


































EXCELLENCY COOU JOFOCUS JOURNAL 2022.cdr


Cultural Violation Crimes and Punishment in Abani's 
Graceland and Adichie's Purple Hibiscus

Abigail Obiageli Eruaga
Department of English and Literature

Faculty of Arts, University of Benin, Nigeria
Emails: obiageli.eruaga@uniben.edu

abigail.obiageli@yahoo.com

&
Ethel Ngozi Okeke,

Department of English and Literary Studies
Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities

Enugu State University of Science and Technology, Enugu
Emails: ngoziokeke@esut.edu.ng

enoya22@yahoo.com

Abstract
Culture is the custom and social behaviour of a given community. 
Without culture man will have no control and will not be different 
from animals, and anarchy is inevitable. In order to avoid such, the 
rules of behaviour are obeyed by all and violation is visited with 
punishment. Besides the physical sanction exacted on offenders, 
the Igbos also believe in supernatural punishment of offenders. 
This is a situation when supernatural forces, also known as gods, 
avenge the transgressor. This usually happens when the offender is 
adamant to warnings. Supernatural punishment can manifest in 
diverse forms of misfortunes such as: death, madness, sickness, 
losses and so on. When this happens, people will conclude that the 
gods are afflicting the person or that the hands of the gods dealing 
with him/her. This essay focuses on cultural violation crimes and 
punishments in Chris Abani's Graceland(2004)and Chimamanda 
Adichie's Purple Hibiscus (2003). It adopts Toni Morrison's 
principle of “Ancestral Presence” and Irving Zietlin's concepts of 

“Crime and Punishment” to explore instances of cultural 
transgressions and sanctions in these two texts. It concludes that 
these two Igbo novelists promote Igbo cultural wholesomeness 
and preservation by their endorsement of punishments of its 
violators.

Keywords: Cultural violation, punishment, Igbos, novels 

Introduction 
The Igbos have a world view and culture that tilt towards 

egalitarianism. The community is bound by cultural rules the 
violation of which attracts some punishment for the offender. 
They place premium on peaceand order and recognise the 
importance of punishment in forestalling human viciousness, 
abuse and anarchy by powerful individuals. “As humans, our 
behaviors are guided in part by a set of social norms about morality 
that forms a basic part of our culture” (Maricopa.edu, n.p). 
Though the society has evolved into a modern one, the Igbo 
cultural morality remains etched in their social conducts such that 
when it is subverted, punishment is administered to the offender. 

Being a superstitious society, sanction is administered 
physically and supernaturally. Apart from physical punishment 
such as: exaction of fine, banishment, ex-communication 
(Okonkwo in Things Fall Apart),the Igbos believe that invisible 
beings known as gods also avenge acts of cultural violation, 
especially if the offender appears to be powerful, recalcitrant and 
heedless to warnings. In such cases, the aggrieved will seek 
vengeance from the gods by handing over such offender to the 
gods for exaction of punishment.: (Papa Nnukwu reports Eugene 
to the gods/ancestors in his daily morning prayers/ofo, for his 
apathy and callousness towards him Purple Hibiscus, 69-70).

Culture has to do with the belief and world view of a 

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Abigail Obiageli Eruaga & Ethel Ngozi Okeke: Cultural Violation Crimes &

Punishment in Abani’s Graceland & Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus

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mailto:obiageli.eruaga@uniben.edu
mailto:abigail.obiageli@yahoo.com
mailto:enoya22@yahoo.com


people and its violation is a grievous crime among the Igbos. 
Crime and punishment are terms that have attracted several 
definitions from different fields of study. According to Black's 
Law Dictionary, a crime is “[…] any act done in violation  of those 
duties which an individual owes to the community, and for the 
breach of which the law has provided that the offender shall make 
satisfaction to the public” (370). Law here refers to the unwritten 
law which is the rule that governs human behaviour among them. 

The Sociological scholar, Irving Zeitlin, sees crimes as 
acts that “are universally disapproved of by members of the 
society in question [because they] shock the collective 
conscience. A crime, therefore, is an act which antagonizes the 
powerful and well–defined sentiments of a collectivity'' (304). He 
defines punishment as “a powerful reaction against the offender, a 
form of vengeance which… enables the society to heal the wound 
inflicted upon it by the offender, restore its moral integrity and 
reaffirm its most fundamental values”(304).

