Professional Documents
Culture Documents
men have always worked towards bringing about harmonious human relationship; and
this explains the efforts and actions of all well-intentioned individuals in every society.
Creative artists apparently deserve a place in this effort to humanize society by using
their works as tools for the advocacy. In this vein, all works of art can be said to signify
or reflect the relationship between man and his society, or as Chinua Achebe puts it, art
is and was always in the service of man (19). For Ngugi wa Thiongo in The Writer and
His Past, of great import to the poet and the novelists, is the evolution of human culture
through the ages, society in motion through time and space (39). All these go to confirm
that works of literature by Africans from its beginning to the present have always
reflected different aspects of the continents realities and vicarious experiences of its
people.
African literature is usually classified into three categories, which reflect the
movement through time of the socio-historical experiences of the African continent. The
first category centres on the novels of cultural nationalism, and it focused on the task of
educating the African people that they had a culture of which they could be proud. This
phenomenon, which dominated the writings of the 60,s had writers like Camara Laye,
Chinua Achebe, Ousmane Sembene, Ferdinand Oyono, Ngugi wa Thiongo, and a host of
others who wrote to correct the distorted image of Africa. These writers and a few others
equally produced the works of the second category, which protested against the policies
of colonial rule through their anti-colonialist novels. The third category as well as phase
of the African novel, is the contemporary one, which is that of national experience,
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African novel, which concerns us in this paper, has given birth to a mass of literature that
and tone of the works. These works according to Ayo Kehinde gives expression to a
especially in terms of its human dimension (90). Most of the works of literature that
emerged in the 60s and 70s in Africa were simply illuminations of disillusionments of
The reason for the bitterness among the African writers of this period may not be
far from the fact that the African political and educated elites shattered the dreams of the
struggle against colonialism after the independence of most African states. Kehinde
articulates this reason thus: The indigenous ruling class simply replaced the colonizer
and began to rule with scorpion where the colonizer had ruled with whip (91). But the
problems of the post-independent African nations were not limited to the political
leadership alone. Almost in every sphere of human endeavour, African nations after
imperialism and colonialism, still struggle and groan under the burden of neocolonialism.
The African political and educated elites still use the various institutional structures to
punish their subjects rather than use them in the interest of the African societies. Chinua
Achebes A Man of the People and Ayi Kwei Armahs The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet
Born and Fragments as well as Kofi Awoonors This Earth, My Brother are perfect
African societies, which further vindicate the failure of the political elites of those
societies. Most often, these political elites perpetuate their misdemeanor with the
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connivance of the intellectual elites, some of who are located in different spheres of
human endeavour and even within the citadels of learning of those societies. Some
contemporary Nigerian writers like Femi Osofisan, Niyi Osundare, Maik Nwosu, Tunde
Fatunde, Ben Okri, Ezenwa Ohaeto, Nduka Otiono and a host of others have addressed
many societal problems orchestrated by the ruling class in their creative works.
