The Fragmented Self: Mapping the Socio-Political Crises of Transitional Igbo Identity in No Longer at Ease and a Man of the People

This study provides a critical assessment of Chinua Achebe’s post-colonial narratives, No Longer at Ease (1960) and A Man of the People (1966), exploring them as literary critiques of post-independence African identity and institutional deterioration. Moving away from the historical settings of his earlier works, Achebe centers these narratives within transitional urban landscapes where modern Western socio-political systems clash directly with indigenous Igbo values. This paper examines the psychological and cultural fragmentation of the modern elite class, using Obi Okonkwo and Chief Nanga to trace the evolution of social identity from defensive preservation to profound moral and political alienation.
Applying post-colonial hybridity frameworks and Fanon’s theories of national consciousness, this investigation details the systemic collapse of indigenous ethical accountability when subjected to bureaucratic capitalism and populist demagoguery. The study demonstrates how Achebe maps the systematic breakdown of traditional check-and-balance systems, such as the Umuofia Progressive Union, when confronted by urban individualism and institutionalized bribery. Ultimately, the paper highlights Achebe's narrative style—specifically his use of satirical prose and linguistic code-switching—as a deliberate decolonial strategy that exposes the ideological shortcomings of the post-colonial state, framing the modern identity crisis not as an isolated personal failing but as a structural failure of colonial modernity.

Chinua Achebe, Post-Colonial Dissillusionment, Hybridity, Igbo Modernity

1. Achebe, Chinua. No Longer at Ease. London: Heinemann, 1960. Print. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

2. Achebe, Chinua. A Man of the People. London: Heinemann, 1966. Print. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

3. Achebe, Chinua. The Trouble with Nigeria. Enugu: Fourth Dimension Publishers, 1983. Print. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

4. Bhabha, Homi K. The Location of Culture. London: Routledge, 1994. Print. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

5. Fanon, Frantz. The Wretched of the Earth. Trans. Richard Philcox. New York: Grove Press, 2004. Print. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

6. Gikandi, Simon. Reading Chinua Achebe: Language and Ideology in Fiction. London: James Currey, 1991. Print. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

7. Innes, Catherine Lynette. Chinua Achebe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990. Print. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

8. Killam, G. D. The Novels of Chinua Achebe. New York: Africana Publishing Corporation, 1969. Print. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

9. Nkrumah, Kwame. Neo-Colonialism: The Last Stage of Imperialism. London: Thomas Nelson & Sons, 1965. Print. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

10. Nnolim, Charles. Approaches to the African Novel: Essays in Analysis. London: Saros International Publishers, 1992. Print. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

11. Obiechina, Emmanuel. Culture, Tradition and Society in the West African Novel. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1975. Print. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

12. Soyinka, Wole. Myth, Literature and the African World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976. Print. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

13. Young, Robert J. C. Postcolonialism: An Historical Introduction. Oxford: Blackwell, 2001. Print. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

• Psychoanalytical Criticism in Korean Literature: A Study of Trauma, Repression, And Desire in Han Kang’s Novels
• Enhancing Students’ Grammar Awareness Using the Think-Pair-Share Strategy in English Classes
• Reading Motivation Vs Reading Comprehension of Filipino ESL Learners in the Public Schools: Its Correlation to Phi-IRI Reading Results
• Women and their Presentation in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus
• Grammar Self-Efficacy as a Predictor of Academic Writing Performance of BAELS Freshmen in Cavite State University: A correlational study