Novel: No Longer at Ease

Overview

No Longer at Ease follows Obi Okonkwo, a young Nigerian who returns home after higher education in England and takes a post in the colonial civil service. Caught between the values he absorbed abroad and the expectations of family and community, Obi struggles to reconcile modern ideals of integrity and professional responsibility with persistent traditional obligations and the endemic corruption of the bureaucracy. The novel tracks his gradual moral unraveling as social pressures, love, and financial demands close in.
Achebe situates Obi within a generation that inherits both the shadow of colonial rule and the legacy of precolonial society. The narrative explores personal choices against broader historical forces, portraying how systemic corruption, communal debts, and cultural prejudice interact to shape an individual's fate.

Plot and Characters

Obi Okonkwo, proud of his scholarship and education, returns to Nigeria optimistic about serving his people and effecting change through the civil service. He soon encounters petty graft and widespread expectation that officials will use their positions to redistribute wealth to relatives and patrons. Obi resists at first, conscious of his duty and reputation, but family crises, loans from the Umuofia Progressive Union and obligations to his aging parents strain his resources.
Romantic tensions complicate Obi's life. He falls in love with Clara, a strong-willed woman who is an osu, or social outcast under certain Igbo traditions. Their relationship faces disapproval from Obi's family and community. As financial pressures mount, medical bills, social demands, and the cost of maintaining status, Obi begins to rationalize small acts of compromise. The story builds toward his acceptance of a bribe and the legal consequences that follow, leaving his career and ideals in ruins and his future uncertain.

Themes and Context

The novel concerns the collision of tradition and modernity, examining how colonial institutions and indigenous social structures produce a moral landscape fraught with contradictions. Obi's predicament illustrates tensions between communal obligations and the ethos of individual integrity promoted by Western education. Achebe shows that corruption is not merely a moral failing but a product of economic scarcity, social expectation, and institutional weakness.
Racial and social prejudice also surface through Clara's status as an osu and the lingering cultural judgments that complicate private life. The narrative connects personal failure to systemic realities: colonial administration, the patronage economy, and the community's dependence on the success of educated sons. Family loyalty and debt recur as decisive forces, demonstrating how obligation can erode principled resistance.

Style and Significance

Achebe writes with controlled irony and keen social observation, blending realistic detail with moral judgment and occasional humor. The prose captures both public institutions and intimate conversations, rendering the bureaucracy's petty rituals as vividly as the rituals of village life. The novel's tone balances sympathy for Obi's aspirations with a clear-eyed critique of his compromises.
No Longer at Ease functions as a bridge between the precolonial past dramatized in Things Fall Apart and the postcolonial challenges that would follow. By focusing on a descendant of Okonkwo, it traces a cultural trajectory across generations, showing how historical change reshapes identities and moral choices. The novel remains a powerful study of how systemic pressures and personal desires interact to determine the course of a life.