No Longer at Ease

Clara Okeke is a young Nigerian woman and resembles Obi. She was also educated in England and her parents are Christians. She works as a nurse, which make her autonomous and financially independent. Throughout the narrative, Clara is portrayed as a woman with an intense inner life. However, she lacks a full voice in the story because she is mostly seen through Obi’s point of view.

Clara and Obi meet in London, but, initially, Clara is indifferent toward him. Their relationship begins during their trip back to Nigeria. Obi “was immediately struck by her beauty” (12). He feels connected to her when she first speaks Igbo to him. However, the two partners do not handle their communication well as they both keep things to themselves. From the start, Clara is hesitant and depressed. She carries the emotional burden of being an osu, an outcast in the Igbo community. She knows that her and Obi’s plans for marriage cannot flourish and does not speak to her parents about their relationship. Even though Obi rejects the osu custom, they are both unable to counter outer tensions.

Clara tries to help Obi financially, but his ego and pride will not allow her agency as an equal partner. They often quarrel and Obi, instead of discussing his troubles with her, often “[fobs] her off with some excuse” (52). While she shows her resentment about his behavior several times, she cannot voice her desires and resist his will. She breaks off their engagement after learning how Obi’s family reacted to her status as an osu.

Clara’s feelings about getting an abortion remain vague. She hints that she will take care of it herself, but the meaning of her words is uncertain. Obi appears to be the one who decides.

Ultimately, despite her education and status as an independent woman, Clara remains suppressed within a social environment that reinforces male domination and is fraught with political and cultural tensions.

Isaac is Obi’s father, an Igbo man who has embraced parts of Western culture. He is a devout Christian and a catechist in the church. Isaac believes that Western culture is superior to the Igbo tradition and stopped his wife from teaching traditional Igbo storytelling to their children: “‘We are not heathens,’ he had said. ‘Stories like that are not for the people of the Church’” (30). Isaac admires the written word, which, for him, is more powerful than oral tradition because it lasts. Writing for Isaac is “the symbol of the white man’s power,” as it “never fades” (66).

Isaac represents the family patriarch whose will dominates the family. He appears as distant toward his children. For example, Obi’s discussion with him about Clara was the only “direct human contact he had made with his father for the first time in his twenty-six years” (71). While Obi’s mother obeys her husband, Obi feels that she does not reject the Igbo tradition and remembers some folk stories she told him in secret. The family, however, is poor, as his father’s pension, despite his years of serving as a teacher in the church, is meager. Obi observes: “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” (29). Through Isaac, the novel also explores cultural tensions within the Igbo community, as he often argues with the men of the community about traditions and customs.

Isaac demonstrates the complex cultural elements of postcolonial identity. Though a Christian, he cannot reject his belief that osu are unworthy, and he does not support Obi’s marriage to Clara. Obi tries to use his father’s own arguments to convince him, but Isaac states: “We are Christians […]. But that is no reason to marry an osu” (70). Isaac’s Westernization does not make him abandon all aspects of Igbo culture, even if he proclaims to reject the African tradition. Ultimately, Obi cannot challenge his father.