Civil Peace Chinua Achebe

 Chinua Achebe /tʃɪnwɑ: ətʃɛbeɪ/ (1930 -2013)

was a Nigerian novelist, poet, professor, and

critic. He studied English, history, and theology at

University college, the University of Ibadan. His

first novel Things Fall Apart (1958) is the most

widely read book in modern African literature.

His later novels include No Longer at Ease (1960), Arrow of God (1964), A Man

of the People (1966), Anthills of the Savannah (1987), and his last novel There

Was a Country was published in 2012. He also published a large number of short

stories, children's books, and essay collections. Since he was born in the Igbo village

of Ogidi in south-eastern Nigeria, his novels focus on the traditions of Igbo society. He

wrote about the cultural and political turmoil of Nigeria, from colony to postcolony,

and through civil war and beyond.

The story 'Civil Peace' (1971) is set in the aftermath of the Nigerian Civil War. It is

about the effects of the Nigerian Civil War on the people, and the “civil peace” that

followed. Nigeria became an independent nation from the British colony in 1960.

The Nigerian Civil War began in 1967 when the Igbo tried to separate from Nigeria

to form the independent Republic of Biafra. After enduring three years of bloody

battles, the Ibo were forced to surrender in 1970, ending the war. Biafrans suffered

a severe famine due to the effect of war. Nearly a million people died of starvation.

Reading

Jonathan Iwegbu counted himself extra-ordinarily lucky. 'Happy survival!' meant

so much more to him than just a current fashion of greeting old friends in the first

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hazy days of peace. It went deep to his heart. He had come out of the war with five

inestimable blessings - his head, his wife Maria's head and the heads of three out of

their four children. As a bonus he also had his old bicycle - a miracle too but naturally

not to be compared to the safety of five human heads.

The bicycle had a little history of its own. One day at the height of the war it was

commandeered 'for urgent military action'. Hard as its loss would have been to him

he would still have let it go without a thought had he not had some doubts about the

genuineness of the officer. It wasn't his disreputable rags, nor the toes peeping out of

one blue and one brown canvas shoe, nor yet the two stars of his rank done obviously

in a hurry in biro, that troubled Jonathan; many good and heroic soldiers looked the

same or worse. It was rather a certain lack of grip and firmness in his manner. So

Jonathan, suspecting he might be amenable to influence, rummaged in his raffia bag

and produced the two pounds with which he had been going to buy firewood which his

wife, Maria, retailed to camp officials for extra stock-fish and corn meal, and got his

bicycle back. That night he buried it in the little clearing in the bush where the dead of

the camp, including his own youngest son, were buried. When he dug it up again a year

later after the surrender all it needed was a little palm-oil greasing. 'Nothing puzzles

God,' he said in wonder.

He put it to immediate use as a taxi and accumulated a small pile of Biafran money

ferrying camp officials and their families across the four-mile stretch to the nearest

tarred road. His standard charge per trip was six pounds and those who had the money

were only glad to be rid of some of it in this way. At the end of a fortnight he had made

a small fortune of one hundred and fifteen pounds.

Then he made the journey to Enugu and found another miracle waiting for him. It

was unbelievable. He rubbed his eyes and looked again and it was still standing there

before him. But, needless to say, even that monumental blessing must be accounted

also totally inferior to the five heads in the family. This newest miracle was his little

house in Ogui Overside. Indeed, nothing puzzles God! Only two houses away a huge

concrete edifice some wealthy contractor had put up just before the war was a mountain

of rubble. And here was Jonathan's little zinc house of no regrets built with mud blocks

quite intact! Of course the doors and windows were missing and five sheets off the

roof.

But what was that? And anyhow he had returned to Enugu early enough to pick up bits

of old zinc and wood and soggy sheets of cardboard lying around the neighbourhood

before thousands more came out of their forest holes looking for the same things.

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He got a destitute carpenter with one old hammer, a blunt plane and a few bent and

rusty nails in his tool bag to turn this assortment of wood, paper and metal into door

and window shutters for five Nigerian shillings or fifty Biafran pounds. He paid the

pounds, and moved in with his overjoyed family carrying five heads on their shoulders.

