Of goddesses and stories gender and a new politics in Achebe

• Published in: Stories of Women p. 54
• Main Author: ELLEKE BOEHMER
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Manchester University Press 19.07.2013
• Subjects: Anthropology; Applied anthropology; Arts; Behavioral sciences; Communications; Complementary therapies; Criminal justice; Criminal law; Criminal punishment; Cultural anthropology; Cultural customs; Elites; Exile; Health sciences; Historical methodology; Historiography; History; Human populations; Human societies; Law; Literature; Medical treatment; Meditation; Mind body approaches; Naming ceremonies; Narratives; National politics; Persons; Political elites; Political science; Politics; Population studies; Relaxation techniques; Rites of passage; Rituals; Social classes; Social sciences; Social stratification; Social structures; Sociology; Upper class; Women; Womens history; Working women
• DOI: 10.2307/j.ctt155j4ws.7

Although he published the autobiographical meditationHome and Exilein 2002, Chinua Achebe’sAnthills of the Savannah(1987) remains the culmination point of his achievement as a writer of fiction, as well as being an elaboration of his earlier novelistic interests. The novel is, as Ben Okri has remarked, Achebe’s ‘most complex and his wisest book to date’.² Dealing in coded terms with Nigeria’s calcified power-elite, and the bankruptcy of its post-independence nepotistic politics,Anthills of the Savannahis in many respects a sequel to the penultimate novelA Man of the People(1966), which explored themes of political corruption