The problem therefore is why the intellectual elites, arguably the light of the
society constitute themselves into enemies of their societies in connivance with the
political elites. This problem has agitated the minds of some writers in Nigeria for
instance. Chukwuemekas Ikes The Naked Gods and Adebayo Williams The Year of the
Locust are novels among others that explore the problems of the lack of intellectuality in
Africas citadels of learning and the fact that sometimes the so-called intellectuals
conspire with political leaders against the masses in Africa. Chinua Achebes Anthills of
Ades Dead End further reexamines the problem of the elites in post-colonial Africa. This
paper uses the tool of postcolonial discourse to examine Dead End with the purpose of
visionless, and fatuous leadership, which stultifies the quest for dignity and success of its
subjects. The paper purports that this type of leadership, which is pervasive in several
Before delving into examining how Femi Ojo-Ades Dead End addresses post-colonial
imperative because of the various meanings and dimensions the word postcolonial has
assumed in recent times and at different fora. We also have to establish the aspect of
postcolonial discourse we intend to pursue. This is also because of the myriad issues that
identify some issues that are inexorably firm within the sphere of postcolonialism. These
factors simply indicate the impossibility of dealing with any part of the colonial process
without considering its antecedents and consequences. The factors include the
societies. (2) From the foregoing, it is evident that postcolonial studies are based in the
historical fact of European colonialism and the diverse material effects to which this
representation, differences, race, gender, place and responses to the master discourse of
imperial Europe such as history, philosophy and linguistics, and the fundamental
experiences of speaking and writing by which all these come into being. (2) Therefore,
postcolonial literature would normally focus on the experience and literary production of
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people whose history has been characterized by extreme political, social and
people as any population that has been subjected to the political domination of another
population and seeks to understand the operations politically, socially, culturally and
to analyze in the novel, Dead End, the ideological forces, which as Tyson contends, on
the one hand, pressed the colonized to internalize the colonizer's values and other hand
promoted the resistance of colonized people against their oppressor a resistance that is as
The entire corpus of African literature one way or the other addresses various
problems that have arisen due to subjection to political domination by another or other
that have preoccupied many African writers and are here extended by Femi Ojo-Ade in
his Dead End. He reveals one of the major problems in postcolonial African societies as
the sense of intellectual inadequacy inculcated into the African colonial (and eventual
How does this come about? Lois Tyson argues that ex-colonials often were left a
indigenous cultures, which had been forbidden or devalued for so long that much pre-
colonial culture, has been lost. As Tyson puts it: the colonizers believed that only their
Consequently, native people were defined as savage, backward and even underdeveloped.
So, while the colonizers saw themselves at the centre of the world, the colonized were at
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the margin. These colonized subjects were taught to believe in British superiority and
their own inferiority. Many of these individuals according to Tyson tried to imitate the
which postcolonial critics refer to as mimicry. This feeling of being caught between
psychological limbo is what Homi Bhabha refers to as unhomeliness. The problem that
produces an unstable sense of self, results not merely from some individual
psychological disorder, but from the trauma of the cultural displacement with which one
Because of the above, we contend that the problems of the African political and
intellectual elites as represented in Femi Ojo-Ades Dead End are consequences of the
internalization of inferiority in the face of learned Western culture, which has been
applied. We contend that all those who pass through the western process of socialization,
result, the cultural ideal, which the African elites should aspire to attain, and to take their
individual societies to, suffer a grim setback. These elites end up cultivating what at best
culture represents. Anti-culture then stands for those actions and inactions that are anti-
people; those policies decisions by the government of the day that do not promote the
interest of the people; as well as those deliberate efforts on the part of those in power to
suppress to perpetual silence the voice of the people. At the same time, anti-culture here
represents the greed, avarice, devilish and uncultured behaviour of leaders and elites.
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this African state Ojo-Ades Dead End is what we have termed anti-culture in this paper.
Culture relates to the beliefs and values people have about their society, social change
and the ideal society they seek and desire. Is it possible then that positive values or the
best forms of culture are those that can be learnt from Europe or America? As Rosamund
Billington et al opine: the idea that humankind should seek perfection was not new but
European, British and American writers in the 18th and early 19th centuries connected this
search with the new possibilities and problems of industrialism. In this context, the
concept of culture was equated with the idea of civilization. Underlying this equation as
we have seen was some notion that societies evolved from less civilized forms and
Western industrialized societies were closer to the top of this evolutionary scale a
notion stated quite explicitly by early writers on primitive societies (7). This argument
trying to appropriate to the best of their ability the behavioural and attitudinal traits of the
so-called civilized subjects or race. The same desire exposes their inferiority complex,
which drives the actions of these leaders or subjects. Chinua Achebe in his Colonialist
Criticism contends that these educated natives do not actually succeed in acquiring any
According to him:
Femi Ojo-Ades Dead End, deals with the predicament of an African fictional state
held hostage by its political and intellectual elites. The novel exposes an African
debasement. It reveals not only the rottenness in the psychological make-up of so-called
political leaders of the fictional African state, but also the degradation of its intellectual
class. It further examines the implication of being saddled with the type of elites that exist
in that African state. Ojo-Ade uses the fictional African state (Africana) as a metaphor for
the situation that pervades the entire continent and the contemporary Nigerian state in
particular. The novel addresses the tragedy of a nation that celebrates a culture of
mediocrity and denigrates positive values. Political leadership in this society serves only
parochial and selfish interests, while there are conscious efforts to stifle intellectualism
The plot of Dead End revolves around a young Nigerian intellectual who travels to
Europe and America for the Golden Fleece and returns after ten years with the zeal and
desire to contribute without inhibition to the development of his home state. The
education of the early African elites in the West served to create the Black Skin, White
Mask individuals, who Frantz Fanon identifies as one of the greatest problems of the
Blackman. Even after independence, most of the intellectuals and lecturers of universities
in most African states must travel abroad in order to qualify to teach in the universities.
