Nsukka Journal of The Humanities, Number 14, CHIMAMANDA NGOZI ADICHIE THE PURPLE HIBISCUS - AN ALLEGORICAL STORY OF MAN STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM
Nsukka Journal of The Humanities, Number 14, CHIMAMANDA NGOZI ADICHIE THE PURPLE HIBISCUS - AN ALLEGORICAL STORY OF MAN STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM
Nsukka Journal of The Humanities, Number 14, CHIMAMANDA NGOZI ADICHIE THE PURPLE HIBISCUS - AN ALLEGORICAL STORY OF MAN STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM
Orabueze
I
INTRODUCTION
The landscape of African literary works is dotted with icons that
have tried to dispel the Westerners' condescending attitude that Africa is
a dark continent without history, without civilization and without hope
of ever moving forward. To these biased and self-acclaimed Messiahs,
the main task of the West is "weaning these ignorant millions from their
horrid ways". (Conrad, 1995:40) It is, therefore, the sincere belief of
Caucasian historian and literary artists, as exemplified in the opinion of
Mockler-Ferryinan:
The leaders from the continent have a credibility problem. They are
ministers whom donors are raising their eyebrows about as they
strut the G-8 world clad in Western suits and bowl in hand as they
beg for foreign aid on behalf of their constituents only to come back
.here and spread on their own dining tables as personalloot.(Onocilie,
et al, 2005:13)
He was baptized when he started school and was given this name,
Enebiri. He took offence when you called him Enebiri and if you
were a friend he would tell you politely that his name was Gilbert
and he wished to be called that. (Ntoapa, 1966:85)
II
THE FREEDOM OF WORSHIP AND SUBJECTION
FROM INHUMAN TREATMENT
.Adichie shows that violence begets violence. She shows that that
the brutality, which Eugene Achike suffered in his travail to acquire the
white man's way, has turned him into a horrendous brute. He directs this
brutality on his family in the name of Christianity. He beats [aja, his son,
until his little finger is paralyzed for failing two-catechism questions that
makes him not to be the first in the class. He batters his wife several times
that her face and eyes look like black-purple colour of an overripe avocado.
He brutally assaults her several times when she was pregnant that the
foetuses aborted. Beatrice Achike narrates her ordeal to her children, Aunty
Ifeoma and her children: "You know that table where we keep the family
Bible, rme] Your father broke it on my belly", and that her "blood finished
on that floor even before he took her to St. Agnes hospital. (p. 248). He
beats Kambili, [aja and their mother because they made cornflakes for
Kambili to eat before a Eucharistic fast. She uses a simile to compare the
bestiality of his flogging with Fulani nomads. She describes it thus: 'Papa
was like a Fulani nomad - although he did not have their spare, tall body
-as he swing his belt at Mama, [aja and me, muttering that the devil would
not win'. (p. 102). He beats her into a state of unconsciousness for
desperately trying to salvage the shredded painting of her paternal
grandfather, whom he calls a heathen. The peak of his brutality towards
the family is seen in his act of scalding his children's feet because they
slept under the same roof with his own father because he was a
traditionalist, and not ofhis own faith.
r saw the moist steam before [ saw the water. I watched the water
leave the kettle, flowing almost in slow motion in an arch to my feet.
The pain of contact was so pure, so scalding; r felt nothing for a
second. And then I screamed. (p. 194)
Eugene Achike recognizes very late that his wife and son are ready
to defy his authority. [aja's defiance is symbolized in the symbol of the
purple hibiscus, which bursts out to show its radiant and beautiful flowers.
[aja has grown into a man and he has to meet his father like a man. Kambili
looks at the stalemate between. father and son thus: "there was a shadow
clouding Papa's eyes, a shadow that had been in [ajas eyes. Fear. It had
left [aja's eyes and entered Papa's". (P. 13). And when their mother poisons
their father, he takes responsibility for her action for this reason: "I should
have taken care of Mama. Look how Obiora balances Aunty Ifeorna's
family on his head, and I am older than he is. I should have taken care of
Manta". (P. 289). He is sent to prison without trial after he claimed he
killed the father.
Adichie achieves three things by ending the story where he is jailed.
One, he comes out as the defiant king.Iaja of Opobo, who defied the British
colonial administrator that sent him on exile as a punishment. His
grandfather claims that he is reincarnate of his own father and [aja himself
finds some resemblance between him and his grandfather. The old man
defies the son's demand that he be converted to Christianity for·him to
build him a house, buy him a car and generally improve his lot. He stands
out as a man that defies tyrannical power and a defender of his people
and their traditional values.
