Some African novels are located both in the rural and urban settings.
They can not be classed as urban or rural novels since they embody the
qualities of the two. This pattern of setting allows the authors the
opportunity of analogy of the two settings as they affect the Africans.
Most times, this juxtaposition allows the readers perceive the tragic
effects of colonialism on the values of the Africans. The terrible effect
of this imposition of foreign values on Africans became more revealed
in Chinua Achebe’s No Longer at Ease. To show continuity in the
storyline, Obi Okonkwo the grandson of Okonkwo of Things Fall Apart
is the hero. Using the urban setting of Lagos, Achebe contrasted the
serene, lawful, organized Umuofia with the rough, lawless and
disorganized urban setting of Lagos. There is usually a migration effect
on the rural setting as everyone attempts to move to the urban areas to
earn livelihood. Buchi Emecheta’s The Joys of Motherhood explored the
effect of urban life on Africans. She compared the rural and the urban
settings favourable in the novel. Ngugi Wa Thiong’o’s Weep Not Child
and Grain of Wheat, set during the days of Mau Mau fight to relinquish
colonialism, also explored the urban setting in Kenya during the colonial
days
With the publication of Things Fall Apart in 1958, there was a critical
look at the rural setting with the penetration of the colonialists into the
hinterland. Things fall Apart is a story about an organized community,
Okonkwo, the hero is much concerned about how to attain greatness in
line with the dictates of his society. He offended his society by
desecrating the Week of Peace with provoked attempt at shooting one of
his wives. He was found guilty by the elders and was exiled for seven
years. He ran to his maternal home to serve the sentence. There too, he
proved himself as a man of greatness. When he returned to Umuofia
after his seven years banishment, he met a new community with weak
men. He discovered that things were no longer as it used to be and that
the white men had invaded the community and imposed their taxes and
churches. All efforts to bring his people back to the former state of
dignity where they were proved abortive. In an effort to fight a one
man’s war, he committed murder and hanged himself.
This novel is about the pure rural lives of the African with the tragic
effect of colonialism destroying the values of the people. Everything fell
apart as the real African values of life were thrown into the abyss while
a strange culture, law and values were imposed on the people.
Another rural novel of significance is Elechi Amadi’s The Concubine. It
is a novel set in a pure rural setting before the advent of the colonial
masters. It shows the values of Africans in their natural state with their
laws and values at play. The story is about the love life of a young
woman called Ihuoma. All the men who indicated interests of marrying
her died mysteriously. Emenike her first husband died of locked chest
after his fight with Madume over a piece of land; Madume died when he
made amorous moves towards Ihuoma and was spat on by a cobra. He
went blind before committing suicide. Lastly was Ekwueme the
stubborn lover, he rejected his childhood betrothed girl for the widow,
Ihuoma. He eventually died after all preparations to bind the ‘sea king’
troubling Ihuoma was made. The story took place in Omokachi Village.
The community had not been invaded by the colonial masters, the values
and belief systems were intact, the society has their means of justice and
justice. In these novels, the choice of language is usually filled with
local colour expressions like idioms, proverbs, songs, and other African
ways of expressing aesthetics.
Put in another way, the question of an authentic rural novel remains
when we see the authentic African identity unshaded by colonial
maladjustments. African writing should be the portrayal of African
customs and manners against historical background. African beauty and
vividness in writing can also be portrayed through an individual
throttling of personal energy trying to improve his/her social condition
and achieve personal happiness. As much as literature is the art of
outpacing the times, no one man can create or anticipate culture on his
own. Culture is naming and giving valuable significance by unconscious
intent to that which we all move in; it canto
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