THE GROTESQUE IN ARMAH'S FICTION

MRS.THEODORA EZEIGBO

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MRS.THEODORA EZEIGBO

Abstract

Ayi Kwei Armah writes about the Akan people of Ghana among whom are two prominent ethnic groups — the Asante and the Fante. The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born and Fragments are set in post-independence Ghana before the 1966 military take-over from Nkurumah's government. Two Thousand Seasons^ and The Healers are set in the distant past of the Akan history. The first of the last two novels mentioned deals with the origin and migration of the Akan people while the second depicts the period of the British conquest of the Akan people
which culminates in the fall of the great Asante Empire. Armah thus covers a reasonable period of the history of his people. He explores the life and activities of the national leaders; politicians, intellectuals, bureaucrats and the ordinary people, He gives an eloquent picture of the spiritual bankruptcy and the loss of moral vision that plagued the entire Ghanaian society. He goes on to analyse the corruption and bad leadership that contributed to the 'wholeness' and unity of the Akan people.

References

NOTE?

Ayi Kwei Armah, The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born

(London: Heine-in.inn, 1968). All page references are to the

recent 1971 edition. 2. Ayi Kwei Armah, Fragments (London: Heinemann, 1966). All

page 11 lerenc.es are to the 1974 edition. 3. Ayi Kwei Armah, Two Thousand Seasons (London: Heinemann, 1973). All page references are to this edition. 4. Ayi Kwei Armah, The Healers (London: Heinemann, 1979). All page references are to this edition. 5. Wole Soyinka, Myth, Literature and the African World

(Cambridge Univer-sity Press, 1976), p. 106. 6. T.S. Eliot, "Burnt Norton", in Four Quartet, (London: Faber and

Faber, 1972), p. 13. 7. In the Healers, Armah distinguishes between two kinds of people — those he calls 'inspirers' (men with the desire to restructure

and refine society) and others known as manipulators' (those

greedy for power and wealth). The healers are the 'inspirers' while the aristocrats and the while men are 'manipulators'. The

role of the 'manipulators' is clearly stated in the novel: ' the

most damaging poison was manipulation.... It destroys people, plants, everything' (p. 27). 8. Robert Frazer, The Novels of Ayi Kwei Armah (London:

Heinemann, 1980) p. 42 9. 9. Ibid., p. 70. V

Ngugi Wa Thiong'O, Weep Not Child, (London: Heinemann, 1964)

Wole Soyinka, The Interpreters (London: Heinemann, 1970)

Ruth Finnegan, Oral Literature in Africa, (Nairobi: Oxford

University Press, 1976), p. 322. 14. Ibid. p. 304. Finnegan gives a lit of some of these motifs. 15. See Chinua Achebe, 'Africa and Her Writers' in Morning Yet On

Creation Day, (London: Heinemann 1975), p. 27. Achebe

criticizes Armah for adopting the attitude of some early

European writers on Africa in his treatment of his material in

The Beautiful Ones Are Not Yet Born: Ayi Kwei: Armah It the

aliebated native. It seems that to achieve the modern alienated

stance. Hid African writer will end up writing like some white

District Officer. 16. Ruth Finnegan, p. 335

Ibid., p. 258. 18. Ben Obumselu, The Background of Modern African Literature, Ibadan, No. 22 (June 1966), p. 58 On Obumselu's usage 'folklore' is synonymous with 'folktale.'

THE GROTESQUE IN ARMAH'S FICTION

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