What arises from the foregoing is that the act of cultural 
violation is an infraction against the community and its members 
and must elicit some punishment. It is pertinent to note that what 
one society may consider as a crime may not be so regarded by 
another society. This brings us to the questions of cultural 
diversities or differences. For instance, in India, the act of self-
immolation or setting oneself on fire to constitute what is known 
as a funeral pyre by the widow on the death of her husband, is 
neither regarded as a crime nor an offence in that society. 
Similarly, whereas a Yoruba man will regard it as disrespect when 
a younger person greets him without prostrating or genuflecting, 
an Igbo man will not be bothered about that because of their 
cultural differences. Our focus in this essay is on the Igbo speaking 
people of Nigeria

Ancestral Presence, Cultural Violation and Punishment
The African-American writer, Toni Morrison, makes a 

pertinent observation that applies to the examination of cultural 
violation and the punishment it portends for offenders. She 
identifies in the works of African and African-American writers 
the presence of what she calls the ancestors. She notes that these 
ancestors do not have to be only the biological parents of the 
characters but also some elderly people whose relationship with 
the characters helps the latter in several beneficial ways such as 
offering them protection, instruction, wisdom among others. 
Morrison posits that a character's attempt to rebel against this kind 
of nurturing and benevolent relationship between him/her and the 
ancestors spells the doom, destruction and negative end of such a 
character while the one that enters into such relationships always 
succeeds (“Rootedness, The Ancestors as Foundations…” 343).

According to her, relationship with the ancestors is a 
continuum the severance of which portends death and danger for 
any character in African and African-American authored works. 
This observation is true about the Igbo and most African cultures. 
Morrison submits: “… it seems to me interesting to evaluate Black 
literature on what the writer does with the presence of an ancestor, 
which is to say, grandfather […], or grandmother […], or a healer 
[….] There is always an elder there. And these ancestors are not 
just parents, they are sort of timeless people whose relationships to 
the characters are benevolent, instructive, productive, and 
protective, and they provide a certain kind of wisdom” (343). 
Furthering her argument, she submits:

What struck us in looking at some 
contemporary fiction was that whether 
the novel took place in the city or in the 
country, the presence or absence of that 
figure determined the success or the 
happiness of the character. It was the 

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Punishment in Abani’s Graceland & Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus



absence of an ancestor that was 
frightening […and] threatening, and it 
caused huge destruction and disarray 
[….], it seemed to be one of those 
interesting aspects of the continuum in 
Black or African American art […](343).

A close reading of Abani's Graceland and Adichie's 
Purple Hibiscus brings Morrison's submission home as it points 
us to characters who invoke destruction upon themselves by their 
failure to contract relationships with these elderly people for 
which reason they lose the wisdom, counsel, protection and 
instruction that accrue from them to guarantee their safety and 
fortune. Consequently, they transgress against their cultural 
values and freely walk into their doom. This argument gets clearer 
as the discourse unfolds.

Critical Receptions on the Novels    
Some scholars have offered critical insights into these 

texts. In his interrogation of Graceland, Benjamin Ohwovoriole 
dwells on the structure and characterisation, perceiving them as 
metaphors of neurological disorder. He identifies several medical 
neurological disorders such as: epilepsy, muscular dystrophy, 
Alzheimer's disease and so on, and equates these medical 
abnormalities with the condition of the Nigerian nation and her 
people. He postulates: “Basically, Chris Abani depicts Nigeria as a 
character with neurological flaws. Her children, the imaginary 
citizens that are the other characters that populate the text inherit 
some of these nervous system disease” (116). This critic aptly 
describes the graphic socio-political disorder in this work. Sita 
Maria Kattanek is concerned about the high violence content of 
the novel and its effect on Elvis, the young protagonist. Kattanek 
decries the humiliation and “degradation that Elvis 
experiences…”,and laments the general lack, poverty, hunger, 

corruption and exploitation that define the political regime of the 
time (428). On her part, Army Novak compares the human part 
hunt, commodification and the exploitative tendencies of the 
military to the era of slave trade and identifies the only difference 
between the two methods of dehumanisation to be the slight 
transformation of the style of operation of the version in 
Graceland. Novak notices “no end to colonialism” and asserts that 
it is “only a transformation of US and Europe policies and 
methods” that constitutes such difference. According to her, 
“conquest and slavery are replaced by the creation of a market” 
(35).

