ENGLISH REVIEW: Journal of English Education ISSN 2301-7554 
Vol. 4, Issue 2, June 2016  https://journal.uniku.ac.id/index.php/ERJEE 

SYMBOLIC AND PROPHETIC SYNTAGMAS IN CHINUA 
ACHEBE’S ANTHILLS OF THE SAVANNAH 

 
Omowumi Bode Steve Ekundayo 

Department of English and Literature, University of Benin, Benin City, Nigeria 
Email: ekuns20@yahoo.com 

 
Abiola Olubunmi Akinbobola 

Department of English, University of Lagos, Nigeria 
Email: abiola.akinbobola36@gmail.com 

 
APA Citation: Ekundayo, O. B. S., & Akinbobola, A. O. (2016). Symbolic and prophetic 

syntagmas in Chinua Achebe’s Anthills of the Savannah. English Review, 
4(2), 181-194 

 
Received: 19-02-2016   Accepted: 23-03-2016  Published: 01-06-2016 

 
Abstract: This essay discusses Achebe’s delineation of characters, events and use of 
language in Anthills of the Savannah (AS) as symbolic and prophetic syntagmas which later 
manifested in some real life personalities and socio-political phenomena in Africa and 
Nigeria, the setting of the novel. The primary source of data is Anthills of the Savannah. 
Secondary source and the internet were also consulted for the theoretical background and 
literature review. Grammatical structures and literary features were extracted and analyzed 
to show their associative and symbolic links with real life events which occurred after 1987, 
the year AS was published. The symbolic and prophetic syntagmas identified and their 
manifestations are presented with annotations in tables. The essay established that Achebe 
uses syntagmas of utterances, events, settings and characters to symbolize and foreshadow 
imminent events in the novel and socio-political occurrences in Nigeria and Africa, a feat 
which stands him out as a novelist with great prophetic insight and clairvoyance. 
Keywords: Achebe, AS, syntagma, prophetic, symbolic. Character 
 

 
INTRODUCTION  
Albert Chinua Achebe, who died on the 
21st of March, 2013, is Africa’s most 
celebrated novelist till date. AS is 
Achebe’s fifth novel. It is set in Kangan, 
an imaginary West African country, 
where Sam, “His Excellency,” a 
Sandhurst-trained military officer, has 
ceased power in a military coup. Achebe 
portrays the political anomy through the 
ordeals of three friends: Chris Oriko, the 
Commissioner for Information, Beatrice 
Okoh, Chris’ girlfriend who is also an 
official in the Ministry of Finance, and 
Ikem Osodi, a newspaper editor, critic 
and activist. Other characters include 
Elewa, Ikem’s girlfriend, and Major 

“Samsonite” Ossai, a military officer 
who is notorious for stapling his victims’ 
hands with a Samsonite stapler. Tension 
and conflicts culminate in the 
assassination of Ikem, toppling of the 
military junta, death of Sam and finally 
the sudden and unnecessary murder of 
Chris in a police check-point. The novel 
ends in the creative naming ceremony of 
Elewa and Ikem’s one-month-old 
daughter organized by Beatrice. The girl 
is named ‘Amaechina,’ a male name 
imposed on a female child, meaning 
‘may the path never close.’ 
The essay sets out to answer the 
following questions: 

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Omowumi Bode Steve Ekundayo &  Abiola Olubunmi Akinbobola 
Symbolic and Prophetic Syntagmas in Chinua Achebe’s Anthills of the Savannah 
 

(i) Are there utterances in AS that 
symbolize and forebode futurity 
and preempt future events? 

(ii) Are there characters in AS whose 
facsimiles later emerged in real 
Nigerian and African life after the 
publication of AS? 

(iii) Are there events and scenes in AS 
which later manifest in real 
Nigerian and African life after the 
publication of the novel?  

(iv) What are the implications of the 
symbolic and prophetic syntagmas 
for creative writing in general and 
Achebe in particular? 

