Anthills Of The Savannah

In Nigeria and across West Africa, oral tradition has served as both a cultural repository and a resistance mechanism, with storytellers and elders maintaining community wisdom through proverbs and narratives in the face of imperialism. The griot, in particular, is a figure who spans multiple roles, including entertainer, historian, and advisor, making them a repository of collective memory and symbol of moral authority. The tension between traditional African oral culture and Western-influenced intellectual discourse was acute in post-independence Nigeria, where British-established educational systems privileged European knowledge. The University of Ibadan, Nigeria’s first university (established in 1948), initially followed British curricula with limited focus on Indigenous knowledge.

Anthills of the Savannah explores this cultural context, as the Abazon elder who articulates the power of storytelling embodies traditional ways of knowing: “The story is our escort; without it, we are blind” (114). His defense of narrative’s centrality mirrors the role of traditional storytellers in Igbo culture. By contrast, Achebe depicts Western-educated characters—Chris, Ikem, and Beatrice—struggling to reconnect with Indigenous knowledge. Their education at institutions like the fictional Lord Lugard College (named after a colonial administrator of Nigeria) has distanced them from traditional wisdom. Beatrice acknowledges this disconnect, recalling how her missionary education meant that she “barely [knew] who she was” (96). This is part of why the novel ultimately argues that the “common” people must be at the heart of political change; by weaving traditional narrative techniques into his modern novel, Achebe demonstrates how Indigenous wisdom might guide nations through political crises.