Hope and Despair in Ayi Kwei Armah’s The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born

Hope and Despair in Ayi Kwei Armah’s The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born

Alienation of the Desperate

Protagonists Before going further it is crucial to define the word ‘alienation’ from different perspectives. Alienation is a loaded word. Technically, it is linked with existentialism. In the existentialist view, man is essentially alienated; in other words, he has no basic purpose or essence. The phrase which sums up this notion is Sartre’s « Existence precedes essence ». This philosophy questions the very existence of man, who can be one of two things: he can be an aimless bored wanderer or an active dynamic creator of his own reasons for living. The concept, however, of alienation is capable of other interpretations. For Christians, alienation is the result of « original sin », that pristine act of disobedience which caused us to be separated from God. There is also a Marxist view of alienation. It occurs when men are moved by capitalism from the fruits of their labor: when that labor is produced for the benefit of other people. In such a situation, men feel a loss of self-essence; ultimately, they do not feel that themselves. However, In so far as alienation is a theme in Armah’ and Kourouma’s novels in so far as ‘the man’ and ‘Fama’ are seen to be suffering from a bewildering sense of their own unworthiness, and inabilities to live in such depraved and harsh society this has a social and not an existentialist cause. In fact, early in The Suns of Independence, Fama’s inabilities to find his essence in the society in fully painted by Kourouma showing his decrease from an heir of a throne to a vulgar panther sharing with hyena. What we can notice is the character of Fama as a lost soul, a pitiable declining prince in quest of self-identity in a drastically transformed society at all fronts: political, economic and social. When Fama was a big trader, he earned a lot of money and he went into politics. In the initial stages of the struggle, he combined trade and politics, but later he concentrated all his efforts in the struggle for freedom. It was hoped that the coming of independence would improve the situation for the people. That hope motivated Fama to devote his time and resources to the struggle. We read: Fama dropped everything to throw himself into politics, with much eloquence and bravery. A legitimate son of the chiefs must devote himself wholly to the task of expelling the French. In politics there was room for manliness and revenge, and there were nearly fifty years of occupation by the infidels to denounce, challenge, and undo26 26 Ahmadou Kourouma ,The Suns of Independence,op.cit.,p.36 14 We are further informed that: ‘‘At the first gusts of wind, Fama had shed everything; trade, friends, women, to use up his nights and days, his money and anger in riling against France, the father and mother of France. He wanted revenge for fifty years of domination and for the loss of his birthright’’ 27 It can be noted that Fama changed his identity from that of a prince and trader to one of prince and politician. It is my argument that Fama was motivated to sacrifice his time and money, to “shed everything” because he was convinced that his sacrifices would be recognised at independence. Fama was also sure that, as a prince of a once powerful dynasty, that gave him a privileged position and he hoped that would be the basis on which he would be considered for a position in the independent Ebony Republic. Unfortunately for Fama, the opposite was the result. When independence came, Fama could not be considered for a position as minister, deputy, or ambassador because “he remained as illiterate as a donkey’s tail”28 . Independence was followed by the introduction of a one party system. The single party rule introduced socialism and cooperatives which finally “ruined trade”. The coming of cooperatives once again gave Fama hope for consideration. It appeared Fama would get his chance now because: There were fifty opportunities to do Fama a favour by making him secretary-general of a party subsection or director of a cooperative. What had he not done to be co-opted? Prayers night and day, all kinds of sacrificial offerings, even a black cat down a well. All of Fama’s hopes were dashed. He was not appointed or co-opted into the system. “Fama had been like the little swamp rat who digs a hole for the rat catcher snake; his efforts had brought about his ruin, for like a leaf that’s just been used to wipe somebody’s arse, once independence had been won Fama was thrown to the flies and forgotten29 . 27Ahmadou Kourouma, The Suns of Independence, op.cit., p.36 28 Ibid,p.14 29 Ibid, p.14 15 Since Fama had earlier “shed everything” – trade, money, women, friends – things that gave him recognition in society and a basis for proving his masculinity, independence and the one party system worsened his situation. By not being considered for any position, Fama became poorer than he was during the colonial era which gave him an opportunity to engage in lucrative trade. “Independence did not bring anything to Fama, only the national identity card and the party membership card”30 . Left with no money, Faced with this deplorable situation, Fama was living a life of despair. It is noted: Misfortune was now Fama’s constant companion misfortune took part in everything he undertook, guided his every gesture as he went about his business. Bargains, purchases, sales, journeys all ended in failure. Only despair remained. Pride, warmth, kindness vanished. Fama was a changed man 31 Famas’s ambivalent status following the era of independence is highlighted in the above quotation. From the status of a legitimate prince whose totem is the panther, Fama is now referred to as a “vulture”, “a panther totem in hyena pack”. This quotation sets the tone for the unveiling of Fama’s devaluation as a blue-blooded character. As such, the very first activity Fama is associated with in the text is a funeral rite. The narrator says: “Fama was going to be late for the funeral rites of Ibrahima Kone.” 32. The enthusiasm of Fama in this venture is also emphasized as follows: “Faster and faster he walked, as if seized with diarrhea” 33. The comparison in this line is not complimentary, considering the status of Fama as the last legitimate prince of the Dumbuya dynasty. Indeed, this submission serves as a foregrounding to a further revelation of Fama as a mere mortal disposed to anger and insulting behavior, contrary to virtues associated with his aristocratic status. His propensity toward the use of abusive and foul language is brought to the fore at first instance in a feat of anger occasioned by his inability to arrive at the funeral rites in good time, not for what he is going to contribute but for what he expects to gain from the distribution of the funeral donations, having become a scavenger under the malefic suns of independence.