His children picked mangoes near the military cemetery and sold them to soldiers'

wives for a few pennies - real pennies this time - and his wife started making breakfast

akara balls for neighbours in a hurry to start life again. With his family earnings he

took his bicycle to the villages around and bought fresh palm-wine which he mixed

generously in his rooms with the water which had recently started running again in the

public tap down the road, and opened up a bar for soldiers and other lucky people with

good money.

At first he went daily, then every other day and finally once a week, to the offices of

the Coal Corporation where he used to be a miner, to find out what was what. The

only thing he did find out in the end was that that little house of his was even a greater

blessing than he had thought. Some of his fellow ex-miners who had nowhere to return

at the end of the day's waiting just' slept outside the doors of the offices and cooked

what meal they could scrounge together in Bournvita tins. As the weeks lengthened

and still nobody could say what was what Jonathan discontinued his weekly visits

altogether and faced his palm-wine bar.

But nothing puzzles God. Came the day of the windfall when after five days of endless

scuffles in queues and counter-queues in the sun outside the Treasury he had twenty

pounds counted into his palms as ex-gratia award for the rebel money he had turned in.

It was like Christmas for him and for many others like him when the payments began.

They called it (since few could manage its proper official name) egg-rasher.

As soon as the pound notes were placed in his palm Jonathan simply closed it tight over

them and buried fist and money inside his trouser pocket. He had to be extra careful

because he had seen a man a couple of days earlier collapse into near-madness in an

instant before that oceanic crowd because no sooner had he got his twenty pounds than

some heartless ruffian picked it off him. Though it was not right that a man in such

an extremity of agony should be blamed yet many in the queues that day were able to

remark quietly at the victim's carelessness, especially after he pulled out the innards of

his pocket and revealed a hole in it big enough to pass a thief's head. But of course he

had insisted that the money had been in the other pocket, pulling it out too to show its

comparative wholeness. So one had to be careful.

Jonathan soon transferred the money to his left hand and pocket so as to leave his

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right free for shaking hands should the need arise, though by fixing his gaze at such an

elevation as to miss all approaching human faces he made sure that the need did not

arise, until he got home.

He was normally a heavy sleeper but that night he heard all the neighbourhood noises

die down one after another. Even the night watchman who knocked the hour on some

metal somewhere in the distance had fallen silent after knocking one o'clock'. That

must have been the last thought in Jonathan's mind before he was finally carried away

himself. He couldn't have been gone for long, though, when he was violently awakened

again.

'Who is knocking?' whispered his wife lying beside him on the floor.

'I don't know,' he whispered back breathlessly.

The second time the knocking came it was so loud and imperious that the rickety old

door could have fallen down.

'Who is knocking?' he asked them, his voice parched and trembling.

'Na tief-man and him people,' came the cool reply. 'Make you hopen de door.' This was

followed by the heaviest knocking of all.

Maria was the first to raise the alarm, then he followed and all their children.

'Police-o! Thieves-o! Neighbours-o! Police-o! We are lost! We are dead! Neighbours,

are you asleep? Wake up! Police-o!'

This went on for a long time and then stopped suddenly. Perhaps they had scared the

thief away. There was total silence. But only for a short while.

'You done finish?' asked the voice outside. 'Make we help you small. Oya, everybody!'

'Police-o! Tief-man-so! Neighbours-o! we done loss-o! Police- o!...'

There were at least five other voices besides the leader's.

Jonathan and his family were now completely paralysed by terror. Maria and the

children sobbed inaudibly like lost souls. Jonathan groaned continuously.

The silence that followed the thieves' alarm vibrated horribly. Jonathan all but begged

their leader to speak again and be done with it.

'My frien,' said he at long last, 'we don try our best for call dem but I think say dem

all done sleep-o ... So wetin we go do now? Sometaim you wan call soja? Or you wan

make we call dem for you? Soja better pass police. No be so?'

'Na so!' replied his men. Jonathan thought he heard even more voices now than before

and groaned heavily. His legs were sagging under him and his throat felt like sandpaper.

