Man of the People

Man of the People (published 1966) is a satirical piece by Nigerian writer, Achebe (November 16, 1930 – March 21, 2013), a Nigerian novelist, poet, and critic. His first novel, Things Fall Apart (1958), is the most widely read book in modern African literature.

Quotes

What mattered was that a man had treated me as no man had a right to treat another—not even if he was master and the other slave; and my manhood requires that I made him pay for his insult in full measure.
- Chapter 8, p.73.

America may not be perfect,' he was saying, 'but don’t forget that we are the only powerful country in the entire history of the world, the only one, which had the power to conquer others and didn’t do it'"
- Page 54, John.

A man of worth never gets up to unsay what he said yesterday.
- Chapter 5

In Chief Nanga’s company it was impossible not to be merry.
- Chapter 6 P.58.

As long as a man confined himself to preparing foreign concoctions he could still maintain the comfortable illusion that he wasn't really doing such an unmanly thing as cooking"
- Page 47, Odili.

*A common saying in the country after Independence was that it didn’t matter what you knew but who you knew"
- Page 17, Odili.

*And I felt envious. I had no mother to buy head-ties for, and although I had a father, giving things to him was like pouring a little water into a dried-up well"
- Page 27, Odili.

Tell me something, Odili. How serious are you about this girl Elsie?You mean about marriage. . . . Good Lord, no! She is just a good-time girl.
- Page 60, Chief Nanga and Odili.

The appearance of comparative peace which Max’s house presented to me that morning proved quite deceptive. Or perhaps some of Chief Nanga’s 'queen bee' characteristics had rubbed off on me and transformed me into an independent little nucleus of activity which I trailed with me into this new place"
- Page,78, Odili.

Even if he was my brother or my father...Edna, give yourself a chance. The man’s son is almost your age...That is the world of women,' she said resignedly"
- Page99, Odili and Edna.

But in my final year I had passed through what I might call a period of intellectual crisis brought on partly by my radical Irish lecturer in history and partly by someone who five years earlier had been by all accounts a fire-eating president of our Students’ Union. He was now an ice-cream-eating Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Labour and Production and had not only become one of the wealthiest and most corrupt landlords in Bori but was reported in the Press as saying that trade-union leaders should be put in detention. He became for us a classic example of the corroding effect of privilege”
- Page111, Odili.

My father’s attitude to my political activity intrigued me a lot. He was, as I think I have already indicated, the local chairman of P.O.P. in our village, Urua, and so I expected that his house would not contain both of us. But I was quite wrong. He took the view (without expressing it in so many words) that the mainspring of political action was personal gain, a view which, I might say, was much more in line with the general feeling in the country than the high-minded thinking of fellows like Max and I".
- Page115, Odili.

In such a regime, I say you died a good death if your life had inspired someone to come forward and shoot your murderer in the chest—without asking to be paid"
- Page 149,Odili.

We had all accepted things from white skins that none of us would have brooked from our own people.”
- Chapter 4, Page 41.

You see this old woman, quite an illiterate pagan, who most probably worshipped this very god herself.”
- Chapter 5, Page 47.

They were not only ignorant but cynical. Tell them that this man has used his position to enrich himself and they would ask you –as my father did—if you thought that a sensible man would spit out the juicy morsel that good fortune placed in his mouth.
- Chapter 1

For what is modesty but inverted pride? We all think we are first-class people. Modesty forbids us from saying so ourselves though, presumably, not from wanting to hear it from others.
- Chapter 1

I remember him saying for instance that the greatest delight of his entire visit to Britain was when, for the first time in his twenty-seven years, a white man—a taxi driver I think—carried his suitcase and said “Sir” to him.
- Chapter 2

I have, since this incident, come up against another critic who committed a crime in my view because he transferred to an alien culture the same meanings and interpretation...
- Chapter 5

And as long as men are swayed by their hearts and stomachs and not their heads the Chief Nangas of this world will continue to get away with anything.”
- Odili

Let us now and for all time extract from our body – politic as a dentist extracts a stinking tooth all those decadent stooges versed in the text – book economics and aping the white – man’s mannerisms and way of speaking. We are proud to be Africans. Our true leaders are not those intoxicated with their Oxford, Cambridge or Harvard degrees but those who speak the language of the people. Away with the damnable and expensive university education, which only alienates an African from his rich and ancient culture and puts him above his people.
- Page 4.

Nefarious plot to overthrow the Government of the people, by the people and for the people with the help of enemies abroad’’
- page 5.

They are the ones who ‘’…have bitten the finger with which their mother fed them’’
- page 5.

It is time to spread the news abroad

That we are well prepared To tie ourselves with silvery chord Of sweet conjugal bond’

- page 22.

Minister de sweet for eye but too much katakata de for inside. Believe me yours sincerely’’
- Page 15.

Poor man done see with him own eye how to make big man ego beg make e carry him poverty de go je-je"
- page 15.

Once a teacher always a teacher’’
- Page 10.

Say what you will... the white man is a spirit”
- page 124, Odili.

- If the answer wasn’t yes it would be no; as they say, there are only two things you could do with yam – if you don’t boil it, you roast it”
- Page 129.

Not what I have but what I do is my kingdom’
- Page 3, Nanga.

Do the right and shame the Devil’’
- Page 11.

If I don’t give him something now, tomorrow he go and write rubbish about me. They say it is the freedom of the press. But to me, it is nothing short of the freedom to crucify innocent men and assassinate their character. I don't know why our government is so afraid to deal with them. I don't say they should not criticize – after all no one is perfect God – but they should criticize constructively…’