The essay is based on Ferdinard de 
Saussure’s concept of syntagma and the 
literary concept of symbolism. Saussure 
(1966, p. 123) asserts that “in 
discourse,…words acquire relations 
based on the linear nature of language 
because they are chained together… and 
that “combinations supported by 
linearity are syntagm(a)s.” Saussure 
further says that “the syntagmatic 
relation is… based on two or more items 
that occur in an effective series”(p. 123). 
Saussure says that “the notion of 
syntagm(a)s applies not only to words, 
but to group of words, complex units of 
all kinds, lengths and types (compounds, 

derivatives, phrases, whole sentences)” 
(p. 124). Even though some terms in the 
definitions above are similar to syntax; 
for example, “combination of words” 
and “linear,” syntagma is not the same 
as syntax. Saussure says that “not every 
syntagmatic fact belongs to the syntactic 
class” (p.137) because syntax deals with 
how units combine in linearity. 
Syntagm(a)s do the same but they can be 
extended, as in the following extract: 

When you hear Ikem Osodi! Ikem 
Osodi! Everywhere, you think his 
head will be touching the ceiling. 
But look at him, how simple he is… 
(AS, p. 121)… ‘I never meet you 
before in person sir’ said the 
superintendent springing out from 
behind his massive wooden desk. 
‘Very pleased to meet you sir. I was 
expecting a huge fellow like this’ 
and he made a sign sideways and 
upward.  
‘No, I am quite small. Anyone who 
feels like it can actually beat me up 
quite easily.’ (AS, pp. 130-131) 

It is impossible to analyze this text as a 
whole syntactically except we fragment 
it into individual sentences and then 
analyze them one after another; for 
instance:   

 
 

S    V     C    S  V O 
I / am / quite small…, /Anyone who feels like it/can beat/me…’/, etc. 

 
 
However, in syntagmatic analysis, the 
whole structure can be analyzed as a 
syntagma, such that all the sentences in 

the text merge to form one unit, which 
delineates Ikem, as in the schema below: 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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Figure 1.A Schema of the Analysis of a Character Syntagma 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Because many linguistic units 

which are normally the limits of 
syntactic analysis can be found in one 
syntagma, Saussure states that syntactic 
facts fall under syntagmatic 
classifications. There is another part of 
syntagma which relates with meanings 
that derived from the structures or 
combinations of linguistic elements. 
Saussure calls them ‘associative 
relations’ (p.123). Richards, Platt and 
Platt (1992, p. 369) defines syntagma as 
“a structurally significant combination of 
two or more units in a language.” 
Crystal (2009) says that “in 
PSYCHOLINGUISTICS the term is 
sometimes used to refer to a set of 

associative response which people make 
when hearing a stimulus word…a 
syntagmatic associative response would 
be… car, …sheep following black” (pp. 
470-471), as in ‘a black sheep,’ ‘a black 
car,’ ‘a black man,’ etc. because the 
structure ‘---sheep,’ ‘---man’ can be 
collocatively or associatively completed 
with the words ‘black’ or ‘white’ 
respectively. Saussure and Crystal make 
it clear that a syntagma can stand as a 
symbol which calls to mind other 
meanings or associations. Here, the 
syntagmas have been given symbolic 
associations with historical events in real 
life, as shown in figure 2 below: 

 
 
 
 
 
 

When you hear 
Ikem Osodi… 

you will think his 
head will be 

  
 

 

But look at him, 
how simple he is. 

I was expecting a 
huge fellow like 

this… 

No, I am quite 
small. 

Syntactic unit 1 Syntactic unit 2 Syntactic Unit 3 Syntactic Unit 4 

All together 
generate a 

syntagma of 
Ikem,  a character 

  

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Omowumi Bode Steve Ekundayo &  Abiola Olubunmi Akinbobola 
Symbolic and Prophetic Syntagmas in Chinua Achebe’s Anthills of the Savannah 
 

Figure 2. A Schema of Associative Relations of Syntagmas 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Prophetic syntagmas in the sense 

of this essay are combinations of 
linguistic units and literary features in 
AS that correspond with events that 
occurred after AS was published. 
Sometimes, the meaning of syntagmas 
can be derived by reinterpretation, 
juxtaposition and association with 
something else. For example, in this 
essay, some symbolic syntagmas are 
identified based on a consideration of 
history, so that they are analyzed as 
prophetic syntagmas not necessarily 
because the structures on the surface 
depict them as such, but because they 
happened many years after they had 
been written in AS. 

