Anthills Of The Savannah

Anthills of the Savannah

The novel Anthills of the Savannah is written by Chinua Achebe that takes place in the West-African state called Kangan. Kangan is an independent state that is ruled by a dictatorial president. Chris Oriko who is one of the two main characters is the Commissioner of Information in Sam’s Cabinet. Chris and Sam went to school and grew up together and became very close up until Sam gained power in Kangan. The other main character is Ikem Osodi who is close friends with Chris and studied together with Chris and Sam. Ikem writes editorials that are critical of the Kangan government and eventually gets both himself and Chris into trouble later on in the novel.

Anthills of the Savannah began with a cabinet meeting. When the meeting was done outside of the palace was a crowd of people from Abazon who were trying to get to meet the President. The president has caused them to suffer from drought due to shutting down the water-holes in the province. President Sam refuses to meet with the delegation of Abazon.

After the whole situation between the president and the delegation the president ordered Ikem to meet with the delegation to inform them that the president was far too busy and could not meet. Ikem became very respected by the Abozonians as the famous editor of the National Gazette. When Ikem left the delegation he was pulled over by the traffic police because of some misdemeanor. Later on it revealed that Ikem was being followed by the State Research Council agents who needed proof that Ikem visited the delegation in order to be able to accuse him of treason for siding with the rebellious Abazonians. Soon after the incident the president ordered the National Gazette to fire Ikem. At first the president wanted Chris Oriko to fire Ikem but Chris refused to. After Ikem was fired he made a speech at the University of Bassa. The next day his speech was quoted wrong in