofia Union warns him about life in Lagos and criticizes him for his relationship with Clara, he becomes furious. Obi’s influence from Western culture makes him draw boundaries between his personal and communal life as an Igbo man. Instead of accepting their support with his debt, his pride alienates him from them and leads him to his downfall.

“After his encounter with Mr Mark he did feel like a tiger. He had won his first battle hands-down.”

The passage illustrates Obi’s idealism and principles. After he rejects a man’s attempt to bribe him, he feels he has already won against corruption. Obi thinks that self-will is the way to resist bribery and discourage favoritism. However, he gradually realizes the socioeconomic forces that generate inequality within the colonial state.

“After paying the twenty pounds he would have thirty left. And very soon he would have an increment which alone was as big as some people’s salary. Obi admitted that his people had a sizeable point. What they did not know was that, having laboured in sweat and tears to enroll their kinsman among the shining élite, they had to keep him there.”

Obi begins to realize that he cannot make ends meet with his economic responsibilities despite his salary. The Union cannot understand his struggles, and expects him to benefit his community with his education and job. The passage shows Obi’s gradual realization that for a Nigerian, access to a Western social order is not simple. Obi is caught up between a Western lifestyle and his position in the Igbo community.

“A most intriguing character, Obi thought, drawing profiles on his blotting-pad. One thing he could never draw properly was a shirt collar. Yes, a very interesting character. It was clear he loved Africa, but only Africa of a kind: the Africa of Charles, the messenger, the Africa of his garden-boy and steward-boy. He must have come originally with an ideal—to bring light to the heart of darkness, to tribal head-hunters performing weird ceremonies and unspeakable rites. But when he arrived, Africa played him false.”

This passage refers to Mr. Green. Obi understands the mentality of the colonizer, one who ignores the reality and diversity of Nigerian culture and thinks that his mission is to teach civilization to non-Europeans. Close to the country’s independence, Europeans could not impose the authority of the early years of colonization. Still, people like Mr. Green considered Africans inferior. While Obi understands the British, the British ignore the reality of African life.

“Obi knew that unless he paid the fees now that he had a lump sum in his pocket he might not be able to do so when the time came.”

As the narration advances, Obi’s financial struggles dominate. His privileges as a Nigerian man working in the colonial civil service prove false. The systemic inequality and the dysfunctional class and power structures limit Obi’s economic autonomy. Ultimately, his financial struggles are key to his downfall and show the importance of economic control in decolonization.

“Mother’s room was the most distinctive in the whole house, except perhaps for Father’s. The difficulty in deciding arose from the fact that one could not compare incomparable things. Mr Okonkwo believed utterly and completely in the things of the white man.”

This passage describes the different cultural dynamics within Obi’s family. While his father has embraced Western culture and admires European power, he widely rejects the Igbo tradition. His mother remains closer to her cultural roots despite her obedience to her husband. The cultural conflict within the Igbo community contributes to Obi’s identity crisis.

“‘What is this thing? Our fathers in their darkness and ignorance called an innocent man osu, a thing given to idols, and thereafter he became an outcast, and his children, and his children’s children for ever. But have we not seen the light of the Gospel?’ Obi used the very words that his father might have used in talking to his heathen kinsmen.”

The cultural conflict deepens as Obi and his father speak about Clara. Isaac has embraced Christianity but cannot deny the osu custom. Obi rejects Christianity but uses his father’s own arguments about Igbo tradition as “heathen” and ignorant to counter him. Postcolonial cultural tensions are complex and create pressures on the characters’ personal lives.

“He was amazed at the irrelevant thoughts that passed through his mind at this the greatest crisis in his life. He waited for his father to speak that he might put up another fight to justify himself. His mind was troubled not only by what had happened but also by the discovery that there was nothing in him with which to challenge it honestly.”

Despite his self-will, Obi cannot counter his father’s arguments against the osu tradition. While his father also rejected aspects of the Igbo culture and clashed with his father due to a similar tradition, he cannot encourage his son’s ignoring the osu custom. Obi accepts his fate and almost resigns.

“The most immediate problem was how to raise thirty pounds before two o’clock the next day. There was also Clara’s fifty pounds which he must return. But that could wait. The simplest thing would be to go to a money-lender, borrow thirty pounds and sign that he had received sixty. But he would commit suicide before he went to a money-lender.”

Obi’s financial difficulties proliferate and foreshadow his demise. He now has to pay for Clara’s operation and her loan and considers borrowing money. Money becomes a central problem toward the end and pressures Obi’s consciousness. He struggles to stick to his principles, but they start to wane. By now his idealism has collapsed. He is alienated from the Union and remains alone to cope with unsurmountable outer forces.

“As he sat in the driver’s seat, paralysed by his thoughts, the doctor and Clara came out and entered a car that was parked by the side of the road. The doctor must have said something about him because Clara looked in his direction once and immediately took her eyes away. Obi wanted to rush out of his car and shout: ‘Stop! Let’s go and get married now,’ but he couldn’t and didn’t. The doctor’s car drove away.”

Obi and Clara decide that she should have an abortion in haste. Obi is uncertain while Clara’s will is portrayed as vague. After he regrets leaving Clara in the hospital, Obi’s immaturity becomes evident. He wanted to marry her but outer pressures determine their fate. Their relationship has collapsed.

“‘God bless our noble countrymen / And women everywhere. / Teach them to work in unity / To build our nation dear; / Forgetting region, tribe or speech, / But caring always each for each. / London, July 1955.’ He quietly and calmly crumpled the paper in his left palm until it was a tiny ball, threw it on the floor and began to turn the pages of the book forwards and backwards. In the end he did not read any poem. He put the book down on the little table by his bed.”

While studying English literature, Oni wrote a nostalgic poem about Nigeria. The poem, however, was about the Nigeria of his imagination. He envisioned a future for his country based on his own idealism and desires, with no profound consciousness of the country’s socio-political reality. In the end, he throws the poem away, signaling the demise of his own dreams and principles.

“‘It is not the fault of Nigerians,’ said Obi. ‘You devised these soft conditions for yourselves when every European was automatically in the senior service and every African automatically in the junior service. Now that a few of us have been admitted into the senior service, you turn round and blame us.’”

Obi responds to Mr. Green’s assertions that Nigerians have too many privileges by the state and care about their personal interests. The passage shows that Obi starts to develop a conscious stance about his position within the colonial civil service. The privileges only few Nigerians enjoy were initially created for the Europeans and are not designed to empower Africans.

“Again Obi slept all night and woke up in the morning with a feeling of guilt. But it was not as poignant as yesterday’s. And it very soon vanished altogether, leaving a queer feeling of calm. Death was a very odd thing, he thought. His mother was not three days dead and yet she was already so distant. When he tried last night to picture her he found the picture a little blurred at the edges. ‘Poor mother!’ he said, trying by manipulation to produce the right emotion. But it was no use. The dominant feeling was of peace.”

Obi feels guilty that he could not afford a proper funeral for his mother. However, his guilt soon fades and he feels serene. This signals how Obi has become emotionally numb toward the end of the story. His mother’s death reflects his own inner death as his former connection to her begins to wane. Obi is alienated from his community and selfhood.