Moreover, in traditional religion and Christianity, it is an
abomination for one to murder another human being. Therefore, his
imprisonment will serve as a valve for the purgation of the blood of the
father whom he claimed he killed.
But most importantly, he is made to fulfill the role of the 'carrier',
which is not a novel concept in African religious practices. To the
Christians, Jesus Christ is the 'carrier' who washes away the sins of the
world. Ironically, it is not the father, whom Father Benedict compares
with Christ that reaches this status but the son, [aja, whom he has battered
because of his love of sins. Allegorically, [aja in his quest for physical and
spiritual freedom is raised to the position of a saviour, whom Zulu Sofola
in "The 'Carrier' as a Saviour Among the Ife posits:
NSUKKA JOURNAL OF THE HUMANITIES, NO. 14,2004
Florence 0. Orabueze 231
The victim is usually a 'carrier' and a 'saviour', all in one. He is the
one who carries away the sins of the community and whose blood
waters the source of life of the community, thereby renewing and
preserving it. (Adegbola. 1983:141)
III
THE FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION FOR THE CITIZENS
But before the white man left the shores of Africa, he gave birth to
hydra-headed monsters, whom Ngugi wa Thiongo described as
'profiteering gods and its ministering angels'. (1997:34). And in the much
misunderstood Joyce Cary's novel, MISTER JOHNSON, which prompted
Achebe's writing of Things Fall Apart, he paints an unsavory portrait of
an African charlatan and a buffoon who blindly apes the white. The black
man in an irritating imitation of his white employers progresses in crime,
and at the end of the novel, he loses his job, his wife and his life. Joyce
Cary pointed out clearly that Mr. Johnson murdered Gollup, his former
employer, after the British ex-soldier-turned trader had brutalized Johnson
and the other black servants. He attributed this decadence in the black
man to the Western civilization. The road, a symbol of Caucasian
NSUKKA JOURNAL OF THE HUMANITIES, NO. 14,2004
.232 Chimamamda Ngozie Adichie's The Purple Hibiscus
civilization, which Rudbeck spent so much time and money to build, taunts
him:
The road itself seems to speak to him. I am smashing up the old
Fada-l shall change everything and everybody in it. I am abolishing
the old ways, the old ideas, the old law. [am bringing wealth and
opportunity for good as well as vice, new powers to men and
therefore new conflicts. I am the revolution. I am giving you plenty
of trouble already, you governor, and I am going to give you plenty
more. I destroy and I make new. What are you going to do about it?
I am your idea. You made me, so I suppose you know. (Cary,
1969:215)
Adichie shows in the Purple Hibiscus that such men with Esau's
hand and Jacob's voice are in control of the rein of power in Nigeria. She
paints a gory picture of a dictatorial head of state that has a lot in common
with the family dictator - both of them are unrestrained and monstrous in
the exercise of their power.
The brutality and disorderliness of the military junta and his.agents
are foreshadowed in the very first few pages of the novel where the naive
narrator makes a distinction between her mother's prayer group members
who appreciate the beauty of the flowers and 'plucked' them and the
government agent who lacked the sense of aesthetics and just 'yanked'
them. The word 'yanked' which she used excites a mental picture of men
who are violent.
As the story progresses, this violence of the military head of state
and members of his junta is exhibited. A full-grown man is made to frog-
jump before the glare of the public for an undisclosed offence by the
soldiers. The women are not spared the inhuman treatment meted to the
men. Women who protested over the demolition of the stalls in the market
are whipped. Karnbili describes the violence she experienced in the market
that haunted her even after she left the market thus: "A woman lay in the
dirt, wailing, tearing at her short afro. Her wrapper had come undone
and her white underwear showed". (P. 44).
Adichie shows that the unnamed military government is not only
indifferent to people and callous, it is also very corrupt. Amidst the
grinding poverty in the land, it doles out money to buy the conscience of
the opposition and critics. Kambili recalls that the government agents in
black jackets, who drove in a pickup truck with federal government plates,
and who yanked at the flowers that ' ... [aja said they come to bribe Papa,
that he had heard them say that their pickup was full of dollars'. (p. 9).
NSUKKA JOURNAL OF THE HUMANITIES, NO. 14,2004 .
Florence 0. Orabueze 233
Besides, the military head of state violates the citizens' right to life
as enshrined in the constitution. Though successive military regimes in
Nigeria have always suspended the constitution and ruled with decrees
and edicts, the artist points out the insensitivity and the incongruity in the
actions of the military junta. This is a government that executes drug-
traffickers in public, yet the same head of state and his wife are said to be
drug barons.