For Heater Hewett, Abani does not concern himself with 
the usual practice of blaming outsiders for Africa's socio-political 
predicament. In her view, this novel obviously does not write back 
to theEmpire in the classic fashion of postcolonial textualities”. 
But instead it dwells “[…] on Nigeria as a cultural, transitional and 
hybridised space […]” (22). Hewett's observation points to the 
conclusion that Graceland locates the cause of Africa's political 
maladministration within the continent itself and not in external 
forces. John Hawley not only includes Graceland among the 
African works that recount the Biafran war but also focuses 
attention on the telling consequences of violence on children (22). 
The critic is irked by the depth of violence which wars can 
wrought on a child's psyche and life after his juxtaposition of 
Graceland with other literary works on similar subject. The above 
observations about the novel are apt and insightful. However, they 
seem to be silent on the crime of cultural transgression and the 
sanctions attracted by the offenders, an aspect undertaken by this 
paper.

Some critics have also expressed their views on Purple 
Hibiscus from different perspectives. In his view, Kingsley 
Ugwuanyi believes that Eugene is not different from the 
colonisers who came to Africa for colonialism agenda under the 
pretext of evangelism. He considers Eugene to be a religious 

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fanatic with warped Western mentality, noting that he exploits the 
white/saintly and black/devilish paradigms to privilege Western 
culture above the African culture which he demonises in much the 
same way as he demonises his father. Ugwuanyi condemns him as 
a hypocrite who is deluded by religious fundamentalism (38).In 
her essay, “Narrating the Past…,” Louisa Egbunike addresses the 
text from the oral-historical perspective. She places the freedom 
fighting acts of Jaja side by side those of his historical namesake, 
Jaja of Opobo,and notes that Adichie's Jaja recognises that “in any 
liberation movement there will be casualties” (27). Egbunike's 
concern here is about the repetition of history as portrayed in the 
relationships between the historical Jaja and his literary double 
both of whom prefer casualty-ridden liberation struggle to 
repression. Jane Duran considers Adichie's representation of 
plausible characters as a rare feat and opines: “This feat is all the 
more noteworthy as the author refuses to indulge in platitudes; 
rather, she provides us with characters whose credibility is 
underscored by both their strengths and weaknesses” (45-6). 
Edgar Nabutanyi examines the relationship of Eugenewith his 
household, and accuses him of “…ritualized abuse of his 
family….” (73),while Iniobong Uko wonders what will “…make 
a mother [Beatrice/Mama] the bearer and nurturer of life, to be the 
one that terminates life” (57). Ahmed Maiwada debunks what he 
views as false critical claims concerning the source of the novel. In 
“Purple Hibiscus, Adichie's Debt to Achebe?” he challenges the 
submissions of Lamikanra and Osofisan both of which he states, 
establish the existence of parallels between Purple Hibiscus and 
Achebe's Things Fall Apart (n.p).

Niyi Osunbade interrogates it from a discourse analytical 
angle and observes that Eugene's claim to moral standard as seen 
in his editorial crusades against the tyrannical political regime of 
the time is only hypocritical. He advances Eugene's family life as 
the justification of his position and Osunbade avers that: “[…] his 

private life is as dictatorial and [as] abusive as the leaders whom he 
attacks” (140). Ogaga Okuyade empathises with Eugene's 
immediate family membershe recognises as the regular sites of his 
assaults, noting that he turns them to midgets and tosses them to 
any direction he chooses as a result of his religious bigotry (n.p). 
Lawal Olusola and Lawal Alabi occupy themselves with the 
mental and psychic torture to which Eugene subjects his family 
and conclude that this household lives “on [an] edge, walking on 
eggshells and sitting on a time-bomb, never knowing when he 
might snap and explode” (9).

