Become the Head of Your People

The following sample essay on Become the Head of Your People Sam has become a head without look upon for his people, seeking only to acquire more authority for himself by any means essential. Chris and Ikem understand that Sam is quickly becoming a dictator. They helped get him chosen to the position, even hopeful him when he felt that his military backdrop was inadequate preparation for a location of such importance. Now, Chris and Ikem be sorry their previous support of their friend and seek to manage Sam in their own ways.

Meanwhile, Sam’s fascination with power has made him paranoid and unpredictable. When Sam decides he wants to be chosen “President for Life,” (Anthills – 31) a national referendum is called but the district of Abazon refuses to contribute. Sam in turn refute the region access to water in spite of a drought, expecting that with no water or food the citizens will give in. When hand over from Abazon arrive at the assets on a mission for mercy, Sam think that they are actually planning an rebellion.

In fact, his paranoia leads him to believe that the revolution is being assisted by an important person close to him.

On finding the situation Sam commands Chris to fire Ikem from his position as editor, at which point Chris responds in a highly unusual way he refuses to obey Sam’s order. Sam believes that Ikem is involved in the “protest”(Anthills – 78) staged by the delegates of Abazon, but Chris knows better.

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Still, Ikem is ablaze and soon after addresses a student collection at a university. Never one to grasp his tongue, he is very verbal about his disapproval of the government. He makes a comic story about the rule minting coins with Sam’s head on them, which is turned into misinformation claiming that Ikem has describe for the beheading of the president. Ikem is taken from his home in the middle of the night and shot and killed by the state police. The incidents were great evidence of suppression of ordinary people in African society. Achebe beautifully portrays political betrayal of the contemporary time.

Achebe also draws our attention to the fact that the society can be a better place, if its citizens, whether in power or outside power work towards building it. In the novel the ordinary people are forced act, they cried, they fought, though the fight was a hopeless one. Till suddenly change came, from heaven knows where. It therefore tells us that to try is best way to act even though what is before us is above us. Achebe in this novel has also decided to locate women centrally as the main hope for the future. He portrays them as being understanding and sensible in their reaction to the happenings around them. Achebe as a feminist used his character Ikem to forward the true meaning of a woman.

In Anthills of the Savannah, transformation takes the form of cultural policies or, as puts it, “the ability to appropriate colonial technology without being absorbed by it” (Ashcroft 1995 – 23). In the novel, Beatrice’s early schooling so alienates her from Igbo traditions that she develops a split personality in childhood. In spite of having suffered girl – child abuse and rejection, her sensibility eventually swings to Western values, which she puts to very good use. She stands up to the familial, social, and career challenges of her environment; and her tough personality questions chauvinism against the women’s role in society. The climax of her courageous sense of awareness is her attempted rescue of the Kangan Head of State from a drunken national shame at a party for foreigners.

Beatrice’s case is a positive example of education as a tool of transformation, in that her alienation turns out to work for the benefit of her society. However, in the final analysis, Achebe works out the situation in a manner that proves that the Igbo culture and spirit in Beatrice holds sway over other influences in her life.

Achebe weaves a story that is not completely devoid of optimism; there are elements of hope and unity, but the reader, like the people of Kangan, must search for them. This enduring spirit is what binds the people together and maintains a sense of community that offers the weary Kangans a degree of stability and optimism. Achebe is the son of a missionary and has spent much of his life in Western cultures. Therefore, he is fully aware of the significance of the number three to the Christian belief system, and he uses it twice in Anthills of the Savannah.

There are three male domination figures who were in the novel: the dictator, Sam; the editor, Ikem; and the Commissioner of Information, Chris. The three men met in their early on teenaged years while attendaning the same school, yet each took a extremely different conduit in middle age. They came from similar a background, which illustrates that predicting the course of a person’s life is not a simple task; tossing three seeds in the same soil may result in three differing plants. Achebe’s groups of characters are main and their do not represent religious figures, but they are three aspects of the same entity, and therefore comprise a sort of trinity. They make up a political system that will not work and is destined to fail. Sam represents power driven by self – interest.

Ikem represents the desire for reform. He is outspoken and admired by the people, and prefers to do things his way without compromising. The effects of Chris represents the work for good within the system. By the end, of course, the regime has been toppled, replaced by another that will surely be just like it. When a organism dies, so do its apparatus, and as legislature of different aspects of the failed organism, each of the three men is killed Sam by another just like him, Ikem by his own peers, and Chris by an evil man who would rather murder or kill him than behave respectably.

Sam is the new president of the military regime in power following a coup, a position he holds due in no small part to the efforts of his schoolmates Chris and Ikem. He is described as being very sporty and very amiable, having adopted the customs of an English gentleman. Early in the novel, Ikem comments on Sam’s “sense of theatre,” (Anthills – 29)adding that Sam is essentially an actor and half of the things we are disposed to hold aligned with him are no more than scenes from his repertory to which he may have no sense of ethical obligation whatsoever. However, he rapidly becomes blinded by authority, insisting on being called “Your Excellency” and looking for to be chosen “President for Life.” (Anthills – 31) Military school trained Sam and his associate cadets to linger aloof from political matters, and Sam was, at first, quite horrified in his new role. His solution was to gather together his friends and give some of them government positions from which he could seek their advice. Once he overcame his fear, however, he began to delight in his power, becoming awfully upset at even the mildest affirmation against him.

Chris can see that Sam is now a dictator in the making and considers him a “baby monster,” (Anthills – 7) but Sam is only concerned about securing as much power for him as he can without interacting with the people of the country. In fact, he is starving a dissident province in hopes of forcing them to comply with his authority. He soon become inspired with suspicion, annoyance, and lack of confidence, and when his political ambitions are dissatisfied, he recalls being told how hazardous boyhood friends can be. After he position for Ikem’s murder and Chris has fled, Sam himself is killed throughout a coup and concealed in a shallow grave.

In its depiction of Sam, Anthills of the Savannah provides a perfect example of the saying, “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” (Anthills – 33) Unprepared for leadership beyond the military realm, Sam finds himself occupying the position of president of Kangan. Relishing his power, he insists on being called “Your Excellency” (Anthills – 3) and decides that he wants to be elected President for life. At the same time, he makes little effort to connect with the people of Kangan and relies heavily on his Cabinet while simultaneously belittling them. In the end his obsession, paranoia, and insecurity get the better of him, and he goes so far as to have a childhood friend (Ikem) killed because he is perceived as a threat. At the beginning of the novel, Sam is still a “baby monster,” (Anthills – 7) but as the action unfolds, Sam grows into a full – fledged evil dictator. Achebe shows the dangers of blindly pursuing power at the expense of the community. Sam has no regard for the people he is supposed to be leading, and for that they suffer.

Post – colonial society is beautifully portrayed with the incidents happened around Ikem and his thoughts. Post – Colonial government is for the sake of people but not for an individual. So that as a Journalist he wanted to do his best for his people. Ikem’s writings focus that. Though Sam is his close friend he stands in the side of truth. Ikem is the outspoken and reform minded editor of the state owned “National Gazette” (Anthills – 78) a position that often puts him in conflict with his boyhood friend, Sam, who is the president of Kangan. Part of his duty is to broadcast Sam’s messages to the people, which are Sam’s way of feeling that he is radiating power from the capital out to the people. Ikem, on the further, believes powerfully that the press should be free and sovereign of government directive. He and Chris often debate the effectiveness of