Ayi
Kwe Armah’s The Beutyful Ones Are Note Yet Born is a post-colonial African novel trying to depict political and social
condition following the departure of the
colonial masters. Kwame Nkrumah, Leopard Sendor Senghor, Mabuto Sese Seko, Jomo Kenyattah, Azikwe and some others are
regarded as pan-African nationalists who struggled for the emancipation of
African states from the grip of colonialism.
Ironically, the political and economic condition is no better than
during colonial days.
The
excessive love for materialism is a commonplace among Africans mainly to
satisfy the irresistible thirst for power and admiration. The elites have resorted
to squandering public funds, and the poor are affected so badly with the quest
to imitate the elite’s lifestyle, the effect so strong, making them always
feeling guilty and seem to apologize for their poverty. The poor also become
like the rulers in every little corner they occupy. As such, bribery and
corruption become free-for-all in the struggle for power and relevance in the
society.
Plot
summary
The Beutyful Ones Are Note Yet Born is a story
of unnamed character considered foolish by the society because he refuses to
jump into the bandwagon of corruption. He gets into a car in the morning for
the office where certain events happen. The conductor is cheating on the
passengers and the driver of the bus. He gets to the office and things, as
usual, are not working properly. Public officers do not come to work in time
and are using their positions to give and take bribery and corruption.
The
unnamed character, the man, who rejects corruption, is badgered by his wife to
do what everyone is doing in the society so that her bones can rest. She always
refers him to Estella’s life who is a wife to Koomson, a Raliway Minister. She insists on he should take corruption, or at
least approve of it to be part of a deal
that will benefit them both, an arrangement to get some assistance from the
Minster who will help her and her mother buy a commercial boat. But the man refuses to give in and insists on
the honest life.
His wife and mother-in-law cast hurtful
remarks at him because they see him as a coward who cannot live up to the life
everyone is leading. He could not help feeling guilty, and starts to think if
his detest for bribe and corruption is also a crime.
In
the end, his wife Oyo and his mother-in-law, appeal the Minister and his wife
Estella to assist them in getting the boat. They make arrangement to meet the
Minister in his mansion for signing to seal the deal. Soon after their visit, a
coup occurs in the country that swept the regime the minister serves. A
nationwide witch-hunting immediately begins to punish officials who looted
public fund in the ousted regime.
The
minister runs to the man’s house in extreme fears, sweating profusely and
smelling strong odor. He becomes extremely
pitiable that the man’s wife, Oyo, feels
grateful that her husband did not engage in corruption. The Minster has to give
up all his prestige and dignity to crawl into the latrine for escape when the soldiers
come to arrest him.
The
major pre-occupation is how effectively the author portrays corruption in the
post-independence Ghanian society characterized by a variety of corrupt
practices in every little corner of public life. Ayi Kwe Armah exposes this attitude
via the ruling class and their misdemeanor that creates rottenness in the
Ghanian society and by extension many African states. Everything foreign, where
the rulers exhibit disproportionate crave for materials at the expanse of the masses.
Many instances in the novel have demonstrated how people have completely
succumbed to corruption through analogy of events and symbolisms that bind the
society to a shared mindset.
The
author uses literary devices such as analogies, symbolisms and allusion densely
filed in the actions and behavior of the characters, from those Atlantic
caprices in government who subvert services in public institutions to sustain
their economic interests, to moral corruption among families and relatives, and
to the general materialistic ostentation which becomes pervasive and rooted in
the minds of the people. We understand this from the behavior of the conductor,
and from the Timber contractor who
attempts to bribe the man and thinks that the man must be joking to reject such
offer; as well as the man’s wife’s
repugnant reaction when he has recounted the story to her about what has
transpired between him and the Timber contractor in the office.
Symbolism
The
first incident in the novel is a symbol of corruption and excessive attitude
for display of wealth where even the working class who could not afford their
own car develop the desire to impress their fellow countrymen. The cost of
articles that one can buy determines the cost of recognition, judgment and admiring
glances he will have in the society. And
since a man should be judged and respected by what he is able to steal from
public fund and turns it to his personal wealth in contrast to honesty and
sincerity, those smart people who have done for themselves, and for their
families by signing some papers and knowing what to do in commercial banks and
public offices are highly hailed and admired.
Unable
to reach to the government offices, the conductor seizes a little opportunity
from his little corner to not give passengers change after they pay transport
fare when he learns that the passengers only care to look into the conductor’s
eyes to see if he acknowledges their importance. They do that to give the
impression of being big man. “Yes man, you are Big Man,” the acknowledgement
reflects in the eyes of the conductor who will fix an admiring stare in the eyes
of a passenger to buy his attention, and would not lower his gaze down the
coins in the giver’s hand so as to retain the magic and the profits that come with
it. Those few who are lucky to collect their change would be given short of
what they supposed to be given and gladly put it in the pocket without looking
at it.