Most of these people undergo different forms of indoctrination and on return become
apologists of the colonizers in so many unclear ways. The exploitation and oppression of
the populace now wear a new garb as those anomalies earlier committed by colonial
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masters are now perpetrated by African cronies who incidentally have become leaders.
The question is why neo-colonialism should still be harped on as the problem of the
African states several decades after their independence. Femi Ojo-Ade seems to
interrogate African elites sense of mimicry and attribute to the anti-culture in that
continent to this malaise. He takes some moments in the novel through the protagonist to
emphasis this fact; especially in the protagonists famous lecture in the novel:
Colonialism is implicated in so far as the political and intellectual elites of the African
states are not only products of Western institutions, but also wish to perpetually identify
In the narrative that alternates between the first and third person point of view,
Femi Ojo-Ade extends the issue of the predicaments of the intellectual in developing
African nations where the elites who take over from the colonial masters make it
impossible for things to work rightly because they benefit from the subsisting
disorderliness. The protagonist, Biodun Bolaji, chooses the academia to make his
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contributions and throws all his strength to achieve the best for himself and the
university. He believes that with new responsibilities imposed on him by community and
society, as an African intellectual who has returned home to set an example of excellence,
he would work hard to attain his objectives, even at the cost of losing his friends.
However, Biodun soon realizes and learns too lately the bitter lesson that the society he
intends to sacrifice himself for abhors him. The academia for instance, where he works, is
Yet, he is determined to make the best out of the situation. To underscore his optimism at
succeeding where others had failed, he tells Bolarin, who tries to warn him against his
idealistic posture that: Your dreams died but I expect to fulfill mine. I insist that I am
able to overcome all obstacles and you will learn a lesson from me (8).
Biodun struggles to attain the highest level of his professional calling despite the
insurmountable opposition from the corrupt politicians in the garb of academics in the
university:
The novel, like most postcolonial ones, recognizes the potential of nationalism to
spur the individual and community into building the post-colonial state. This nationalistic
instinct and patriotic zeal drive Biodun into sacrificing almost everything to also fight to
save his people that have long been prostituted and pillaged by civilizations constructing
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colonies and neo-colonies... (9). However, the same patriotic zeal drives the leaders of
Africana to resort to all manner of anomalous political chicanery and tomfoolery as the
pretend to be driven by patriotic fervour and to be in the service of the people, but who
resistance. Fanon identifies these people as the writers and thinkers educated in colonial
schools who not only use their education in the struggle against the colonialists but also
remain vigilant in the post-colonial era prepared to denounce an indigenous ruling class
(166 -99).