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'My friend, why you no de talk again. I de ask you say you wan make we call soja?'

'No'.

'Awrighto. Now make we talk business. We no be bad fief. We no like for make trouble.

Trouble done finish. War done finish and all the katakata wey de for inside. No Civil

War again. This time na Civil Peace. No be so?'

'Na so!' answered the horrible chorus.

'What do you want from me? I am a poor man. Everything I had went with this war.

Why do you come to me? You know people who have money. We. ..'

'Awright! We know say you no get plenty money. But we sef no get even anini. So

derefore make you open dis window and give us one hundred pound and we go

commot. Orderwise we de come for inside now to show you guitar-boy like dis ...'

A volley of automatic fire rang through the sky. Maria and the children began to weep

aloud again.

'Ah, missisi de cry again. No need for dat. We done talk say we na good tief. We just

take our small money and go nwayor- ly. No molest. Abi we de molest?'

'At all!' sang the chorus.

'My friends,' began Jonathan hoarsely. 'I hear what you say and I thank you. If I had

one hundred pounds ...'

'Lookia my frien, no be play we come play for your house. If we make mistake and

step for inside you no go like am-o. So derefore . . .

'To God who made me; if you come inside and find one hundred pounds, take it and

shoot me and shoot my wife and children. I swear to God. The only money I have in

this life is this twenty-pounds egg-rasher they gave me today ...'

'Ok. Time de go. Make you open dis window and bring the twenty pound. We go

manage am like dat.'

There were now loud murmurs of dissent among the chor- us: 'Na lie de man de lie; e

get plenty money ... Make we go inside and search properly well ... Wetin be twenty

pound? ...'

'Shurrup!' rang the leader's voice like a lone shot in the sky and silenced the murmuring

at once. 'Are you dere? Bring the money quick!'

'I am coming,' said Jonathan fumbling in the darkness with the key of the small wooden

box he kept by his side on the mat.

At the first sign of light as neighbours and others assembled to commiserate with him

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he was already strapping his five-gallon demijohn to his bicycle carrier and his wife,

sweating in the open fire, was turning over akara balls in a wide clay bowl of boiling

oil. In the corner his eldest son was rinsing out dregs of yesterday's palm-wine from

old beer bottles.

'I count it as nothing,' he told his sympathizers, his eyes on the rope he was tying.

'What is egg-rasher? Did I depend on it last week? Or is it greater than other things that

went with the war? I say, let egg-rasher perish in the flames! Let it go where everything

else has gone. Nothing puzzles God.'

Glossary

akara balls (n.): deep fried balls of ground beans

amenable (adj.): responsive, open

anini (n.): a small Nigerian coin worth less than one cent

Biafran (n.): of the rebellious southeastern region of Nigeria, which declared itself the

independent Republic of Biafra in the Civil War of 1967

biro (n.): British expression for ‘ballpoint pen’

commandeer (v.): to seize for military use

commiserate (v.): sympathize with or show sorrow for

demijohn (n.): a large bottle with a short neck

destitute (adj.): lacking the basic necessities of life’ poverty-stricken

disreputable (adj.): not respectable; having or deserving a bad reputation

dissent (n.): disagreement; refusal to accept a common opinion

edifice (n.): a building, especially a large, important-looking one

Enugu (n.): a city in southeastern Nigeria

fortnight (n.): British English for ‘two weeks’

katakata (n.): (Nigerian English dialect) confusion, trouble

Na tief-man… hopen de door (dialect): I am a thief of my accomplices. Open the

door.

raffia bag (n.) : a bag woven from the fibers of the raffia palm tree

Understanding the text

Answer the following questions.

a. Why did Jonathan think of himself as 'extraordinarily lucky'?

Jonathan thought of himself as 'extraordinarily lucky' because he got happily survived the Civil War with his wife and children.

b. What are the ‘five blessings’ for which Jonathan is grateful?

The ‘five blessings’ for which Jonathan is grateful are his head, his wife Maria's head, and the heads of three out of their four children

c. Why did Jonathan mistrust the officer who wanted to take his bicycle? What

does this tell you about the situation in Nigeria?

