Bending Society or Being Bent by Society: Understanding Obi Okonkwo's Homecoming in Achebe's No Longer at Ease

ANIEKE, CHRISTIAN Bending Society or Being Bent by Society: Understanding Obi Okonkwo's Homecoming in Achebe's No Longer at Ease. In: Occasion of the Homecoming Organized by the Department of English, University of Nigeria Nsukka.

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Abstract

I welcome each of you to this special homecoming. This homecoming evokes fresh memories of the return of Obi Okonkwo after his studies overseas. A few weeks ago as I reflected on the meaning of our homecoming, images of all shapes and colours raced across the variegated landscape of my mind. I tried to recollect the faces of my classmates, some of whom I had never had the blessing of seeing since we left this department. I tried to imagine what the faces would look like. Questions of all levels of complication jostled for attention like a restless child. Has he got wrinkles on his face now? Has his tummy grown so big that in the night he could be mistaken for a pregnant woman? Has his hair turned white so that one might mistake him for a tree in a snow landscape of a winter night? Or has all his hair disappeared like mine in a hot oven of research and epistemic enquiries? Has she lost that slim figure that turned eyes each time she entered the lecture room, making many lose concentration, even if only momentarily? Has she turned into one indescribable round object so that one might be tempted to use her for a ladder to climb and pluck some fruit? Is he happy? Is she happy and gainfully employed? Questions and questions, naughty, stupid, rational, irrational, tugging at the fringes of the mind like a curious child. But in my usual adventurous style I allowed these thoughts to run their course uncensored.

Item Type: Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Depositing User: miss ifeoma agbo
Date Deposited: 05 Apr 2019 10:59
Last Modified: 05 Apr 2019 10:59
URI: http://eprints.gouni.edu.ng/id/eprint/1089

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