38 pages • 1 hour read
Chinua AchebeA Man of the People
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1966A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapter 7-8Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 7 Summary
Chapter Seven begins after the exhibition, when Jalio and the editor of the Daily Matchet approach Chief Nanga and ask for a copy of his speech, offering him compliments. Odili reflects on having met the editor a few days ago at Nanga’s. He’d come because he had information that he was withholding to protect Nanga’s interests. Both men found the editor insufferable: he ate and drank too much, and told stories they didn’t care about. Nanga ended up giving him five pounds after he complained about being late in paying his rent. After he left, Nanga suggests to Odili that the five pounds was a bribe of sorts, to keep the editor from publishing trash about him. He then says that he doesn’t mind criticism from the press, if it is constructive—but he says it’s not. After Nanga’s speech, the editor promises to print it on the front page.
Nanga, Odili, and Elsie leave in the limo. Odili compliments Nanga’s speech and fondles Elsie. Back at Nanga’s house, Nanga has Elsie’s belongings brought to Mrs. Nanga’s room. Odili is angry at first, but then decides it’s best, for the sake of decorum. He plans to go up to her room after dinner to collect her, so that they can sleep together in his room downstairs. After supper, though, Nanga rereads the speech he gave earlier in the evening, and Odili becomes angry that he will not retire. An hour later, he finally goes to bed.
When Odili goes upstairs, he hears voices in Elsie’s room and becomes embarrassed. He leaves, but is about to double back when he hears her cry out his name. He returns to his room and packs a suitcase, feeling indignant. He waits in the sitting room, expecting that she will come downstairs. He imagines she will feel ashamed for having succumbed to Nanga, and Odili plans to kick her out of the house. He falls asleep and when he wakes, he realizes she never came downstairs. He suppresses tears and leaves the house, wandering the streets of Bori for hours.
When he returns, Nanga asks where he was. They argue and Odili tells Nanga never to speak to him again. Nanga apologizes and promises other women to Odili, but they argue more and Odili collects his belongings and leaves, though not before seeing Elsie. She doesn’t speak to him. Odili goes to the house of his friend Maxwell Kulamo. They laugh together and Odili decides that he is happier there, and shouldn’t have gone to Nanga’s house at all.
Chapter 8 Summary
In Chapter Eight, Odili makes some important decisions. First, though despondent at the idea that there is nothing he can do against Nanga, who is protected by his position and a body guard, Odili determines that he does have recourse: he is going to sleep with Edna, Nanga’s intended second wife, to get back at him. He decides this is something he not only can do, but must do, in order to defend his injured pride.
He tells Max about what happened between Nanga and Elsie, omitting certain details “not only because I was anxious to play down my humiliation but even more because I no longer cared for anything except the revenge” (73). The details don’t matter to him anymore—all that matters is the insult and what he plans to do about it.
Odili is then presented with another important decision: He is invited to become a founding member in a new political party, the Common People’s Convention. He goes to a meeting with Max, as the founders are friends of Max’s, and decides he will join. He thanks them for accepting him but remarks that it is odd that a group named for the common people is made up of professionals. They assure him that this is only because their party is in the planning stages, and that they intend to include both workers and the unemployed. One lady says, “the great revolutions of history were started by intellectuals, not the common people” (75). Odili seems pleased with this answer and Max is grateful for his diligence. Max tells the others that Odili’s nickname in school was “Diligent.”
After the meeting, Max tells Odili that they will not win the next election but that they must build the party up. Odili asks where they will get the money. Max says they will get enough to run an election, leaving bribes to the other parties and bringing to light their corruption. Max reads a poem he’d written seven years ago, at the start of their country’s independence, and they are both saddened because it was so full of hope, yet the government is so full of dirty politics. Later, Max invites Odili to be an organizing secretary for the Common People’s Convention, and he agrees. Odili then learns that a junior minister in the government was behind the formation of the new party. He wants the party to start free from corruption, but Max convinces him that not only would a minister not want to resign because of massive cuts in salary, but that it’s useful having someone on the inside.
Chapter 7-8 Analysis
In these two chapters, the situation between Odili and Nanga begins to crumble. This shift begins when Nanga sleeps with Elsie. Since the other girl Odili invited—a woman who is not even given a name because Odili considers her so beneath his knowing it—Nanga seeks entertainment with Elsie. This angers Odili, who insults both of them and ultimately leaves.
There are some interesting points to observe where the relationships between men and women are concerned in these two chapters. When confronted by Odili, for instance, Nanga insists that he only slept with Elsie because Odili said he and she weren’t in a serious relationship. Additionally, though he doesn’t say as much, Nanga waits in the sitting room for an hour, reviewing a speech he’s already delivered, waiting to see if Odili will go upstairs to Elsie’s room. Since he doesn’t, Nanga takes the opportunity to be with her.
When Odili hears Elsie cry out his name, he assumes Nanga is forcing himself on her, but does not go to her aid. Instead, he sits and broods, fantasizing about how she will come to him, traumatized, and how in response he will send her away. He considers her sleeping with Nanga—whether or not she invited his attentions—a betrayal, and imagines imposing a severe punishment on her.
This tells the reader that Odili is more like Nanga and Koko than he might like to admit. Nanga insisted that the former Cabinet members be executed for betraying their country, even though the betrayal was the prime minister’s doing. Koko was ready to kill his cook when he thought himself poisoned. Odili’s lack of respect for the opposite gender fuels his gradual transformation as he becomes more like the men he despises, and while he is not so far gone that he cannot redeem himself, he doesn’t see this transition taking place at this time.
He turns to his friend, Max, who brings him into a new political party. There are two problems, however. Odili’s motivation to succeed politically has little to do with actually helping the people. Rather, he wants to unseat Nanga, to exact revenge. He considers Nanga’s behavior with Elsie to be a betrayal, and wants to deliver punishment as vengeance. The other problem with this new political party, which Odili briefly touches on, is that it can’t connect to the common people. During a meeting, one of the members briefly speaks pidgin, but stops and apologizes for it. The language of the conversation then returns to English. The members of this party are not willing to speak pidgin, which implies that they are not willing to speak to the common people.
Yet Odili is still sensitive to any perceived corruption. When Max tells him they’re working with a junior minister in the government, Odili insists at first that they should not, that it will tarnish their party’s image. Max points out that this man has given him useful information, and Odili relents, but he is uneasy over the matter.
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