There is a sense in which linguistic 
syntagma dovetails with symbolism. As 
a syntagma denotes or connotes 
something, a meaning, so does 
symbolism or symbol stand for 

something else. An on-line source 
(http://literarydevices.net/symbolism/) 
defines symbolism as follows: 

Symbolism is the use of symbols to 
signify ideas and qualities by giving 
them symbolic meanings that are 
different from their literal sense. 
Symbolism can take different forms. 
Generally, it is an object representing 
another to give it an entirely different 
meaning that is much deeper and 
more significant. Sometimes, 
however, an action, an event or a 
word spoken by someone may have a 
symbolic value. For instance, “smile” 
is a symbol of friendship. Similarly, 
the action of someone smiling at you 
may stand as a symbol of the feeling 
of affection which that person has for 
you. 
Symbols do shift their meanings 
depending on the context they are 

.   .  .  . . 

.   .  .  . . 

.   .  .  . . 

 

.   .  .  . . 

.   .  .  . . 

.   .  .  . . 

 

.   .  .  . . 

.   .  .  . . 

.   .  .  . . 

 

.   .  .  . . 

.   .  .  . . 

.   .  .  . . 

 

Syntactic unit 1 Syntactic unit 2 

 

Syntactic unit 3 

 

Syntactic unit 4 

 

Syntagma 
of Ikem, 

character in 
(A,S) 

Syntagma of  a 
true-life 

character:  Ken 
Saro-Wiwa. 

 

Associative Relationship 

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used in. “A chain”, for example, 
may stand for “union” as well as 
“imprisonment.” Thus, symbolic 
meaning of an object or an action is 
understood by when, where and 
how it is used. It also depends on 
who reads them. 

This definition agrees with Abrams 
and Harpham’s (2009) definition of 
symbol as ‘a word or phrase that 
signifies an object or event which in its 
turn signifies something, or suggests a 
range of reference, beyond itself… Often, 
they do so by exploiting widely shared 
associations between an object or event 
or action and a particular concept…’ 
Accordingly, in this paper certain 
linguistic structures: words, phrases and 
sentences, and some literary features: 
characters, events and settings are 
identified and analyzed as symbolic of a 
number of post-AS socio-political events 
and personalities in Nigeria and Africa.  

Now, we review some views 
related to the discussion of syntagmatic 
relation in language and art works, 
critical comments on AS and the 
deployment of language in AS.  In a 
work on the syntagmas of cinema, 
Adrian Miles (2000, p. 1) quotes 
Christian Metz, who is a pioneer in the 
use of this method, as follows:  

Christian Metz argued that the 
major mode of analysis for cinema 
(and by implication, hypertext) was 
based on syntagmatic relations, that 
is, meaning is principally developed 
and articulated through the 
expression of a partially 
autonomous temporary chain. 

‘Autonomous temporal chain’ here 
reminds us of the coming together of 
individual linguistic units in syntagmas; 
“for the significant narrative unit 
identified by Metz is not the shot (the 
hypertext node) or the relation of one 
shot to another (the edit), but is in fact 

the larger sequential units produced by 
the combinations of shots” (1). Miles 
underscores the aspect of associative 
relations which relates to meanings. 
According to him, “Metz’s work 
demonstrates the strongly contextual 
nature of these syntagmatic series… the 
success of Metz’s categories for 
hypertext lies not so much in their direct 
applicability but in allowing us to cast 
light on the role of syntagmatic segments 
in the production of meaning in 
hypertext” (1). Miles’ essay establishes 
that syntagmas have a context of usage; 
that is, their environment or situation. 
Syntagmatic segments have a role in the 
production of meanings. Metz and 
Miles’views of syntagmas correspond 
with our analysis in this essay, which 
shows that syntagmas are combinations 
of linguistic units and meaning-
generating segments. 

Anita Silvers (1991) applies 
“Revisionism” to analyze AS.” 
Revisionism “is the view that in valuing 
art, it is essential to understand (some) 
historical events which occur after a 
work was made…” (211). Silvers 
establishes that the knowledge of 
historical events could reveal that 
language has been used by a writer to 
discuss some events that will happen 
later. Accordingly, this essay shows how 
Achebe has used language and literary 
features to present some events that 
happened later.  Achebe’s literary 
prowess in this regard became 
established with his A Man of the People 
(1996). The novel chronicles series of 
socio-political anomies that culminate in 
a military coup. Indeed, shortly after its 
publication, the first military coup was 
executed in Nigeria. Umukoro (2009, 
pp.16, 22, 24) likens the incidents in A 
Man of the People to some real political 
events in Nigeria. Ekundayo and Iyayi 

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Omowumi Bode Steve Ekundayo &  Abiola Olubunmi Akinbobola 
Symbolic and Prophetic Syntagmas in Chinua Achebe’s Anthills of the Savannah 
 

(2012, p. 90) discuss the prophetic nature 
of Achebe’s AS:  

In Anthills of the Savannah, for 
example, Achebe presents the shape 
of things to come… the killing of 
Ikem, the hero, forecasts the hanging 
of Ken Saro-Wiwa ten years later…the 
birth of Amaechina, which in Ibo 
means ‘may-the-path-never-close’, 
foreshadows and symbolizes the rise 
of women to the foreground of 
politics and leadership in Africa and 
Nigeria. This literary forecast is being 
fulfilled in real African politics in the 
emergence of Johnson Sirleaf as the 
first female African President of 
Liberia (p. 90). 

