Anthills Of The Savannah

Anthills function as the central symbol in Achebe’s novel, representing the endurance and resilience of African communities in the face of political upheaval and environmental catastrophe. As the titular symbol, anthills provide the overarching metaphor that frames the entire narrative, suggesting how authentic culture and community bonds persist despite the destructive forces of corrupt leadership and natural disaster.

The symbol first appears in Ikem’s “Hymn to the Sun,” where he describes “trees [that] had become hydra-headed bronze statues so ancient that only blunt residual features remained on their faces, like anthills surviving to tell the new grass of the savannah about last year’s brush fires” (28). This image captures the central tension between destruction and survival and associates it with Storytelling as Cultural Preservation and Political Resistance: The anthills become witnesses to catastrophe, preserving memory and providing continuity across cycles of devastation. In keeping with this idea, the anthills reappear as Chris reads Ikem’s poem while traveling into Abazon itself: “Perhaps it was seeing the anthills in the scorched landscape that set him off revealing in details he had not before experienced how the searing accuracy of the poet’s eye was pried not on fancy but fact” (194).