Disenchantment in Postcolonial African

Literature African literary scene has seen a lot of changes from the colonial era to the post-independence era. With the attainment of independence, colonialism gave way to neo-colonialism. It is an expose of the nature of the insensitivity, callousness and insatiable ambition of those who control vested interests in order to gain power and wealth, impoverishing the underprivileged, the underprivileged, imposing misery and suffering upon the majority. Literature of this period is therefore focused on socio-economic and political predicaments. The various subject matters of this period are exploitation, bribery and corruption, employment, poverty, feminism, ritualism, etc. we intend to glance at some major productions which dealt with. So this testifies that Armah and Kourouma were not alone in the urgent field for denouncing, castigating, urging their people to reconsider their ways of leading their respective countries. In Ngugi Wathiongo’s novel Petals of Blood40 , economic and religious exploitation are major themes .It is a story of post independent Kenya, and talks about the promise of “Uhuru”, which never materialized at least not in the near future according to the novel. The independence brought sorrow instead of happiness. Therefore, Petals of Blood is set in the small remote village of Timorog which serve for Ngugi as a metaphor for development throughout Kenya in the post colonial era. Four characters, each originally from the larger nearby city of Limuru, make their way to the village. Each character comes to Iimorog motivated largely by a desire to escape the pervasive makes afflicting Kenya after Uhuru (independence): and each of the four characters serves to illustrate a different strategy for coping in the oppressive conditions of the new black-run country. In Petals of Blood, the people’s betrayal is complete and the peasants and workers for whom the man-man war was fought have further been alienated from the land, which to them is the source of life. That is why Ngugi asserted “the disillusionment with the ruling elite is to found in the recent works of most African writers’’ 41 . This lead us to show Chinua Achebe’s statement “I would be quite satisfied if my novels (especially the ones I set in the past) did no more than teach my readers that their past with 40 Ngugi Wa Thiang’ o, Petals of Blood, 1977 41 Ngugi Wa Thiang’o, 1975 Homecoming (2nd ed) Heinemann, London 20 all its imperfection was not one long night of savagery from which the first European acting on God’s behalf delivered them”42 . Chinua Achebe has been particularly successful in creating a realistic representation of an African environment. He is one of the major writers from the African subcontinent who have given a new direction to English-language African literature by representing, realistically, an African environment and giving expression to a sense of increasing disgust and unrest within its population. Novels such as Things Fall Apart43 , Arrow of God 44 , No Longer At Ease45 , A Man of the People 46 , and Anthills of the Savannah 47 exemplify his goal of social realism and his attempts to restore the lost dignity of his people by allowing his readers to examine their past and to resolve what he terms a ‘crisis in the soul.’ Anthills of the Savannah portrays modern, independent, postcolonial (in this case, neo-colonial) urban Africa. It details the general, societal and individual turbulence within a fictional late 20th century African country named Kanga, which clearly represents Nigeria. The novel dramatizes political struggles between Africans, illustrates the continuing influence of Britain and other Western countries on African economics and culture, and ends with a government being overthrown by a coup. . Ahmadou Kourouma’s novel The Suns of Independence describes a nominally independent Africa wrestling with the toxic brew of Western economic neoliberalism, its baubles, unemployment, and cultural anomie. With the West African Mande culture as background, Kourouma weaves together a depressing yet beautiful tapestry of post-colonial rural and urban life. The people of rural origin, like the central character of the novel, Fama, have left the village to settle in the capital, a city that grew out of the colonial project. He has no skills which would allow him to work, given his level of modern education. Fama and his wife, Salimata, live in the city’s bidonville in a locale inhabited by their own ethnic group – all migrants from the same rural area. Thus we have a recreation of the home-village inside the city. Kourouma’s point is to show that the post-colonial massess have been relegated to the urban reservations of the bidonville as the post-colonial bourgeoisie stakes out its claims in the new post-colonial order. They have been fitted for their role by the education and acculturations bequeathed to them by their respective metropoles. For example, the baccalaureat is the norm for the so-called Francophones while the Anglophones and the Lusaphones have their own versions. In the Muslim acculturated areas, the Koranic schools Chinua Achebe, 2007. The Novelist as Teacher. African Literature: Anthology of Criticism and Theory. Chinua Achebe, Anthills of Savannah, 1987 21 have been put on the back foot because this Arab pedagogical transplant is just not adequate for the post-colonial African to win the bureaucratic positions left vacant by the departing colonials. Thus we witness to the