Focalizing Chinua Achebe’s no longer at ease: mitigating and aggravating factors in Obi Okonkwo’s corruption scandal

Mensah Adinkrah; Hannah A. Adinkrah

doi:10.21744/ijllc.v7n5.1011

Authors

Mensah Adinkrah
adink1m@cmich.edu
Central Michigan University, United States
Hannah A. Adinkrah Central Michigan University, United States

Keywords:

Chinua Achebe, corruption scandal, criminological concepts, focalizing, mitigating and aggravating factors

Abstract

This essay employs criminological concepts to examine a corruption scandal in No Longer at Ease, a fictional work by the illustrious African writer, Chinua Achebe. The essay concludes from an examination of myriad contextual factors that Obi Okonkwo’s bribe-taking act was precipitated by a conglomeration of unfortunate events that dogged the auspicious life of a young college graduate. Rather than categorically chastise Obi Okonkwo for economic malfeasance, one must consider the context—the multiple competing financial demands that he was saddled with, coupled with the difficult social and cultural situation he was embroiled in. Unlike some notorious bribe-takers elsewhere who demand or accept money with impunity to indulge in extravagant displays of opulence, Obi Okonkwo took bribe money primarily to defray pressing financial obligations towards family and to maintain a lifestyle that was forced upon him by the arrant expectations of his society. He succumbed to the crime only after refusing numerous bribe offers and only after engaging in torturous calisthenics with his conscience, a process known in criminology as techniques of neutralization.

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