Though Biodun does not categorically draw a battle line against the indigenous
bourgeoisie class, his idealism and disposition towards members of his immediate
one who didnt mix, loved only his books, and the extended family he found in the
classroom (Dead End 14), summarizes his reclusive lifestyle. One discerns an idealistic
posture from this mien: He closed his eyes to the realities of rot and rape and
retrogression because he believed that the minority of great minds must manage to live
Because the principles for promotion in the National University of Africana where
he teaches are at the whims of the political academics of the university, Biodun needs the
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acceptance of these people to have his assessment approved. One of the professors who
The above remark by one of the leading academics of the National University of
Africana is enough cause for worry to any well-meaning person. The question that
continues to yearn for answer is why the intellectuals of developing African societies
should constitute themselves into obstacles towards the positive development of their
societies. Why are so-called intellectuals always willing tools for this collaborative crime
against the people? Biodun fails in his quest to become a professor because though he is
prolific he refuses to be part of the corrupt core that has turned the citadel of learning into
a den of sham and shallowness. The criteria for promotion in this citadel is
he is equally pompous and therefore the very symbol of our struggle for progress
who, should he be proud, is already an agent of our decadence (109). His problem is
invariably further heightened by his attitude and lifestyle which shuts out other members
The predicament in which Biodun finds himself in this novel is not only the
handiwork of the academics alone but also a conspiracy with the political elites which are
constituted by brainless individuals with little mental faculty. His predicament represents
all subjects of postcolonial African societies that saw themselves under the rulership of
ill-motivated power mongers who usurped the opportunity of altruistic individuals and
fought their way to power to execute individual and parochial agenda. Biodun, the young
The leader of the political elite is a megalomaniac and a cannibal. He goes by all manner
of messianic cognomen. For instance, he ... became Mr. President Pope, the nations
saviour (Dead End 52). He personally chose the name of Africana as a symbol of
sovereignty and severance from the past of slavery and subordination: Mr. President
Pope, we must insist, is a pious popular president, a Christian to the core a cornerstone of
culture (52). Ojo-Ade uses these satiric descriptions of the leader of this African tiny
state to underscore the extent of foolery, which its subjects must contend.
In the same vein, political and intellectual elites in post-colonial states as in this
novel, go to ridiculous extents to secure their hold on power, including the pretension of
being in the service of the people. Frantz Fanon argues that, an indigenous bourgeoisie
can exploit national sentiment for a whole range of personal rather than collective
benefits (Andrew Hammond 265). The academic politicians who make the rules, with
which the university is run, have very selfish motives for their roles. These are the hatchet
men for the political leaders who help these politicians to hold the societies more firmly
for their personal aggrandizement, while their lackeys are compensated through several
ways the leaders may deem fit. The situation in Ojo-Ades Dead End is in tandem with
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Frantz Fanons inference that, there have been instances when elites, seeking financial
gain, facilitate neo-imperialist interests in the post-colonial state, tak(ing) on the role of
manager for Western enterprise and set(ting) up its country as the brothel of Europe
(123). Consequently, the novel exposes the elites use of nationalism to prolong their grip
on power long after the imperial departure, which has involved evolving internal as
All the atrocities the politicians commit are supposedly for the good of the state.
In fact, the leader of this group in the novel is President Pope to underscore his messianic
status. He can do no wrong. He denigrates positive cultural values and desires with
maddening zeal to re-colonize his people with his warped ideology. He sees himself, like
the colonizers, the embodiment of what a human being should be. He is the proper self,
while his subjects, also like the natives under colonialism, are the Other. He is
civilized, while others are savages and primitive. This process of Othering as his
steadily into inhumanity and anti-culture. This attempt at mimicry pushes him to align
himself with colonizers culture and denigrate African culture, which he sees as inferior
to Western culture. Though an African, President Pope becomes one of the apostles of
Eurocentrism by this posture as he uses European culture as the standard to which other
cultures are negatively contrasted. For instance, Mr. President betrays his Eurocentrism
All of the presidents children must study abroad. He has a European speech-reader.
show the air of superiority he assumes. One of Mr. Presidents policies is that every high
official should possess a property in a non-African country of his choice and spend at
least a month there every year; thus encouraging good education. This policy direction is
simply to justify him before the eye of the West as their friend and as someone with
universal appeal.