It is noteworthy that their essay 
briefly presents the fulfilment of 
Achebe’s prophetic syntagmas. Little did 
Festus Iyayi, a fellow writer, activist, 
intellectual and Ken Saro Wiwa’s friend, 
know that he himself was going to be 
killed a year after his paper quoted 
above in about the same way in which 
Chris, a major Character in AS, was 
killed. Ekundayo and Iyayi’s essay only 
makes passing comments on the 
prophetic nature of AS using examples 
of two characters, Ikem and Amaechina 
while this study exemplifies ten 
characters and carries out an in-depth 
analyses of all of them in addition to 
those of settings, events and utterances. 

In a newspaper review, a critic says 
that Anthills of the Savannah is “a vision 
of social change that strikes us with the 
force of prophecy…” (USA Today). Here, 
there are clear references to the prophetic 
deployment of language by Achebe in 
AS. However, the article did not go 
further to identify and analyze the 
specific prophetic structures in the novel 
and how they have come to pass, as has 
been done in here. Ogiovoh (2005, p. 41) 
establishes that Achebe delineates 
Beatrice to give readers “prophetic 

insight into future events and issues”, 
but no mention of the events are made, 
as in this paper.  This paper analyzes the 
syntagmas of utterances, events, settings 
and characters for their prophetic 
relevance, paying attention to how these 
syntagmas have come to pass in the 
novel and in the larger society. In AS, 
Achebe’s deployment of utterances, 
events, settings and characters later 
correspond with the emergence of 
distant socio-political occurrences and 
personalities in Nigeria and Africa, a feat 
that marks Achebe out as a novelist with 
great prophetic insight and clairvoyance. 
 
METHOD 
The paper is basically qualitative. The 
primary source of data is AS from which 
language and literary features were 
extracted, analysed and juxtaposed with 
post-AS events and people in Nigeria 
and Africa in order to underscore their 
uncanny resemblance to each other. 
Secondary sources and the Internet were 
also consulted for literature review and 
comments on Achebe’s works. The 
method of analysis is descriptive and 
explanatory. Some of the syntagmas 
identified are presented in tables, 
matched with events and personalities 
that emerged on the Nigerian and 
African socio-political scene after the 
publication of the novel. 
 
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 
The prophetic and symbolic utterances 
are identified and analyzed from 
morphological and collocational or 
syntactic perspectives. The 
morphological angle looks at individual 
lexical items and utterances that are 
prophetic while the collocational or 
syntactic deals with phrases, clauses and 
sentences, in addition to a discussion of 
events and characters as symbolic 
syntagmas. 

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Name and Lexical Items as Prophetic 
Syntagmas 
Some names in AS possess prophetic 
qualities and undertones. Many of these 

names are in the Igbo language, a major 
Nigerian language. They are presented 
in the table below. 

 
Table 1: A Table of Names as Prophetic and Symbolic Syntagmas 

S/N Name Page Meaning Context Prophetic Relevance 
1 Nwayibuife 87 ‘A female is also 

something.’ 
Beatrice’s name at a time 
when her parents desired 
a male child. 

It underscores the 
importance of females who 
also possess the ability to 
rise up in the future. 

2 Nkolika 124 Recalling is 
greatest. 

 Ikem says that the name 
is sometimes given to 
daughters for the 
importance of the 
symbolic ‘story’: 
“because it is only the 
story that can continue 
beyond the war and 
warrior.” 

It is a call on a people to 
retrace their steps, look back 
and re-chart the course for 
progress. “For the story of a 
people outlives the people 
and will have to be told at 
any rate.” 

3 Shearjashub 222 The-remnant-
shall-return  

This is a biblical allusion 
to the book of Isaiah 7:3. 

The statement is a futuristic 
one depicting hope for Israel 
captives and now an 
indictment of Nigeria. 

