Chinua Achebe's Anthills Of The Savannah: Character Analysis

Situated in the fictional West African country of Kangan, Chinua Achebe’s novel Anthills of the Savannah reflects multiple facets of African politics, one of which is the struggle to preserve dominance in a system of weak institutions and governance. The story narrates the lives of the most powerful people in the government one of which is the President for Life, who rose to power after a coup, centralized that power, and struggled to maintain it through the use of unlimited force. This is otherwise known as the Big Man Syndrome, which occurs when an entire political and economic system is linked to one person in power, who controls all the levers of governance. Chinua Achebe’s novel provides a reflection of this syndrome and exhibits the ways …show more content…
Ikem Osodi is preparing to leave with his girlfriend, Elewa, to visit a friend when two men who are taxi drivers greet him. One of the men is the head of the taxi driver’s union, who has come to apologize to Ikem for his recent misbehavior when he and Ikem had a dispute in traffic. This incident occurred, because not only was Ikem driving himself, but also he was driving an old, beat-up car. Had the taxi driver been aware of Ikem’s status as a powerful government official, the conflict would have been averted. The taxi driver asserts, “The thing wey confuse me properly well be that kind of old car wey he come to drive. I never see such! Number one car too old; number two, you come again de drive am yourself”. In African society, there is a common assumption that the wealthy and powerful will present their status to the rest of the populace to indicate their position. In turn, the general populace can evaluate what they can get from the ostentatious individual. By driving his own car, Ikem was acting in opposition to the social norms that are not only expected, but are demanded by