One of the greatest fundamental ri~hts of the citizens, which every
military government tries to curb, is the freedom of expression or speech.
One of the first actions they carryon is to gag the press in order to insulate
themselves from criticisms and prying eyes of the press and the public.
Journalists have always fought the gagging of free press by whatever
government that is in power:
The military men from the time they take the mantle of leadership
after their successful coup make it clear to the press that their criticisms
cannot be tolerated. The timorous souls among them go into their shells
in the face of the soldiers' intimidation. Ade Coker personifies the spirit
of the freedom fighters. As [aja determines to free the victims - his mother
and sister - from the grim crutches of domestic violence, Ade Coker offers
himself as a sacrificial lamb in order to liberate his countrymen from the
vice-like hold of a military dictator. The two of them are used as 'carriers'
for the liberation of those that are in bondage. Ade Coker is cut down by
a letter bomb sent by the head of state, while his daughter is with him.
Though Ade Coker is killed, the seeds of knowledge, which he
planted in the citizens, coupled with the harsh realities of the head of
state's trampling of the citizens, germinated purple hibiscus. As the novel
ends, Kambili informs the reader that the country's dictator 'died atop a
prostitute, foaming at the month and jerking ... ' (P. 297). Sadly enough,
the death of the dictatorial head of state is not the end of the country's
suffering as corruption continues even under the new civilian government.
Kambili says: 'There is much more that Mama and I do not talk about. We
do not talk about the huge checks we have written, for bribes to judges
and policemen and prison guards'. (p, 297). This statement shows the
NSUKKA JOURNAL OF THE HUMANITIES, NO. 14,2004
234 Chimamamda Ngozie Adichie's The Purple Hibiscus
unending cycle of hopelessness and corruption in every African country
like the sad note in Ayi Kwei Arrnahs The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet
Born, where the omniscient narrator says that after the military coup that
toppled the government, it is business as usual. To Nigerians, there is no
difference between military and civilian governments as both of them
unleash untold violence on the populace. Charles Ukeje in his article,
"From Aba to Ugborodo: Gender Identity and Alternative Discourse of
Social Protest Among Women in the Oil Delta of Nigeria" postulates:
IV
VIOLATION OF THE RIGHT TO ACADEMIC FREEDOM
The brutality and violence in the nation also engulfs the University,
which Obioraaptly describes as a 'microcosm of the society'. The military
dictator in his characteristic style appoints a sole administrator to run the
University of Nigeria, Nsukka. With this appointment, the university with
its motto "To restore the dignity of man" becomes a place where the dignity
of man is squashed. The sole administrator runs this academic world in
the same high-handed military fashion the state dictator runs the
government. There is no water supply, no light, the facilities in the campus
are either ill maintained, or not maintained at all. The salaries of workers
are not paid and the workers are on strike. It is in this state of affairs that
Papa-Nnukwu died because the medical personnel at the University's
medical centre is on strike.
This situation within the campus creates a palpable tension. Most
of the lecturers keep quiet for fear of either bru tal reprisals or loss of their
jobs. Some of them left for greener pastures abroad. The very few, like
Aunty Ifeoma, who are bold enough to criticize the system are sacked.
And when the situation becomes intolerable to the students, they rioted,
destroying the University's property. The University is closed indefinitely
and the students ordered to leave the campus. Instead of its administration
looking inwards to find the cause of the problem, it decides to make
scapegoats of its critics. Plain-clothed policemen are sent to Aunty Ifeoma's
NSUKKA JOURNAL OF THE HUMANITIES, NO. 14,2004
Florence 0. Orabueze 235
house to intimidate her. Kambili says that the men without a search
warrant:
... did not look inside the drawers they flung open, they just threw
the clothes and whatever else was inside on the floor. They
overturned all the. boxes and suitcases in Aunty Ifeornas room, but
they did not rummage through the contents. They scattered, but
they did not search (p. 231). .
The rioting students did not kill the sole administrator because he
and 'his wife were smuggled out in the boot of an old Peugeot 404.... ' (P.
229). The author only subjects them to humiliation and for them to perceive
the protest of a people who are hemmed in. Adichie does that for a purpose,
because the dictatorial leadership in the University will not be in existence
if there is no dictatorial headship in the society, since it is a diminutive
representative of the society. In fact, the University is sick because the
society is sick.