4 Amaechina 22 May-the-part-
never-close 
(structurally, it 
is a future wish 
presented in the 
subjunctive 
present). 

Amaechina is the male 
name of Elewa and 
Ikem’sdaughter. 

Ikem stands for the struggle, 
truth and equality. The 
name forecasts the rise of 
women in politics: the path 
Ikem trod will not close. 

5 Agbata 208 This is the land 
where Chris 
was killed.  

 “…the land of 
droughts…the famous 
dusty and bustling 
market town of Agbata.”  

It foreshadows drought, 
lawlessness, anomy and 
political disorder as seen to 
exist in Nigeria in the past, 
present and in the future.  

 
Collocational/Syntactic Prophetic Syntagmas 

 
Table 2.A Table of Utterances as Prophetic Syntagmas 

 
S/N 

Example Page Structural Pattern Symbolic Relevance 

1 “We shall never be favoured 
with such an undeserving 
blessing as a ruthless 
dictator.” 

3 There is the use of 
‘shall’ in the first person 
to depict futurity. The 
verb phrase ‘shall never 
be favoured’ is the focal 
point of futurity. 

The statement is an irony. It is a 
prayer that underscores the 
possibility of the emergence of 
dictators in future, which the 
prayer forbids. 

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Omowumi Bode Steve Ekundayo &  Abiola Olubunmi Akinbobola 
Symbolic and Prophetic Syntagmas in Chinua Achebe’s Anthills of the Savannah 
 

2 “The future she saw 
unfolding so relentlessly 
before them would demand 
brutal courage not 
squeamishness, from the 
likes of Elewa and herself 
from now on.” 

170 The verb phrase ‘would 
demand’ denotes strong 
possibility and 
necessity. ‘From now 
on’ is a cataphoric 
reference to the 
continuum of the 
present and future. 

This anticipates the future active 
and courageous involvement of 
women in politics and the 
struggle for social change. 

3 “Don’t give up, whatever is 
hot will become cold.” 

199 It is presented in 
analytic truth, which is 
truth according to 
nature. Modal auxiliary 
(will) + lexical 
(become). 

The ‘mother bed-bug’ tells her 
children this when hot water 
was poured on them and they 
were about to give up. It 
symbolically or proverbially 
announces hope and imminent 
change from chaos to peace, 
from discomfort to comfort. 

4 “After the anthem shall 
have been played 
backwards.” 
 

 It is rendered in the 
future perfect to denote 
possibility. 

It forebodes a disruption or 
reversal of social and national 
order. 

5 “You young people, what 
you will bring this world to 
is pregnant and nursing a 
baby at the same time.” 

227 The above extract uses 
‘will’ to predict the 
future. 

It is a symbolic charge to the 
people not to underrate the 
young generation, a paradoxical 
utterance showing the 
unpredictable nature of the 
youths. 

6 “I want to remind you of 
that little discussion we all 
had after the Entebbe raid. 
You remember? You all said 
then, what a disgrace to 
Africa….remember…I said 
it could happen here. Right 
here.” 

15 It is presented in a 
conversational 
structure. The use of 
‘could’ depicts futurity 
and possibility. 

Here, Achebe’s character 
remembers a past event and says 
that it can happen again and it 
did happen, for history often 
repeats itself. 
 

 
Syntagmas 4, 5 and 6 are 

noteworthy here. The world that was 
ruled and controlled by a body of elders 
before has now come to be controlled by 
the youths who have become so 
innovative and trendy that they have 
succeeded in phasing out many stringent 
traditions. On the negative side, the 
youths have become restless, restive, 
violent, inordinate and unpredictable 
these days. Hence they are likened to a 
woman breastfeeding and yet pregnant 
at the same time. The National Anthem 
of Nigeria seems as though it is being 
played backwards. The next section 

examines symbolic and prophetic events 
and settings. 

 
Events and Settings as Symbolic 
Syntagmas 
Syntagmas of events, settings and 
characters are interwoven because events 
take place in a particular place and at a 
particular time, which is known as 
setting or locale. Characters instigate or 
initiate events which they complete or 
abandon in a literary work. However, 
character syntagmas are examined in 
sub-section (3.5).  

