
Abstract: This research work examines the theme of dictatorship in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus. The two novels dramatize the effects of dictatorship in the life of some fictional characters in the two novels. The study also shows that dictatorship is a worst form of government where one person makes all the rules and decisions without input from anyone else. It also implies absolute power — one person who takes control — of a political situation, a family, a classroom or even camping expedition. As writers in contemporary Nigeria, Adichie and Achebe took upon themselves by analysing the effects of dictatorship and other events modern day nation following independence and end of colonialism.
The theme of dictatorship in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus
Achebe in Things Fall Apart shows the clash of culture during the coming of the White masters and how they rule in a dictatorship ways by regarding African culture as savage. He uses Okonkwo as one of the characters to portray some element of dictatorship how he ruled and treat his family. Adichie also examine the ugly situation of dictatorship father, Eugene who disciplined his entire family dictatorially. Adichie see a dictator as one who rule a particular people using absolute power. The researcher therefore recommends that parents should not use dictatorship power as a means of correcting their family as seen in the two novels under investigation as well as the entire society of Nigeria.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
Many literary scholars have written extensively about the novels of Chinua Achebe and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie with reference to Africa and African cultures, the cultural affirmation and cultural conflict in Africa societies, the coming of the white masters, cultural discrimination and their works are cumbersome to be reviewed individually. They also belong to African post-colonial writers who beyond reasonable doubt they are recognized internationally. Achebe for instance gained worldwide attention for publishing Things Fall Apart in the late 1950s. The novel is one of Achebe’s first and most popular novel that dramatizes the pre-colonial Nigerian society and the impact of colonialism on Nigerians and African societies that was largely disruptive and destructive.
On this note, critic like Earnest Emenyonu says, ”Chinua Achebe is Africa’s master of storyteller and pioneer in the field of literary philosophy of the 20 century’’ (105.) He further posits that, Achebe’s novels are rich in Igbo cultures. No doubt, the Igbo people lives in Southern part of Nigeria; they are one of the largest ethnic groups in Nigeria. The Igbo cultures were very distinguished in its customs and rituals and these had a strong social implications and spiritual significance which the colonizers failed to appreciate. The above statement makes Killam Douglas to assert that:
Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, Achebe writes about stories and traditions of a particular African society, which are passed down orally for generations, with the aim of re-establishing the national cultural heritage. The novel describes the effect of British missionaries and administrators on a typical village tribal society; the dislocation that change, religious and educational, brings to historic certainties (60).
The theme of dictatorship in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus
Things Fall Apart is a novel written in 1950s, at a time when the colonial system was falling apart in Africa, yet its story covers the pre-colonial time in a particular ethnic group in Nigeria to contradict the assumption that all Africa and all Africans are the same. He describes the Igbo tribe as realistically as possible without falling into the same mistake as the white discourse did by depicting the colonial subjects as a foil to enlightened European nations.