psychological conflict as played out by Samba Diallo in Cheikh Ahmidou Kane’s novel The Ambiguous Adventure48 . But this is the catch: though the members of new African bourgeoisie are not state functionaries of the old colonial empire they have become its new functionaries as agents of the new neocolonial structures. Their rewards include easy access to the products of commodity capitalism, which they flamboyantly display. This is the new cultural and economic landscape that destroys the African soul. In the case of Kourouma’s novel, Fama is a social parasite. He roams the city, attends weddings, naming ceremonies, and funerals. Even though he is of royal lineage – meaning that back in his village he is much respected on account of his being a member of the royal aristocratic clan of the Doumbouya, the rulers and chiefs – in the city, that noble lineage and its attendant traditions are of no use to him. He is anonymous, does not stand out in the crowd, and is part and parcel of the sometimes restive urban masses. The Suns of Independence, in addition to showing the spiritual void and material poverty of the various characters that inhabit the novel, makes apparent the many ways in which even nature and the landscape are part of the plot of betrayal toward the new Africa. Though supposedly free, ‘independent’, Africa is still trapped in the neocolonial net, set up by the departing colonials but maintained and serviced by Africa’s new comprador bourgeoisie. With the death of Fama at the end of the novel, Kourouma seems to inform us that a traditional way of life with its institutions are slowly being eroded, creating the psychic dislocations that blanket the African continent. Such psychic dislocations, it would seem, have also affected the minds of those who were at the vanguard of the struggle against colonialism. According to Ghanian novelist, Ayi Kwei Armah, such was the case with the decision of Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s first president, to place the seat of his presidency at the Osu Castle, previously known as Fort Christiansborg. The Fort Christiansborg castle was erected by Danish slavers in the 17th century and represents, according to Armah, the utter humiliation and degradation of the African, given the role that these structures played in the Atlantic slave trade. This was the point made by Armah in a public lecture in which he criticised Nkrumah’s decision to place the seat of his government at Fort Christiansborg. It was as if the spirit of the erstwhile colonial enterprise had entered Nkrumah given his decision on Fort Christianborg 48 Cheikh Ahmidou Kane, The Ambiguous Adventure, 1962 22 and his increasingly autocratic fashion of governance. It is this ethos of a post-colonial Africa that Armah captures in his well known novel The Beautyful Ones are Not Yet Born. The corruption of the African soul by the autocratic ethos of the colonial era together with the corrupting lure of the baubles of capitalist production are what are so masterfully captured by Armah in his novels. It was this corrupting lure of capitalism that militated against a more optimal implementation of the socialist idea as expounded by Nkrumah. The implementation of the idea of socialism requires a spirit of communitarianism which certainly militates against the individualism and accumulative spirit that pervade the economic spaces of fullblown market capitalism. It is this psychic conflict in the soul of the post-colonial African that pitted the animal spirits of capitalism against the African version of a communitarian socialism that determined the future of the socialist idea in Africa. Capitalist greed won and expressed its victory by way of the military coup that removed Nkrumah from his presidency. The same principle is at work in the writings and films of the late Ousmane Sembene. His well known text and film, Xala, employs a motif and style that has the virtue of being understood as the impotence the new national bourgeoisies experience as they seek to come to terms with their appointed post-colonial role as an inefficient bureaucratic class that has stepped into the shoes of the coloniser. The result is a place-holder comprador bourgeoisie that is parasitical on the wealth of the neocolonial state, while the industrialized ex-colonial powers, by way of their multinationals, continue to exploit the natural resources of the neocolony. The central personnage of the film, El Hadj Abdou Karim Beye, is the personification of this post-colonial malady. The central theme of the film concerning Beye’s taking of a third wife is to be understood as the new post-colonial ‘elites’ consuming more than is necessary. In this instance, needs are morphed into wants. The solution to the economic impotence of the post-colonial bourgeoisie requires modern technological solutions not the age-old superstitions as suggested by Beye’s solution to his impotence. One can understand Sembene as stating that the post-colonial African bourgeoisie is in reality a neocolonial bourgeoisie whose function is to exploit the masses while maintaining the colonial exploitative economic links with the erstwhile metropolis. This bourgeoisie is corrupt in that it appropriates the economic wealth of the nation for its own material benefits. The masses are the miners and the agriculturalists but their rewards are minimal. And yet there is little salvation in invoking the old cultures because they lived economic life of the postcolonial African remains the same.