Another policy in the state of Africana is that women who are too dark are
encouraged to tone down the dark skin by using bleaching products... And that a new
capital has been ordered to be modeled upon every good non-African capital. According
to Mr. President Pope, every good element from abroad must be cultivated. All these do
not only betray his rejection of who he is, which precedes and engenders identity crisis in
As we observe from Ojo-Ades Dead End, not only the president has this problem
corrupt politicians and half-baked academics, who, desperate to share of the loot of the
national treasury, therefore turn themselves into professional praise-singers. They fall
over themselves in their bid to outdo the other in their sycophancy. One wonders where
the redeeming grace for this state under siege will ever come from.
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Femi Ojo-Ades Dead End addresses other important issues that are subsumed
within post-colonial discourse. Some of them include the dictatorial tendencies of the
leadership of these states are attaining self governance. Most African states emerging
from colonialism found themselves in the grips of tyrants who arrogated to themselves
powers comparable to only Gods. In Dead End, Mr. President Pope has the power of life
and death over his subjects. He has the undisputed right to take any woman to bed
whether she is someones wife or daughter. In fact, some of these lackeys in government
who want to curry favour from the president send their wives to warm Mr. Presidents
bed. Some of their actions even bother on incest since almost every functionary in his
administration is a member of his family. Despite that, he kills them at will whenever he
The novel also raises the issue of gender, which is important in post-colonial
discourse. The image of women in the novel is negative as they are presented almost as
shadowy characters that cannot inspire any positive change or exert themselves even in
their various capacities. As against the male characters that are defined as active,
intellectual, participating in the realm of the national life of the Africana state, women are
in the periphery in the novel. They are characterized as passive, bodily, belonging to the
realm of nature (Young 200). They are visible only in so far as they some ones wife,
girlfriend, bedmate and without much to contribute to the political space of the country.
Undoubtedly, the female characters in the novel find themselves in a patriarchal order
where they are nothing more than the rejected and disavowed part of the male world; the
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implication of which is that the women are not even in a position to change the situation
The tragedy of the situation in the novel and in the state of Africana is that the
presence of the dictator and it will require a divine intervention or military intervention
probably initiated and planned by some lucky Africana exiles. The protagonist eventually
takes to drinking and womanizing until he has a near fatal accident, which leaves him
with a broken leg. From every indication, he will end up patronizing those he set out to
fight. Therefore, his resistance to the oppressive regime and culture is equally resisted by
CONCLUSION
nauseating and anomalous situation the Nigerian state has been in since independence.
Saddled like a scourge and imposing themselves on the hapless Nigerian people, the
political elites in connivance with the educated elites have always been the greatest
obstacles towards realizing the potentials of the citizens. Each time the politicians find
themselves in power through rigging or the barrel of the gun, they find willing allies in
the intellectual elites with whom they loot the treasury and commit all manner of
atrocities, while claiming to be representing the interest of the people. These elites
muzzle the masses into oblivion as their (masses) silence becomes more pronounced
In Ojo-Ades Dead End, some middle-class activists who would sooner than later
compromise their principles and join the ruling elites represent the masses. The masses
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therefore are at the mercy of politicians who regularly reel out policies that are
deliberately designed to further punish, impoverish and keep them perpetually vulnerable.
Their willingness to change their precarious situation seems to be lacking. The solution to
Africas problems seems not to be in sight. As Femi Ojo-Ade satirically captures the
hopeless future:
You just wait and watch your nations warriors with their
knocking on you door and they leave you alone to live your
WORKS CITED
ACHEBE, Chinua. Morning Yet on Creation Day. New York: Anchor Press, 1975.
Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths, and Helen Tiffin London: Routledge, 1995. 57-61.
FANON, Frantz. The Wretched of the Earth. New ed. Trans. Constance Farrington; 1961.
HAMMOND, Andrew. Tayeb Salih and the Post-Colonial Nation. Literature Language
Text and Context. Journal of the Nigeria English Studies Association. Vol.11
Culture: A Reader. Ed. John Storey. New York: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1994. 56-
64.