The Politics Of Animal Stories - Chinua Achebe

By Anuradha Basu
In the work 'What Has Literature Got To Do With It' Achebe
brings up a very pertinent question relating literature to
creation. He asks whether 'people create stories' or 'stories
create people' or rather 'stories create people create stories'.
To the question whether stories would come first or people
would come first is connected the myth of the creation, to
which is connected the remarkable Fulani's story.' It is a
creation story about whether man came into being first or the
story came first. The story goes that in the beginning there
was a 'huge drop of milk. Then the milk created stone, the
stone created fire; the fire created water; the water created
air'. Then man was moulded by Doondari out of five elements.
But man had pride. Then Doondari created blindness and
blindness defeated man. The story is about creation, defeat of
man through hubris and redemption of man. These stories are
not just restricted to creation, but have been imbibed in the
history of man, social organizations, political systems, moral
attitudes, religious beliefs and even prejudices.
The Igbo political system, prevails on the absence of kings.
The word 'king' is represented more by different words. In the
Igobo town of Ogidi kingship gradually went out of use,
because the king had to settle a lot of debts, owned by every
man and woman in the kingdom. In fact one who became a
king held the people in utter contempt when he organized a
ritual called 'Kola-nut' where he cracked the nut between his
teeth and made the people eat the cola-nut coated with the
king's saliva. He was dethroned and the people became a
republican. It was decided the the king should guarantee the
solvency of the people. These mythical stories of kingship
dwindled with the emergence of the British community when
kingship merged with the British political legacy and gained
new connotations.
Achebe mentions two animal stories the emergence of the
British community when kingship merged with the British
political legacy and gained new connotations.
Achebe mentions two animal stories which are short but
complex enough to warrant them as literature. Once there
was a meeting of animals, at a public square, when a fowl was
spotted by his neighbours going in the opposite direction. The
fowl explains that he had not gone to the meeting because of
some personal matter. The fowl generously said that even
though not present in body he would be present in spirit. It
was decided at the meeting that a particular animal, namely
the fowl would henceforth be regularly sacrificed for the Gods.
And so the fowl had given its assent to be a sacrificial victim
forever.
The second animal story was about a snake riding a horse.
The snake could not ride very skillfully. A toad came by to
show the snake horsemanship. The toad rode very skillfully,
and came back and returned the horse to the snake. The
snake smilingly said that it was better having than not having.
He had the horse in possession. So he rode away with the
horse in the same way as before.
These two stories have curious implications. The fowl story is
a tale of warning to democratic citizens who do not take active
participation in the democratic process. The second story has
significations of class divisions. The snake is an aristocrat in
a class society while a toad is a commoner with expertise
whose personal effort does not matter because he does not
have the necessary possessions. The snake possesses merit
by birth or wealth and hence enjoys privileges whether he
possesses skill or not.
The connection of these stories with literature is implicit.
Literature offers scope for social transition and change.
Literature can cause change in society. The king enforcing his
subjects to eat the saliva covered nut is obviously an
invitation to rebellion. The snake story is also a story of class
division and privilege, but his seeds of revolution in it. The
skilled have not may be incited to rise to rebellion by
observing the undue privilege of the unskilled rich. The
implication is the dissolution of an incompetent oligarchy. In
fact the snake figure has been chosen because of its
unattractiveness for ultimately it would become the target of
revolution.
Literature is connected with social, economic and educational
growth. Literature is related with the creation of human
societies. Because Nigeria wants to grow as an independent
nation, it needs the creative energy of national stories to
support and sustain the growth of the nation.
In fact even if we look back to classical literature, it is seen
that the portrayal of Achilles or Ulysses is indirectly connected
to the growth of Greece as a nation. So also is the portraiture
of Beowulf connected to the social, historical and national
development of the Anglo Saxon society. There is a
relationship between the Anglo Saxons sitting around the fire
on the hearth rebelling against the cold and charting their own
growth and psychoanalysis storytelling. Both have a
psychological implication in them. When one tells a story to
the psychoanalyst he actually tells a story. The connection
between literature and psychoanalysis as Achebe puts it as
'Literature can have an important and profound positive effect
as well, functioning as a kind of bountiful, nourishing matrix
for a healthy, developing psyche.' Literature thus helps to
counter psyche in real life helping in a discovery of the self
that tables to cope with life. Literature through the symbol of
the animal story connects itself with political uprisings,
sociological and historical growths as well as psychoanalytic
analysis of the self which helps in confronting reality and
finding one's own self.
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Submitted On April 21, 2011