In September 2018, I "read and reviewed Chinua Achebe's book" No Longer At Ease. My review back then centered on what I gleaned as ten key points from the story of the main character Obiajulu Okonkwo.
In January 2020, I was back with the book on a rereading mission - being the chosen book for a reading platform I belong to.
I engaged in a little task of putting down pointers as I went across the pages. Specifically new words, a list of proverbs, character line up, names of places and a list of titles I gave the nineteen chapters.
But for this review, I focus on Clara, Obi's heartthrob and the hustle she went through from being in love, opting out, a painful abortion and how Achebe offered her a "forced exit" at the end of the day. I assess Clara in view of patriarchy, which the book is heavy on. But first the titles.
1 - Obi Okonkwo, present and past
2 - Lagos and leaving Lagos
3 - Obi and Clara returning home
4 - Obi catches up with Joseph
5 - Umuofia receives its historic son
6 - Family meeting
7 - The traditional marital roadblock
8 - The sweet-sour UPA meeting
9 - Temptations
10 - Financial squeeze and spat
11 - A good night out turns sour
12 - The bribery debate
13 - Clara's bombshell, Obi's local leave
14 - Christianity vs. Traditional belief
15 - Clara's pregnancy
16 - Abortion gone wrong
17 - Obi's financial woes pile up
18 - Solidarity of UPU, mother's death
19 - Enjoying illegality till the bust
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| A man holds a brochure at the funeral of Achebe in 2013. |
I wrote thus: "Just as in Things Fall Apart, Achebe unashamedly writes of an African household and society run by the man. Obi’s mom shelved her traditional beliefs because his dad so insisted. Mom had her roles and respected daddy’s lead role."
All the leadership roles in the book are manned by men. From the Okonkwo household to the Umuofia Progressives Union, UPU; school leadership through to Obi's dealings with Clara.
Clara being a Nigerian, black African, if you like was a good choice better than that Obi brings back a white woman as a wife. Yet, Clara is an outcast, an osu, who not even a catechist father of Obi nor his ailing Christian mother will accept.
Clara, aware of the hurdles is brave enough to break off the relationship despite the complication of a pregnancy. Meanwhile, Obi will all but reject her financial assistance of 50 pounds, it ends up stolen but sees Obi strain to reimburse her at all cost.
He is only exhibiting the very African patriarchal sense of it is the place of a man strictly to provide for his family. Eventually she agrees to an abortion that doesn't go too well.
Then winds up with an end that is equally not too well. Achebe presents a Clara angry with Obi and that's that, nothing more about her.
The last on Clara was in second paragraph of chapter 18 just after her abortion: "After one more failure Obi had been advised not to try to see Clara again in her present frame of mind. 'She will come round,' said Christopher. 'Give her time.'"
I aver that Clara deserved a better exit, how about how moved on with her life - professional, social, and how she reacted to the bribery and court headaches of Obi.
Proverb list
Ours is ours, mine is mine
Women and wine should not be dated
A person who has not secured a place on the floor should not begin to look for a mat.
If a man returns from a long journey and no one says nno to him he feels like one who has not arrived.
A debt may get mouldy, but it never decays
When there is a big tree, small ones climb on its back to reach the sun.
The start of weeping is always hard
When a coward sees a man he can beat he becomes hungry for a fight.
A man should not, out of pride and etiquette, swallow his phlegm
Whatever was hot must in the end turn cold.
Wherever something stands, another thing stands beside it
New words gleaned
Thriftlessness
Putrefaction
Callow
Tedium
Fluster
Placid
Plumbleness
Cobbled
Quaint
Irredentism
Axiomatic
Pierian
Ordure
Cummerbund
Bowler
Sibilant
Beguile
Bawdy
Leaching
Jalousie
Incipient
Flitted
Caparison
Waltz
Syncopation
Mirth
Bootees
Facetiousness
Humbug
Mainspring
Character roll call
Obiajulu Okonkwo
Nwanyidinma
Hannah Okonkwo
Joseph Okeke
Christopher
Mrs Wright
Macmillan
Clara Okeke
Esther
Charity
Janet
Eunice
Mr. William Greene
Mr. Omo
Miss Tomlinson
Charles
Bisi
Nora, Pat
Florence
Places mentioned
Lagos
Umuofia
Ikoyi
Liverpool
Madeiras
Funchal
Yaba
Onitsha
Apapa
8th Jumada Thaanii, 1441 = 2nd February, 2020