In an essay, Tshilidzi Marwala opines that the 2020 
compulsory lockdown necessitated by Covid-19 brought men's 
violence against women to the fore. This is a very apt observation 
as violence against women is evident in our focal novels. This 
scholar recounts five female victims of femicide in South African 
society and posits: “As Africans face an invisible threat in the way 
of the coronavirus, our women face another perennial enemy-
violence at the hands of men” (n.p). Marwala's observation about 
the violence to which these South African women are subjected 
coheres with Beatrice's situation in Purple Hibiscus. It is pertinent 
to note that none of these critics explores the issue of cultural 
transgression and sanction in Purple Hibiscus. Consequently, we 
have elected to fill this gap and contribute to knowledge.

Instances of Cultural Violation and Punishment in the Novels
An exploration of Graceland reveals instances of acts that 

border on violation of Igbo cultural values. The Igbos believe that 
a child has the responsibility of taking care of his father/parents 
when he is grown and established as reflected in the proverb: “Nna 
zusia nwa, nwa azuba nna”. This presupposes that the father first 
owes his child the duty of care and nurture till the child grows to 
start catering for his father in the latter's old age in return. Mr. 
Sunday Oke, the father of Elvis, the novel's protagonist, violates 

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Punishment in Abani’s Graceland & Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus



Mr. Oke extends the same psychological torture to 
Beatrice's mother (Oye) who comes to nurse her ailing daughter. 
When Oye tries to call her son-in-law to order for his abnormal and 
unnatural behaviour, he retorts: “Shut up, witch, I am not afraid of 
you. When Oye reminds him of the need to mind his language 
because of the presence of some children around, the authorial 
voice reveals that, “He looked at her and raised his hand to strike 
her. It hang in the air between them as if he couldn't remember 
what he meant to do with it. With a sigh, he wiped his face” (43).

Mr. Oke's treatment of his sick wife and visiting mother-
in-lawrespectively contravenes the Igbo principles of nurturance 
and honour. The Igbos believe in caring for the sick and according 
honour and respect to one's in-law and elder. Apart from the fact 
that Oye is his mother-in-law, she is also much older than him. 
Besides, her presence in his home is more of service than for 
pleasure. It is an unthinkable offence among the Igbos to assault 
one's in-law and elder because they are revered as helpers and 
alternative parents. No wonder Mr. Oke's hand gets hanged in the 
air when he tries to strike Oye. This and other actions of his arouse 
the vengeance of the gods who visit him with death for violating 
the codes of human relationship.

For abdicating his filial duties towards Elvis, the only 
product of his marriage after Beatrice's death; for withholding 
love and care from his sick wife, and for dishonouring and 
insulting Oye, an in-law and elder, Mr. Oke invites supernatural 
punishment upon himself. The military regime gives a quit notice 
to the occupants of the premises in Maroko slum where Mr. Oke 
resides. All the tenants in the apartment quit except him. He 
remains adamant in the face of the demolition exercise even when 
the bulldozer driver and other workers warn him of the coming 
danger. He refuses to budge. Two supernatural presences: 
Beatrice's ghost and a totem, a talking leopard also appear to warn 

this cultural stipulation as he abandons Elvis at eight to fend for 
himself. His abdication of his paternal duties exposes Elvis to 
societal danger, abuse and neglect as he has to rent his own 
apartment and fend for himself at the tender age of eight. He 
dances at the Bar Beach disguised as Elvis Priestley and does other 
unconscionable things to eke out a living.For instance, Elvis 
wraps cocaine with Redemption (another character), conveys 
human parts for the Colonel; patronises night clubs where he is 
rented by rich prostitutes and makes friends with the society's 
miscreants (76).Consequently, he has no option than to renounce 
his family and embrace the alternative world of social vice offered 
him by Redemption (131-132). Finding no succor in his family, 
Elvis disowns it for the family and world provided by Redemption 
(188-189). Though this may not be a perfect alternative but at least 
it helps Elvis to put food in his stomach and raiment on his body 
unlike his father that abandons him to his fate in a wild city such as 
Lagos.