V
THE EMANCIPATION OF WOMEN FROM INJURIOUS
CULTURAL AND RELIGIOUS PRACTICES
VII
LANGUAGE AND STYLE IN THE PURPLE HIBISCUS
Maybe Mama had realized that she would not need the figurines
anymore; that when Papa threw the missal at [aja. it was not just the'
figurines that came tumbling down, it was everything. (p.lS)
Moreover, Father Amadi, who helps to tear down the walls of the
prisons in Kambili and [aja's minds, is also a 'Symbolic character. He is
used to show that the Catholic Church has some positive values. He
sincerely does not believe that being a priest is tantamount to his losing
his cultural identity: Adichie uses him to debunk early missionaries' idea
that: .
Furthermore, the purple hibiscus that [aja took from Aunty Ifeoma's
garden at Nsukka and planted in their own compound stands for the
revolutionary spirit that will change the family and the entire society. [aja
is this rare breed of flower, which is planted in the compound. As it takes
root and blossoms so also Iaja will grow up. And as the gardener 'raked
underneath the frangipani trees, and dead leaves and pink flowers lay in
piles, ready for the wheel barrow', (p. 108), and new orange trees, purple
hibiscus and ixora replace them, so will Jaja develop and replace their
father.
NSUKKA JOURNAL OF THE HUMAN4TIES, NO. 14, 2004
Florence 0. Orabueze 241
Adichie makes plentiful use of ironies in the work. Eugene Achike
whom Father Benedict compared to Christ is an ironic statement. He is a
Janus-faced monster that presents a saintly, human face to the pubic and
that of a violent, vengeful and monstrous one to his family. He lacks the
meekness and the accommodating spirit of Christ. It is ironically that it is
his son who will fulfill that function of a saviour to his family. There is
also irony in their mother's T-shirt with GOD IS LOVEbecause there is no
love in their Christian family. There is no love in a man that batters his
family and subjects them to fear.
She uses other figures of speech - simile and metaphor - which are
suitable to her central theme of the struggle for freedom. Each time their
father brutally beats their mother, Kambili compares her wild look with
that of mad people. She says several times in her narration: 'Her eyes
were vacant, like the eyes of those mad people who wondered around the
roadside garbage dumps in town, pulling grim, torn canvas bags with
their life fragments inside". (p. 34) Her husband's incessant beating has
traumatized her and in that state she decided to poison him. Even after
the man's death, this mental state did not die with him for till the end of
the narrative, Kambili still insists that:
Mama shakes her head, and her scarf starts to slip off. She reaches
out to knot it again as loosely as before. Her wrapper is just as loose
around her waist, and she ties and reties it often, giving her the air
of the unkempt women in Ogbete Market, who let their wrappers
unravel so that everyone sees the hole-riddled slips they have on
underneath. She does not seem to mind that she looks this way; she
doesn't even know. (pp. 295:296)
This technique serves two purposes: adding' musical effect to the passage
and underlining the extent of the woman's sorrow.
Adichie is comparable to Joseph Conrad in Heart of Darkness in
her description of the African fauna and flora in Purple Hibiscus. The
only difference is that while Conrad describes the untamed and untamable
NSUKKA JOURNAL OF THE HUMANITIES, NO. 14,2004
242 Chimamamda Ngozie Adichie's The Purple Hibiscus
vegetation and animals in Jungle Africa, Adichies are the harmless ones.
She describes them in a way that the reader feels that they are also
characters in her novel.
She has recourse to words and situations that create lasting mental
images on the reader. For example, she says that her mother's three
pregnancies are aborted due to their father's violence on her, even during
the time she is pregnant. The word' abortion' creates a mental impression
of loss of life, futility, grief and pain. She uses this abortion to show the
effect of domestic violence on the family. Any family and any society
where there is violence, nothing can grow healthily in it.
Finally, she employs the narrative techniques of flashback and
foreshadowing to control the story. Kambili begins the story from
'Breaking Gods' on a Palm Sunday, which events normally would have
appeared at the middle of the narration. And in this first part, she
foreshadows [aja's defiance and the break up of the family. The flashback
is efficiently used in the greatest part of the work subtitled 'Speaking with
Our Spirits'; the other two parts follow the normal sequence. This style,
somehow, gives episodic plot to the novel, but it has the advantage of
allowing the author to narrate events without appearing to be repetitive.
CONCLUSION
The novelist has shown that freedom is a natural state of man, which
even the lower animals try to enjoy. And that man should resist
vehemently any abridgement of that natural gift to man whether it
manifests in the form of domestic violence or dictatorial control of the
apparatus of state or in the trampling on academic freedom. The price
one pays for the tolerance of dictators is either death or physical and mental
trauma and a state of hopelessness. Adichie encapsulates this allegorical
struggle for freedom in a highly, symbolic and thought-provoking images
that haunt the reader for a very long time after he must have put back the
novel on the bookshelf.
REFERENCES