 
 
 

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Table 3.A Table of Events and Settings as Prophetic Syntagmas 
 

S/N Events Page Setting Symbolic/Prophetic implications 

1 A rich lady vomits on 
the back of a man and 
cleans it up with her 
expensive damask head 
tie. 

41 The beach where 
criminals are being 
executed before an 
excited crowd. 

It is symbolic and prophetic of the rich 
and wealthy people who have come to 
watch the downfall of the lowly ones 
being executed. The rich will also clean 
their mess at the expense of their wealth in 
public. 

2 The birth and naming 
ceremony of 
Amaechina. 

222 Beatrice Okoh’s 
house before his 
friends. 

It symbolizes/foreshadows the rise of 
women in politics and activism, as it is 
happening now all over Africa. 

3 Aina, Buraimoh’s wife, 
a Moslem, dances to 
Agatha’s Christian 
song, saying “dem talk 
sey make Moslem no 
dance when Christian 
de sing? 

224 Beatrice’s house, 
around the time 
Amaechina is born. 

This foreshadows the unity of Muslims 
and Christians. It is a rhetorical question 
that has future significance. It may come 
to pass one day. 

4 The coups in the novel. 222 Contexts of socio-
political power and 
national leadership. 

The coups foretells coup in Africa. After 
1987, the year AS was published, many 
coups took place and are still taking place 
in Nigeria and some other African 
countries. 

 
Characters as Prophetic/Symbolic Syntagmas 
Achebe in AS delineates characters whose facsimiles emerged later in contemporary 
events in Nigeria and Africa. First, we look at the major characters. 
 
Major Characters as Symbolic Syntagmas 
In this sub-section, major characters in the novel are analyzed for evidence of 
associative relationships with other personalities that have played up in real life after 
the publication of AS.  
 

Table 4.  A Table of Major Characters as  Prophetic Syntagmas 
S/N Character page Setting/context Prophetic Relevance 
1 Sam Many 

pages. 
In many scenes and 
events. 

Sam is a prophetic archetype of tyranny, visionless 
leadership and corruption for which African 
military and political leaders are notorious. 

2 Ikem Many 
pages. 

Many scenes and 
events. 

He is a symbol of truth, boldness, selflessness, 
martyrdom, etc. He has associative relations with 
the late Ken Saro-Wiwa. (See comments below). 

3 Beatrice Many 
pages. 

Many events and 
scenes. 

She symbolizes the rise of women. She has 
associative relations with Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, 
first female president in Africa, and many other 
great women emerging in Africa.   

4 Chris Many 
pages. 

Many events and 
scenes. 

Chris is a symbol of courage and martyrdom. He 
has associative relations, for instance, with the 
dastardly manner in which Professor Festus Iyayi 
was shot dead in a so-called road accident. 

5 Amaechina 222 She was born after 
the death of her 
father, the 

Amaechina foretells the rise of women. The name 
has associative relations with great African female 
leaders like Dora Akunyuli, Johnson Sirleaf and 

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Symbolic and Prophetic Syntagmas in Chinua Achebe’s Anthills of the Savannah 
 

protagonist of the 
novel,  at a time 
Kangan is in anarchy.  

many women who are now playing active roles in 
African politics and leadership. 

 
Comments on Major Characters as 
Symbolic Syntagmas 

Sam, the first character, is also 
known as ‘His Excellency,’ a military 
tyrant and President of the Republic of 
Kangan. Sam symbolises the past, 
present and future Nigerian and African 
so-called leaders. Many military and 
political leaders of Africa later on 
exhibited Sam-ism that is the concept, 
belief of and the fight to remain in power 
for ever. According Ekundayo (2002, p. 
41): 

General Sanni Abacha wanted to 
become life president and he was 
doing everything possible to achieve 
his ambition until God abbreviated 
his life and then Abdul Salami took 
over from him. The tactics of ‘His 
Excellency’ in the novel is prophetic 
of this later ambition by Babangida 
and Abacha.  

Apart from Babangida and Abacha 
in Nigeria, we also see facsimile of Sam 
in Samuel Doe, the first indigenous 
President of Liberia. Doe did all he could 
to force his reign on his people, but he 
was also murdered like Achebe’s Sam in 
the Liberian Civil War in September 
1990. Achebe prophetically reveals 
through Sam the tragedy of leadership in 
present-day Nigeria and Africa. “His 
Excellency came into power without any 
preparation for political leadership” (AS, 
p. 12). Similarly, many of our current 
leaders just happen upon their positions. 
They do not know the right step to take 
towards effective leadership. The same 
lackluster ideology, myopia, corruption 
at its acme and brigandage 
characterize/d all African military juntas 
and so-called democratic governments. 