Mr.Oke is married to Beatrice, who few years after giving 
birth to their son Elvis, falls ill with breast cancer. Mr. Oke denies 
her care andeven the pleasure of listening to music which she does 
toassuage her excruciating pains. Regularly, he insults and 
disrespects his mother-in-law, Oye who moves into the house to 
nurse Beatrice, her sick daughter. Mr. Oke would yank the needle 
off the record thereby preventing his sick wife from enjoying the 
comforting music. He would also assault her mentally, psychically 
and emotionally by reminding her of how close she is to her death, 
having exhausted all her chemotherapy sessions: “The sicker 
Beatrice got, the more often she held …impromptu little music-
and-dance sessions. There were soda and cookies and smoked 
meat on the table[…] Then Sunday stopped by the Veranda. He 
stepped by the record player and yanked the needle off the record 
[…] “What is wrong with you people? What are you celebrating, 
your death?” (42-43).

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him to leave for his life but he heeds none.

Thus, the bulldozer sends “its metal blades cracking his 
chest like a timber box as it went into the wall of his home” (286, 
287). Mr. Oke's case depicts the danger in cutting off from the 
ancestors or refusing to establish relationships with them as 
Morrison observes in the preceding pages. Because he lacks such a 
flow with the ancestors represented by Oye and the supernatural 
presences, he is unable to recognise or discern their presence when 
they appear before him in the form of a totem and a talking leopard 
to issue him the danger warning. Consequently, he trades words 
with them, challenging them and boasting that they are the ones to 
die and not him and finally ends up in the metal blades of the 
bulldozer (286-287).As a result of his crime of transgressing 
against his cultural values such as: abandoning his son and heir, 
abusing his sick and helpless wife and insulting an elder and his 
mother-in-law, the gods give approval for his total destruction. 
They make him oblivious of the danger of the bulldozer and make 
him die off as punishment for his crimes. 

There are also instances of cultural violation in Purple 
Hibiscus. Eugene/Papaviolates his people's cultural values in his 
dealings with some characters. Though a wealthy only son, he 
willfully abdicatesfilial obligations of care towards his poor 
widowed father, Papa Nnukwu. Besides denying him affection 
and upkeeps, he forbids him from visiting his home and relating 
with his children. He creates a gulf-like contrast between his 
affluence and the penury that defines his father's existence, 
hinging his action on Papa Nnukwu's refusal to accept the white 
man's religion. In moments of extreme deprivation, the old man 
travels from his Abba home to Nsukka, to get momentary 
nurturance and care from his daughter Ifeoma, who manages with 
her two children on a meagre salary.

Overwhelmed by his son's contemptuous and despicable 
treatment, Papa Nnuwku laments hurtfully: “Nekeem […] my son 
owns that house that can fit in everyone in Abba [their village], and 
yet many times I have nothing to put on my plate” (83). By these 
acts of commission and omission, Eugene breaks the bonds of 
filial relationship as reflected in the Igbo maxims: “Nna zusia nwa, 
nwa azuba nna” and “Nwa bu ndo” respectively interpreted: “A 
child inherits the burden of caring and nurturing the father when 
he is established” and “Offspring is a shield”. The Igbos believe 
that children are their parents' hope of security, strength, care and 
nurture in their old and feeble age. 

It becomes shameful when a parent is blessed with 
children and still suffers in his/her old age the way Papa Nnukwu 
does. In Igbo society, this kind of attitude incurs the displeasure of 
both the parent of such an irresponsible and insensitive son and the 
entire community. This instant case is even worse because Papa 
Nnukwu is a lonely widower. By reneging on what is rightly his 
duties towards his father, Eugene betrays himself as a bastard and 
not a son. Eugene metes similar treatment to Pa Anikwenwa when 
he visits the village for Christmas. He bars Anikwenwa from 
entering his house for the same reason that Anikwenwa is not a 
Christian. This octogenarian is irked by such disrespectful 
behaviour and retorts: “Do you know that I am in your father's age 
group, gbo?” With a wounded heart, he prophetically pronounces 
some doom on Eugene: “Ifukwagi! You are like a fly blindly 
following a corpse into the grave” (69-70). Eugene loses the 
benefits he would have derived from contracting relationships 
with these ancestors exemplified in Papa Nnukwu and Pa 
Anikwenwa, thereby invoking “frightening threat” upon himself. 
By rebelling against such ancestral presence, he pitches his 
destiny with “destruction and disarray”, in the light of Morrison's 
framework of ancestral presence.