Jonathan mistrusted the officer who wanted to take his bicycle because he seemed to be amenable to influence He saved his bicycle giving two pounds to the officer. It reveals corruption and dishonesty prevailed in Nigerian society as the effect of the civil war.

d. What visitors might be at the door? Are Jonathan and his wife completely

surprised? Explain.

The people who show up at the door are thieves. They are not completely surprised. That's why they cry hysterically for help.

e. Why does no one in the neighbourhood respond when the thieves pound on

Jonathan’s door? Why do the thieves call for the police?

No one in the neighbourhood responds when the thieves pound on Jonathan’s door because they are scared of the thieves. They call for the police to make fun of Jonathan and his family.

Reference to the context

a. What does Jonathan mean by his expression “Nothing puzzles God”? What does this expression reveal about his character? Explain by citing details from the story.

Jonathan’s expression ‘Nothing puzzles God’ indicates his deep religious faith in God and pessimistic nature. Jonathan repeatedly utters the expression for positive outcomes - like the survival of his home and family - as blessings or miracles, and in bad situations, like coal mine's closing and robbery. He is willing to accept that he cannot control the forces of fate and instead focuses on the future. He successfully manages the chaos of the war and its aftermath by accepting both good and bad events as the will of God. By attributing events to God, he accepts his disability to change things that have already come to pass. This makes him focus his determination on working for the future instead of indulging in self-pity.

b. How does Jonathan change as he experiences the conflicts in his life? Explain.

Jonathan makes himself free from agonizing about the experiences of the Civil War and its after-effects. He exhibits a happy tone even in the face of hard times. He becomes more willing to get rid of material and monetary things to preserve what he cares for most, his and his family life. This willingness allows him to use his energy constructively in the present instead of having negative emotions for the past. His optimism remains unshakable throughout the story.

c. Read the extract and answer the questions below.

i. Who is the speaker?

Jonathan is the speaker.

ii. Who is the speaker talking to?

 The speaker is talking to thieves.

iii. Who does “they” refer to?

"They" refers to the officials of the treasury.

 

d. Nigerian English has words like soja 'soldier' and katakata 'confusion', 'trouble' derived apparently from English words but transformed by native languages' phonologies. What does the author’s use of dialect here add to the story?

Achebe has blended both standards and local languages to make the story real. He uses these languages to differentiate the protagonist from the thieves outside his door. Their dialogue draws significant attention to this inconsistency. The use of dialect has created authentic Nigerian characters. He has invented a new form of English, a Nigerian English dialect to show the bicultural heritage of his nation.

e. Why do you think the thieves who come to rob Jonathan speak English with a heavier African accent than Jonathan does?

The verbal exchange contrasts English spoken by the thieves in a heavier African accent and the proper English spoken by Jonathan. The way thieves making fun of the family’s call for help only reinforces these differences. For example, the family cries out, “We are lost!” but in a heavier English accent, this plea becomes “we done loss-o!” Achebe makes use of English with an African accent for three reasons. The differences between speeches suggest that Jonathan is better educated than thieves. Also, the use of English accurately reflects eastern Nigerian society. Lastly, the broken English is used to produce a comedic effect.

f. The title of the story "Civil Peace" itself is ironical ............ ‘civil peace’ from ‘civil war’. Do you think that the title of this story is appropriate, or would “Civil War” have been a better title? Explain.

Achebe uses the title in iro to highlight the violence which is still present in a post-war Nigeria. Though the war has come to an end, the area is still chaotic and filled with disagreement. The war leaves a tremendous amount of destruction. Jonathan gathers up what he can to rebuild his life. Even, a group of thieves uses the term “civil peace” when they rob Iwegbu and his family. Moreover, the violence that was common during the war is not gone, and things are not much better for common people like Jonathan Iwegbu.

 

The story follows Jonathan Iwegbu who collects the fragments of his life after the end of the Nigerian Civil War. It praises the power of positive thinking through Jonathan's success. This shows that people are hopeful for a bright future after the end of the civil war. The writer thus gives more emphasis on civil peace than civil war.