Anthills Of The Savannah

“I have thought of all this as a game that began innocently enough and then went suddenly strange and poisonous. But I may prove to be too sanguine even in that. For, if I am right, then looking back on the last two years it should be possible to point to a specific and decisive event and say: it was at such and such a point that everything went wrong and the rules were suspended. But I have not found such a moment or such a cause although I have sought hard and long for it.”

Chris Oriko reflects on his disillusionment with the government he serves through the extended metaphor of a “game” turned “poisonous.” The passage employs a searching, philosophical tone that reveals Chris’s analytical mind and moral uncertainty as he struggles to pinpoint when corruption began. His inability to identify a specific moment of deterioration suggests that corruption is inherent to power, introducing the theme of The Corrupting Nature of Absolute Power. This reflection also establishes the novel’s central concern with The Intellectual’s Dilemma in Times of Crisis as Chris, a member of the educated elite, struggles to respond when confronted with systemic corruption that he helped enable; he can only observe the situation with detachment and fatalism.

“The sun in April is an enemy though the weatherman on television reciting mechanically the words of his foreign mentors tells you it will be fine all over the country. Fine! We have been slowly steamed into well-done mutton since February and all the oafs on our public payroll tell us we are doing just fine!”

Ikem’s stream-of-consciousness narration uses the oppressive heat as a metaphor for political oppression, connecting the natural environment to the social climate. The contrast between official pronouncements (“fine all over the country”) and lived reality creates irony that exposes governmental dishonesty. Achebe employs food imagery (“steamed into well-done mutton”) to convey how citizens are being consumed by both natural forces and political systems.