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Among the Igbos, a child belongsto the entire community 
and anyone old enough to sire him/her is regarded as the parent 
whose blessingsand curses have potent effect on that child. Such 
pronouncements are even more potent when they issue from 
elders and grey-haired ones who are believed to co-existwith the 
gods and ancestors in the same realm. Similarly, the prayers and 
wishes of one's biological parents have mysterious accuracy and 
potency on the offspring. Eugene's crime of paternal contempt, 
neglect and rejection make Papa Nnukwu to seek vengeance in the 
gods and ancestors against his obstinate son in his morning 
ofo(prayer) routines:“Chineke! Those who wish others well, keep 
them well. Those who wish others ill, keep them ill” [But for his 
caring daughter, Ifeoma, he prays] “My spirit will intercede for 
you […] when I join my ancestors” (166, 83). A widower such as 
Papa Nnukwu with a wealthy son like Eugene is not supposed to 
subsist the way he is left to do and this wounds him deeply. Thus, 
his pain is rolled up in his intercessory prayer and resignation to 
the ancestors, who aresharing in the realm of gods, to avenge for 
him.

Eugene'scultural violationextends to his wife, Beatrice 
and children: Kambili and Jaja, for allof whom he embodies a 
monster and molester. As a patriarchal society, the culture may not 
frown at him for always beating his wife and children without 
provocation but it holds him accountable for the crime of murder. 
There are incidents of his targeting Beatricewhen battering her in 
such a way as to make her have a miscarriage even when he knows 
that she is desirous of having more children. One of such incidents 
as relayed by Kambili in this hair-raising excerpt suffices:

[…] I heard the door open. Papa's 
gait on the stairs, sounded heavier, 
more awkward than usual. We 
stood at the landing and watched 
Papa descend. Mama was slung 
over his shoulder like the jute sack 

of rice […] we cleaned up the 
trickle of blood, which trailed away 
as if someone had carried a leaking 
jar of water colour all the way 
downstairs (32-33).

Beatrice loses the pregnancy and is hospitalised for some 
days. To underscore the enormity of the loss and her devastation, 
the authorial voice captures her mood: “Her eyes were vacant, like 
the eyes of those mad people who wandered around the roadside 
garbage dump” […] “There was an accident, the baby is gone, she 
said” (34).

Going by Eugene's crimes, the gods approve that he should 
exit the scene through death. When she can no longer bear his 
tyranny and brutality, Beatrice procures some poison to eliminate 
him. As a proof that the gods are in agreement, even when she 
confesses to the crime the police are unwilling to prosecute her 
which is quite unlike the case in Igbo society. If his death is not a 
punishment from the gods, Beatrice will be made to pass through 
grievous ordeals in the hands of the umuada, especially when she 
confesses to the crime. But the gods close everyone's mind and 
exact punishment on Eugene for dishonouring his father and 
murdering his unborn children whose miscarriages he provokes. 
For rebelling against the ancestral presence by refusing to 
cultivate relationships withPapa Nnukwu and Pa Anikwenwa, 
Eugene's doom is determined from the onset.Consequently, Pa 
Anikwenwa's prophecy comes through because in the Igbo 
worldview, parental neglect incurs sanctions from the gods and 
finds expression in the Igbo proverb: “Nwata tulie nna ya elu, 
ogodo nna ya ayochie ya anya,”meaning that a child who 
dishonours his father invites destruction upon itself.

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no 1, 2005, pp. 73-98.
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Conclusion
From the foregoing discussion, it is evident that the Igbo 

society places much premium on honour and respect for parents 
and the elderly and on the execution of responsibilities towards 
one's children and close family members. Murder, disrespect, duty 
abdication and other unconscionable behaviours are acts of 
cultural violation, which are punishable by the gods. Maintaining 
a close relationship with elderly people confers some wisdom that 
is useful for successful existence and people who shun this usually 
end badly. These are evident in the fates of Mr. Sunday Oke and 
Eugene Achike in Graceland and Purple Hibiscus, respectively.

