No Longer at Ease

“In fact, some weeks ago when the trial first began, Mr. Green, his boss, who was one of the Crown witnesses, had also said something about a young man of great promise. And Obi had remained completely unmoved. Mercifully he had recently lost his mother, and Clara had gone out of his life. The two events following closely on each other had dulled his sensibility and left him a different man, able to look words like ‘education’ and ‘promise’ squarely in the face. But now when the supreme moment came he was betrayed by treacherous tears.”

The opening of the story immediately establishes the protagonist’s downfall. The third-person narrator relays that Obi is tried for bribery and that his life has collapsed. Before his trial, he became numb and depressed, but his tears in the moment show his inner distress. Obi mourns the collapse of his principles and dreams. The story details the reasons that led up to the fall of a promising educated man like him.

“Mr. Green was famous for speaking his mind. He wiped his red face with the white towel on his neck. ‘The African is corrupt through and through.’”

This above quote is part of a passage that characterizes Mr. Green, who represents a colonizer. The quote illustrates the colonizer’s mentality and the superiority of European authority in the colonial Nigerian state. Mr. Green’s racist comments indicate that European authorities considered Nigerians inherently inferior. People like Green think their duty is to civilize Africans, but he ultimately sees no benefit in trying to “educate” Nigerians’ corrupted “nature.”

“They wanted him to read law so that when he returned he would handle all their land cases against their neighbours. But when he got to England he read English; his self-will was not new.”

This passage illustrates Obi’s sense of individualism and determination, and how it clashes with the values of his community. While the Umuofia Progressive Union hoped that Obi would study law to help them with the community’s fight for equality, Obi decided for himself against their desires and chose English. They expect him to get a European job and repay the Union with state money.