Anthills of the savannah
First published 1987 · English · 216 pages
- Novels
- Historical fiction
This novel takes place in the fictional West African country of Kangan, which is ruled by a military head of state. Three old friends, a government minister, a newspaper editor and a civil servant, find themselves bound together by loyalty, ambition and growing distrust as the regime becomes more repressive.
Told through several voices, the book considers how friendship and ideals are strained by power. Achebe also gives an important place to women and to ordinary people, suggesting that hope for the nation lies beyond its rulers. It was his first novel in more than twenty years.
Quotes
[W]hatever you are is never enough; you must find a way to accept something, however small, from the other to make you whole and to save you from the mortal sin of righteousness and extremism. (p. 154)
The guilty suffers; the sufferer is guilty. As for the righteous, those whose arms are straight, they will always prosper!
Don't disparage the day that still has an hour of light in its hand.
As the saying goes, the unexamined life is not worth-living.