Annalys Hanson

Contemporary Literature
Historical Fiction Novel
April 17, 2015
Echoes of British Imperialism in Nigeria
For my historical fiction novel, I read the book No Longer at Ease by Chinua Achebe. It
is the sequel to his more famous novel Things Fall Apart, which entails a story of the Igbo
people of Nigerias reactions to the slow process of British imperialism in that area. No Longer
at Ease is about the Igbos second generation of Western-influenced educated Igbo people and
how Britain both negatively and positively affected their culture and government. The book is set
during the mid-1950s, but imperialism in Nigeria can still be found today through the division of
cultural groups in Nigeria, the difficulty of assimilation for Nigerians to Western culture, and the
ethnical and economic conflicts of Nigeria in the present day.
The boundaries established by Great Britain did not heed to any of the cultural or ethnic
groups of the region and were the source of Nigerian instability once it gained independence.
When Nigeria established a democracy in 1960 (which later became a democratic republic in
1963), the country contained three major cultures: the Igbo, Yoruba, and Hausa-Fulani. HausaFulani inhabited the larger Northern Region, Yoruba the Western Region, and Igbo the Eastern
Region, in respects to figure 1. With each region came its own political party, which became very
imbalanced in regards to the Western and Eastern Regions due to the fact that the number of
Parliament members depended upon population. As the young country aged, there was a great
deal of tensions and outbreaks between regions as all three fought for control, which would
eventually lead to the First Republic collapsing into Civil War (Olumide and Ekanade 3-5). If

British explorers had respected the multiple cultures of the natives during imperialism, Nigeria
wouldnt have faced the problem of separate entities trying to govern their country in unity. The
lines drawn, deciding which land is Nigeria and which is
either Niger, Cameroon or Benin, were random, and
therefore stuck multiple ethnic groups with different beliefs
and ideas of government together. Europeans made the
mistake of assuming that all African tribes were the same,
which was quite untrue. There were no boundaries of
country between the three different regions of Nigeria, the

Figure 1. Regions of Nigeria

1960-1963.

cultural differences assured that they would never exist in

unity.
The forms of government brought by the Europeans
were foreign to the land, and the abrupt social and economic changes left generations of Africans
culture-shocked as they tried to adapt their traditional beliefs to the Britishs. Achebe highlighted
the assimilation of Africans to Western civilization, such as in this passage:
The second generation of educated Nigerians had gone back to eating pounded
yams or garri with their fingers for the good reason that it tasted better that way.
Also for the even better reason that they were not as scared as the first generation
of being called uncivilized. (Achebe)
This passage summarizes the first and second generations reaction to the white men coming into
their land, leaving them all with a culture they had been afraid to show and how they began to
realize that they should be proud of it.

Another aspect of the Nigerians difficulty adjusting to European customs was through
the shift in economics. The setting of No Longer at Ease, although fifty or so years after
Europeans first contact with the Igbo in Nigeria (as was the setting of Things Fall Apart), is
about the struggle that these people went through to become educated to the white mans
standards and keep their head above water financially. Although that was many Africans native
homeland, they found themselves near the bottom of a social hierarchy in which Caucasians
were at the top. In a way, Western capitalism had put native Africans in a choke hold in which
they all needed education, but it was costly to be sent to Europe, yet it was difficult to get a
decent job (therefore money) without this education. Obi, the main character, had great financial
troubles after receiving an extensive Western education. Even so, non-whites sought education,
as the author stated, It was rather sheer hypocrisy to ask if a scholarship was as important as all
that or if university education was worth it. Every Nigerian knew the answer. It was yes.
Achebe wrote this book to bring light to the irony that existed because of the Nigerians struggles
to assimilate to Western culture in their own homes as well as the economic paradox that the
Africans fell victim to.
Even today, Nigeria hasnt recovered from the economic and cultural problems seen in its
early years. In 2012, the national rate of poverty was 60.9% according to BBC news (Nigerians
Living in Poverty Rise to Nearly 61% [Nigerian Poverty]). Poverty in Nigera had been
increasing year by year since 1980 when the first successful census was taken (all others prior
had been discarded due to controversies). The gap between the wealthy and the poor is
monstrous, which only again reinforces the cycle of the poor getting poorer and the rich getting
richer as had been seen in early Nigeria. However, according to the World Bank Groups article
dating to the recent summer of 2014,

While recent panel surveys indicate that the per capita national poverty rate
based on the official poverty line may now be as low as 33.1%, a large share of
the Nigerian population is still not far above the poverty line, indicating
vulnerability. (Nigeria Economic Update: World Bank Cites Positive Economic
Trends and Progress in Poverty Reduction [Nigeria Economic Update])
There has been an economic increase in Nigeria, hinting that it could very well be possible that a
positive change is coming to Nigeria, or could just in fact be an anomaly. Their vast resource of
oil, despite contributing to the wealth gap, could possibly bring about redemption for the poor.
Even today, many Nigerians hate the influence of Europe on their country, creating large
conflicts through terrorism. Presently Nigeria is plagued with the terrorist group Boko Haram,
which translates direction into Western education is forbidden (Chothia). Exactly as the name
implies, they are a congregation of angry Nigerians who believe that the effects of Western
culture on their country can be reversed, especially through violent, oppressive and drastic
measures. In April of 2014, Boko Haram was behind the two-hundred Nigerian girls abducted
from a school to be sold off as brides, the same girls who have not been recovered even a year
later. Boko Harams goal is to convert Nigeria to an Islamic state and renounce Christianity and
all other Western influences, such as the education system. The culture shock of expecting many
different African tribes to assimilate to the alien European customs leaves a scar on the country,
even to today. Now, its less than just the British forcing their beliefs onto others via
missionaries, but more an extreme few forcing their own beliefs on their fellow Nigerians. The
instability stems from conflicting customs and heritages that were forced together during Great
Britains imperialism, something that still haunts the region to today through many ways, Boko
Haram being the most drastic.

By analyzing the political division of ethnic groups in Nigeria, the awkward assimilation
to Western culture, and Nigerian conflicts with European customs imposed on their culture, it is
plain to see that British imperialism had left great effects on the country. I might write an essay
to prove this, but Chinua Achebe demonstrated this by writing The African Trilogy, which
includes Things Fall Apart, No Longer at Ease, and Arrow of God to provide a personal firsthand perspective on the broken culture that was left in pieces after British imperialism.

Works Cited
Achebe, Chinua. No Longer at Ease. New York: Random House, 1960. Kindle edition.
Chothia, Farouk. "Who Are Nigeria's Boko Haram Islamists?" BBC News. 21 Jan. 2015. Web. 17
Apr. 2015.
"Nigeria Economic Update: World Bank Cites Positive Economic Trends and Progress in
Poverty Reduction." World Bank Group. 22 July 2014. Web. 17 Apr. 2015.
"Nigerians Living in Poverty Rise to Nearly 61%." BBC News. 13 Feb. 2012. Web. 17 Apr. 2015.
Olumide, Ekanade, and Tinuola Ekanade. "The First Republic and the Interface of Ethnicity and
Resource Allocation in Nigeria's First Republic." Afro Asian Journal of Social
Sciences 2.2.2 (2011): 1-27. Online Research Journals.com. 2011. Web. 17 Apr. 2015.
Regions of Nigeria 1960-1963. Digital image. Nigeria Village Square. 14 Oct. 2013. Web. 17
Apr. 2015.