The Nation, April 16th, 1988
ANTHILLS OF THE SAVANNAH
In "Civil Peace," a story he wrote seventeen years ago, Chinua Achebe noted how the violence of civil war inevitably outlives the actual conflict, and barely pausing for breath, extends itself into peacetime. As a band of thieves threatens the protagonist's family with automatic rifles, the leader dwells for a moment on this fine distinction:
Awrighto. Now make we talk business. We no be bad tief. 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?
Anthill...
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