Summary

In an unnamed African country in the mid-1960s, a politician referred to as Chief Nanga makes a visit to his home village of Anata. The narrator of the book, a young teacher named Odili, remembers Mr. Nanga was his teacher many years ago. However, Odili now believes Mr. Nanga is corrupt, and Odili looks with contempt at the villagers who are making a great fuss over Mr. Nanga’s visit. Odili makes fun of the school’s principal, Mr. Nwege, who was trying to make a big deal of his support for Chief Nanga in hopes of being given a civil service position.

Odili recalls how he had become disillusioned in 1960 when the Prime Minister of the country refused to cut coffee prices, a move recommended by economic experts for the good of the country, because it would make him unpopular with coffee growers and...