Then
again, the conductor is cheating on his driver by counting the money and
removing the extra profits. The man is watching him begin stuffing the money in
his bag, and the man’s stare puts him on the edge and begins to feel guilty. But
he later dismisses the inkling that the man is watching him cheat on the bus
driver. The conductor acts according to the belief of the society and feels
that everyman is also a man himself, because that is the nature of everyone in
the society to have a “skin and fat with stomach and throat that needed be
served.”
So,
he calmly slips his hand into his pocket and produces a packet of Embassy
cigarette to bribe the man. The man’s eyes continue to stare at the conductor.
So the conductor, being a symbolic character standing for the entire society
and its behavior, thinks the man is not really fighting corruption but will
simply not accept small bribe. He goes ahead to offer a big offer. “You see we
can share,” he said to the man. But the man is not really watching the
conductor. He is sleeping and only his blank gaze is directed at him. Here, we
can understand the role of the sleeping man as a symbol of dormancy of
anti-corruption forces in the Ghanian society, and the behavior of the
conductor alludes to the fact of how the society views corruption, and how
people accept and condone it.
There
is also symbolism of the rotting behavior of attaching more value to riches
against human beings. We have seen this incident in the narrative when the
conductor humiliates the man after he finds out his status as a mere ordinary
citizen and asks the man to get out of the bus. The driver “collected his full
force and aimed the blob far out in front of him”. The man felt the spray on
his back and again sees the driver unremorsed,
“preparing his throat and mouth for one more effort.” Similar incident of denigrating humanity occurs
when Koomson, the State Minister, calls his houseboy and forgets all about him
until he is reminded that he has left a fellow human being standing in
reverential fear.
There
is also another symbolic picture that alludes to the fact that corruption has
come to stay in the Ghanian society. The old commercial buildings owned by the
colonial masters, the UTC, the GNTC, the UAC, and the French CFAO. The shops
have been there all the time as far back as the period the man could remember. Yet
the GNTC which is regarded as the new is not new at all because it is nothing “but
the name that has only changed with the
independence.” The coming of the sons of
the land into power is not really a change, it is only change of names because
it’s only money changing hands. The system that the African criticized
vehemently is the same they practiced when they come to power, “how completely
the new thing took after old.”
Government
will come up with impressive policies to get rid of the “uncleanliness” in the
society but such policies are more or less the process of maintaining the
uncleanliness in the society because in the end they are never implemented
despite the money spent on them. The Africans that came to power only reflected
the old system of the colonial masters . “All men live like the old.” “Our
party men. After their reign is over, there will be no difference all over.”
They live in a way that is more painful than the Whiteman has always lived.
It
appears that all shouting against the whitemen is not a hate, it is love
twisted. Everyone wants to be nearer to the whitemen. Those clamor for
independence is at best merely a means of ruling the masses on behalf of the
ex-colonial masters, deceiving the poor to have “faith in us, we know the whiteman
and his ways. Plan R, Plan X and Plan Z”
will all end in vain. Nobody desires
evil, but when a man has a power he finds the evil useful.
Corruption
and bribery have become widespread and the people have become part of it in an
alarming rate. For example, the man is left stunned by the behavior of the timber
contractor who openly attempts to bribe him to secure favors in the railway
office. The man refuses to cooperate and the contractor is so humorously
surprised why the man will refuse to do what everyone is doing. “My friend, all
joke aside. I’m not a child, my friend if you work in the same office you can
eat from the bowl.” When the man refuses
to accept the bribe again, the contractor insists he should, alluding him to the pratice trending in the
society. “Alright, alright. But you also know that everybody prospers from the
work he does.” This is what everybody believes to be right and what everyone is
doing in the little corner of his office and one cannot be working in an office
and can’t eat from its bowl. It is hypocrisy. Chichidodoooo!
Effort
to break the circles of corruption always ends in futility as the society comes
to identify with it not with a stigma. If you don’t openly join the corrupt
circles who actually constitute the majority, you are a fool and the entire
society will spit at you. That leaves one scratching head questioning if a
person who rejects bribe is not actually a criminal for not partaking in the
trendy of the society. Instead of the man lodging complaints about the business
man’s attitude, now the timber contractor has lodged complaints of “why do you
treat me this way?” and in another place “why are you making things so
difficult for me?” - as if the man has committed a grave sin for not aiding the
process of corruption.