Works Cited

Abani, Chris. Graceland. Picador, 2004.

Adichie, Chimamanda. Purple Hibiscus.Farafina, 2006.

Black's Law Dictionary. Garner Ed. St. Paul M N: Thomson 

Reuters. 2014. 
Duran, Jane. “Adichie and the West African Voice: Women and 

Power in Purple Hibiscus Ed. Ernest N. Emenyionu. A 
Companion to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.James Currey 
2017, pp. 45-55.

Egbunike Louisa Uchum. “Orality History and the Production of 
knowledge in the Works of Chimamanda Adichie.'A 
Companion Chimamanda Ngozi  Adichie. Ed. Ernest 
N. Emenyonu. James Currey, 2017, pp. 15-29.

Hawley, John. Biafra as heritage and symbol: Adichie, Mbachu 
and Iweala. Research in African  Literature  [online] 39 
(2).15-16.  h � p : / / m u s e . j h u . e d u / j o u r n a l s / 
researchinafrican_ literatures/v039/39.2.hawley.pdf, 2 
December, 2008.

Hewett, Hetter. “Coming of Age: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and 
the Voice of the Third Generation”.English in Africa,vol. 3 2, 

COOU JOFOCUS: COOU Journal of Folklore and Cultural Studies, Vol. 2, No. 1, 2022
Abigail Obiageli Eruaga & Ethel Ngozi Okeke: Cultural Violation Crimes &

Punishment in Abani’s Graceland & Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus

http://www.maricopa.edu
http://www.voices360.com/lifestyle/chimamanda-ngozi-adichie%20on%2030/8/21
http://www.voices360.com/lifestyle/chimamanda-ngozi-adichie%20on%2030/8/21
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/%20researchinafrican_%20%09literatures/v039/39.2.hawley.pdf
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/%20researchinafrican_%20%09literatures/v039/39.2.hawley.pdf


  Christopher Anyokwu (PhD): Saints of Lucre, Salesmen of Faith: Denouncing Prejudice 
                  & Exploitation in Wole Soyinka’s “Samarkand and other Markets I have Known”

17 18

Saints of Lucre, Salesmen of Faith: Denouncing Prejudice and 
Exploitation in Wole Soyinka's “Samarkand and Other 
Markets I Have Known”

Christopher Anyokwu, PhD
Department of English

Faculty of Lagos,
Nigeria.

Abstract

Wole Soyinka in this poem-sequence goes, hammer and tongs, to 
the roots of prejudice and exploitation, two of the greatest societal 
ills threatening the fragile and delicate fabric of society in 
contemporary times.  Deploying the ancient city of Samarkand as 
leitmotif in this poem-sequence, Soyinka brings a lifetime of 
mastery of the poetic art to bear on the subject of ideological 
obfuscation and religious fundamentalism which have all but 
reduced the “marketplace” (read: the World) to rack and ruin.  
Preaching the countervailing sermon of the “primal sanctity of 
man”, Soyinka recommends a neo-traditionalist, return-to-
sources strategy exemplified by the Yoruba Ifa moral-cum-
spiritual compass as the redemptive path to universal 
understanding and healing.  In this paper, I examine the foregoing 
thematics through a close reading of this single poem and 
conclude, with the poet, that, a return to the salvific imperative of 
animist metaphysics will heal the world.

Keywords: Prejudice, Exploitation, Religion, Ideology, 
Samarkand, Marketplace

Ugwuanvi, Kingsley. "Western Mentality and Emasculation in 
Chimamanda Adichie's Purple Hibiscus.Journal of the 
Literary Society of Nigeria (JLSN), vol 3, no 1, 2011, pp. 
35-44.

Uko, Iniobong I. “Reconstructing Motherhood: A Mutative 
Reality in Adichie PurpleHibiscus”. A Companion to 
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.Ed. Ernest N. Emenyonu. 
James Currey, 2017. 57-71.

Zeitlin, Irving. The Social Condition of Humanity: An 
ndIntroduction to Sociology,  2  edition.1981, OUP.

COOU JOFOCUS: COOU Journal of Folklore and Cultural Studies, Vol. 2, No. 1, 2022


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