Ikem in the text has an uncanny 
resemblance to Ken Saro Wiwa 
physically and ideologically. As at 1987, 
Achebe creates a character that 
foreshadows the emergence of another 
personality in Nigerian history in 1995. 
In Ikem, Achebe prophetically delineates 
Ken Saro Wiwa. Both Ikem and Ken Saro 
Wiwa share some physical features and 
professional attributes. For example, 
Saro-Wiwa is as short as Ikem. Ikem is a 
blunt and bold writer and a journalist 
who is on the side of the masses. 
Similarly, Ken Saro-Wiwa is a creative 
writer, television producer and activist 
who was bold and fearless in his attack 
on political anomalies. Achebe’s Ikem 
bears uncanny resemblance to Ken, a 
man who is selfless, embodying the 
Marxian direction of social change. He 
“satisfies the Marxist demand that 
intellectuals should follow their example 
and lose themselves amidst the masses… 
He champions the common cause in his 
editorials, keeps an affair with an 
illiterate woman and rides a decrepit 
car” (Owomoyela, 2002, p.  2) to 
associate with the masses. “It is through 
Ikem Osodi that Achebe explores the 
true role of the artist in the 
contemporary African society” who 
should have vision and “direct their 
society in the path that it should be 
heading” (Ojinmah, 1991, p. 99). 

Again, the way Ikem was 
eliminated in AS in 1987 forebodes and 
pre-describes Ken Saro-Wiwa’s death in 
Nigeria. For example, Ikem is first 
arrested and taken away: “In the early 
hours of this morning, a team of security 
officers effected the arrest of Mr. Osodi 
in his official flat… and were taking him 
in a military vehicle for questioning at 

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the SRC headquarters….”(AS, p. 169). 
Similarly, “Saro-Wiwa was arrested, 
hastily tried by a special military 
tribunal” 
(Wikipediaonlinekensarowiwa).Subsequ
ently, Ikem is killed unjustly in baffling 
and inscrutable circumstances:“Ikem 
was not just wounded but dead. He was 
convinced that the drafters of the 
government statement had deliberately 
chosen a phrase which was popularly 
misunderstood” (AS,p. 170). Ken Saro-
Wiwa, like Ikem, was also hanged 
precipitously on 10th November 1995. 
“Mr. Saro-Wiwa’s body was burned with 
acid and thrown in an unmarked grave” 
(Reuters, 2013) in the same way Ikem’s 
body is not found to be given a befitting 
burial. 

Both the extermination of Ikem in 
AS and Saro-Wiwa in Nigeria generated 
internal and external ferment and 
disaffection. For Ikem, Achebe writes 
that “before evening both systems, 
foreign and local, seemed set to start 
buzzing in the interest of the abducted 
man” (AS, p. 168). Also, for Saro-Wiwa, 
it is said that his “execution provoked 
international outrage and resulted in 
Nigeria’s suspension from the 
Commonwealth of Nations for over 
three years” (Wikipediaonline).In the 
light of this, Ikem is a prophetic and 
symbolic syntagma who showed up 
seven years later in Ken Saro Wiwa.  

Beatrice at different instances takes 
up male roles and succeeds in them: 
“She is possessed by a need to deliver 
her people… and in part to fulfill her 
own destiny within the new 
dispensation that she undertakes the 
naming of Ikem’s child” (Echeruo, 2013). 
In Liberia, a Beatrice emerged in Ellen 
Johnson who “set up the truth and 
reconciliation commission to promote 
national peace, security, unity and 
reconciliation by investigating more than 

twenty years of civil conflict in the 
country” (Wikipedia). She was able to 
resolve the unrest in Liberia and even 
won a Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts. 
Achebe in As remarks about women 
thus: “Let us keep her in reserve until the 
ultimate crisis arrives and the waist is 
broken and hung over the fire and the 
palm bears its fruit at the tail of its leaf. 
Then as the world crashes around man’s 
ears, woman in her supremacy will 
descend and sweep the shards together” 
(AS, p. 89). This is exactly what 
happened in Liberia and Nigeria with 
the likes of Professor Dora Akwuyili 
who at huge risk reformed the 
pharmaceutical industry in Nigeria.  