The
common understanding is that if a man seems to be difficult in your way, it is
because the bribe you offer is so mean, “I know ten is nothing. So my friend
what do you drink?” The timber contractor and the conductor offered a big share
to the man in two different incidents. Probably, this is what everyone will do
if he comes to be in their shoes. One more example is that although the man
does not make any effort to challenge the conductor, his staring on the
conductor can be seen as a weak opposition against the overwhelming trend which
further shows the ineffectiveness of the few anti-graft forces against the enormous number of people with interest
in the status quo.
The
enormity of people’ belief in corruption is so threatening that people see
honesty as a social vice. Or so, avoiding it is like a foolishness or suicide
in which a thirsty man in a desert will avoid an offer of cool water. When the
man refuses to accept the money to facilitate the process of Amankwa’s timber
business, the business man asks in astonishment and surprise, “why not, why
not” eyeing him a look that no sane man will behave the way the man is
behaving. In fact when someone like the man rejects bribery, he changes
position with society for one will be seen as a bad and those who offer it as
upright because one’s refusal to do what everyone is doing, and taking what
everyone is taking and giving is deviation to the societal norms. So since everyone is taking and giving bribes,
when people like the man refuses to give or take, behaving this way will actually make them never to be thought
alright.
One
generic perception of the society towards corruption is perhaps those who
refuse it are only pretending at the moment. We have seen this in the thought
and attitude of the timber contractor. When the man rejects the bribe on
several occasions, he says “don’t be annoyed. I was not tricking you.” The man
should feel free to collect the offer; the giver is not a police in
plainclothes coming to allure him into a crime. Now, corruption has taken to
the elaborate position in the society.
In
addition, closer to home is the man’s wife’s frank view who gets frustrated by
her husband’s behavior. She is disgusted and feels that maybe her husband likes
this crawling he thinks is life while she is tired of it. She will like to have
someone who will drive her somewhere in a car like other women of public
officials. She insists her husband should not cut himself from the boat
business that the Railway Minister will help because the benefit is for all of
them. She simply calls the man “Chichidodoooo” when he sticks to his honesty; a
metaphor to “a bird that hates excrement with all its souls but feeds on
maggots that grow in the lavatory.”
Her
reason is that just moments ago her husband shakes Estella’s hand, the wife of
Koomson the Railway Minster, and admires
her perfume. “So, when you shake hands with the rich, is their perfume not
staying with you?” But the man reasons
with her that their source of income might be dubious. Yet the woman says this
is not her concerns, “We don’t care. Why pretend?” the man’s wife, Oyo is
lecturing him on the benefits of corruption. “Everybody is swimming toward what
he wants. Who wants to remain on the beach asking the wind,” to push him. You
help yourself or else one will remain economically dry.
And
since everybody should prosper from his job, then nobody cares how people amass
their wealth, the only question is to make sure you own the riches. “It is
nice. It is clean. , the life Estella is leading.” But the man believes that kind of cleanliness has more rottenness in it
because in the end Koomson has to escape through latrine to avoid the long arm
of the law.
He
refuses to do what everyone is doing and she calls him Chichidodoooo. The man
could not help feeling guilty and reveals what his wife told him to the Teacher
when he told her about the incident with the timber contractor. “I told her
what happened at work today. A man came to me with a bribe.” And the Teacher also
accuses him of not taking the gift of the office when he says, “a murderer that
you are, you let it go.” And the Teacher also has no pity for him. “Expect no forgiveness from your family,” and
goes on to offer him a piece of advice “there are ways and ways, you the husband
will have to find these ways.”
Since
there are many ways and ways, if one remains a poor it is his fault for at
least the society offers an alternative stating that one can prospers from his
job. One must resort to such ways, a short cut for quick and easy way for wealth. If one chooses to remain poor he must have to
struggle to offer apology to the society by killing themselves for a decent
accommodation to people from high class such as Koomson, the State Minster,
when he visits the man’s house.
The
man begins to think if the problem is not really from him that he chooses to be
honest. Yes, he cannot face his wife and say the luxurious cars are bad and
then back to the children and tell them international school is also bad. What makes the man guilty is not anything immoral
but his honesty. And what the society is telling him is to be like them, the
corrupt, the living dead, urging him to answer their call and throw away that thing
in him that makes him looked horrible by the society.
Finally,
from the foregoing description of events taking place in the novel, it can be
aptly put that the action and behavior of the characters in their melee for
amassing wealth and power, represent the rot and decay that consume the
society. The bus incident, the heap of rubbish in the streets, the decaying
infrastructure and the decayed wooden stairs in the ministry, the commonplace
bribery and corruption are symbolic reasons for the collapse of infrastructure
and public institutions, supported by the hands and fingers of the corrupt
civil servants and their family and relatives.
(@abubakarsulai13)