Achebe’s Chris is symbolic of a 
leader that would readily lay down his 
life for the helpless masses. As Ojinmah 
(1991, pp. 98-99) puts it “Chris was 
willing, even at the risk of his own life, to 
do the things he thought should be done 
such as protecting innocent civilians 
from the excesses of gun- trotting men in 
uniform.” Achebe uses him to symbolize 
the past, the present and the future life of 
courage and martyrdom that most 
freedom fighters, government critics and 
activists live. The fate of Chris in the 
novel keeps recurring at police and army 
road blocks in Nigeria. A recent 
manifestation is the catastrophic killing 
of Professor Festus Iyayi, former ASUU 
President and Commonwealth Literary 
Prize winner, in a similar circumstance 
on the Lokoja-Abuja road on the 12thof 
November, 2013. A police van in the 
Kogi State Governor’s convoy 
deliberately left its lane and rammed in 
on the ASUU (Academic Staff Union of 
Universities) bus in which Festus Iyayi 
and three other ASUU officials were 
travelling. According to Ebhomele (2013) 
in an online news report, “Iyayi died at 
66, in Lokoja, the Kogi State Capital, on 
his way to Kano for a meeting of the 

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Omowumi Bode Steve Ekundayo &  Abiola Olubunmi Akinbobola 
Symbolic and Prophetic Syntagmas in Chinua Achebe’s Anthills of the Savannah 
 

ASUU National Executive Council 
concerning the over-four months old 
strike embarked upon by the 
Union”(n.pag). Iyayi died in the 
motoring accident as claimed; however, 
his mortuary pictures later printed in the 
news magazine showed that he was 
mercilessly shot in the heart at close 
range just as Chris was shot too. 

Furthermore, Amaechina, the girl 
child newly born towards the end of the 
novel, embodies a deep prophetic and 
symbolic syntagma. Since traditionally, 
there are some roles which females are 

either not allowed to perform or 
presumed as not having the capacity to, 
Achebe creates a situation in which a 
female child is given Amaechina,a male 
name in the Igbo language meaning 
“may the path never close,” thereby 
conferring on the girl child all the 
attributes and potentials of a man.  
Minor Characters as Symbolic 
Syntagmas 
Few minor characters are identified and 
analysed as prophetic and symbolic 
syntagmas in table five. 

 
Table 5: A Table of Minor Characters as Examples of Prophetic Syntagmas 

S/N Names Page Setting/Context Associative Relations 
1 Mad  

Medico 
Many 
pages. 

He is a friend of Chris, Ikem 
and Sam who was deported 
in by the military junta in 
the novel. 

He has associative relations with Patrick 
Wilmot, the Sociology scholar whom General 
Babaginda (Nigeria Head of State, 1985-1993) 
claimed to be a spy and teaching subversive 
doctrines and so deported him in 1988, a year 
after AS was published. 

2 Elewa Many  
pages. 

She is the illiterate girl 
friend of Ikem and mother 
of Amaechina. 

She is a prophetic symbol of courage having 
associative relations with the masses and 
women coming into power. 

3 Agatha Many  
pages. 

She is the Beatrice’s 
housemaid who refuses to 
serve Elewa. 

She has associative relations with the masses at 
loggerheads with one another and hardly able to 
unite against bourgeois oppressions. 

4 Elewa’s 
Uncle 

226 He is the elder to name the 
newly born girl child, but 
before he could arrive, the 
youths had named her. 

He is a prophetic symbol of dying traditions and 
the rise of youths and modernism. 

5 The  
Masses 

Many 
pages, 

They are the students, taxi 
drivers, etc. who support 
Ikem and Chris. 

They are prophetic character symbols from 
whom good leaders, support, love and loyalty 
will be drawn.  

 
 
CONCLUSION 
The essay examined the prophetic 
syntagmas in AS using Ferdinard de 
Saussure’s concept of syntagma and the 
literary concept of symbolism as 
theoretical framework. The paper 
identified and analyzed some linguistic 
and literary syntagmas as symbolic and 
prophetic. The associative analysis of the 
syntagmas reveals striking replicas that 
manifested later in real life. The paper 
established that literature has the 

inherent power to predict and 
foreshadow with the apt deployment of 
language and literary features and that 
Achebe is a literary prophet who 
deployed his clairvoyant literary 
prowess to invest his characters, events, 
settings and grammatical structures with 
prophecies and symbolisms for Nigeria 
and Africa. The prophetic syntagmas 
used in the novel portray and confirm 
Achebe’s literary clairvoyance and 
prophetic insight. 

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