The Rise and Fall of a Dictator
In consideration with dictatorship, there are many related parallels between other dictators of actual historical periods and, Sam, the fictional West African President of Kangan. Through Sam’s development of becoming a military dictator, the many similarities of the power hungry tyrants that build governments based upon military and un-morally just thinking is all too relevant as the Anthills of the Savannah matures. But like anything that matures and ages, eventually bacteria driven entities begin to eat there way through the living matter, and slowly but surely anything healthy will rot and die. There are two main dictators, one being Idi Amin from Uganda in which Achebe seemed to model his portrayal of Sam, and the other being Robert Mugabe who became Zimbabwe’s first president and is a very realistic portrait of Sam from 1980 to modern day society. I would like to make a comparison on how all three dictators, both fictional and non-fictional, transformed from a previous neutral state of mind into something that has affected or is still affecting today’s and the book’s society catastrophically.
There is a specific mindset that is ever flowing through the thinking of the people that reside loyally under a dictator, believing in no other reasoning other than military power “military life attracts two different kinds of men: the truly strong who are very rare, and the rest who would be strong. The first group make magnificent soldiers and remain good people hardly ever showing let alone flaunting their strength. The rest are for the swank.” (Achebe, 46) it is in this type of thinking that all three dictators have run their countries. The dictators think not of their people, but only for themselves. Because the Abazonian people did not entirely vote for Sam in the election, it seems to spite them, he does not build an absolutely necessary well, and so because of that the northerners are in a greater drought the ever before. Not so much for pride, but to simply showcase that he has absolute power over these people and he can control whether they live or die over something as simple as water. Sam may have not have been as ruthless as the real dictators that have come and gone in the non-fictional world like Idi Amin who’s reign was marked by brutal repression, torture and his military forces killing over 300,000. But if he had been given the chance, there is no doubt he would have transformed into The Next King of Scotland.
There is a level of thinking, whether brought on by background or something completely institutionalized from family upbringing, whatever it was, their moral and empathetic mental saneness is definitely eradicated. However, should we ever blame the citizens for letting these oppressors, these butchers take over? There are those who support these leaders who annihilate the lives of many, without a second thought “Our present rulers in Africa are in every sense late-flowering medieval monarchs, even the Marxists among them. Do you remember Mazrui calling Nkrumah a Stalinist Czar? Perhaps our leaders have to be that way. Perhaps they may even need to be that way.” (Achebe, 76) these people who support the dictators and ruthless leaders believing that it is for the greater good, and worth the sacrifice of few morbid deaths. It seems both consciously and unconsciously wrong on so many levels and yet the events of killings under these bastard child leaders still go on today.
In both Anthills of the Savannah and real life, the media stations are taken over by these dictators, and freedom of speech is eliminated. Any critic that went against the government and the president was dismissed as “traitors and sell-outs” and either exiled like Mad Medico, or killed like Ikem and Chris. Until the dictator is either dead or exiled himself, the people will never be free. It is only in the hands of the people to rise above the government and to do what is right, to form in numbers and to overcome evil. It is not always on the shoulders of the leader to do what is just for their people, but it is up to the people to know the difference and to set the leader straight when they get out of line. Like Ikem said, it is up to the people to understand and to educate themselves on the matters that intertwine and intervene in their daily lives and for the future. To take action when they feel it is necessary. The government should be there for the people, by the people, never against them, but it hardly seems likely that this will ever be a worldwide phenomenon. There seems no logical reasoning as to why these dictators become the way they do, but unless there are people to stand against them through knowledge and justice, they, like the cicadas that linger on in the tops of trees only to awaken to unsheathe their unwanted shells, will never stop their covering reign down upon the streets of the benevolent man.
Work Sited: http://abesha.wordpress.com/2008/01/31/top-12-africas-worst-dictators/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-16010171
In consideration with dictatorship, there are many related parallels between other dictators of actual historical periods and, Sam, the fictional West African President of Kangan. Through Sam’s development of becoming a military dictator, the many similarities of the power hungry tyrants that build governments based upon military and un-morally just thinking is all too relevant as the Anthills of the Savannah matures. But like anything that matures and ages, eventually bacteria driven entities begin to eat there way through the living matter, and slowly but surely anything healthy will rot and die. There are two main dictators, one being Idi Amin from Uganda in which Achebe seemed to model his portrayal of Sam, and the other being Robert Mugabe who became Zimbabwe’s first president and is a very realistic portrait of Sam from 1980 to modern day society. I would like to make a comparison on how all three dictators, both fictional and non-fictional, transformed from a previous neutral state of mind into something that has affected or is still affecting today’s and the book’s society catastrophically.
There is a specific mindset that is ever flowing through the thinking of the people that reside loyally under a dictator, believing in no other reasoning other than military power “military life attracts two different kinds of men: the truly strong who are very rare, and the rest who would be strong. The first group make magnificent soldiers and remain good people hardly ever showing let alone flaunting their strength. The rest are for the swank.” (Achebe, 46) it is in this type of thinking that all three dictators have run their countries. The dictators think not of their people, but only for themselves. Because the Abazonian people did not entirely vote for Sam in the election, it seems to spite them, he does not build an absolutely necessary well, and so because of that the northerners are in a greater drought the ever before. Not so much for pride, but to simply showcase that he has absolute power over these people and he can control whether they live or die over something as simple as water. Sam may have not have been as ruthless as the real dictators that have come and gone in the non-fictional world like Idi Amin who’s reign was marked by brutal repression, torture and his military forces killing over 300,000. But if he had been given the chance, there is no doubt he would have transformed into The Next King of Scotland.
There is a level of thinking, whether brought on by background or something completely institutionalized from family upbringing, whatever it was, their moral and empathetic mental saneness is definitely eradicated. However, should we ever blame the citizens for letting these oppressors, these butchers take over? There are those who support these leaders who annihilate the lives of many, without a second thought “Our present rulers in Africa are in every sense late-flowering medieval monarchs, even the Marxists among them. Do you remember Mazrui calling Nkrumah a Stalinist Czar? Perhaps our leaders have to be that way. Perhaps they may even need to be that way.” (Achebe, 76) these people who support the dictators and ruthless leaders believing that it is for the greater good, and worth the sacrifice of few morbid deaths. It seems both consciously and unconsciously wrong on so many levels and yet the events of killings under these bastard child leaders still go on today.
In both Anthills of the Savannah and real life, the media stations are taken over by these dictators, and freedom of speech is eliminated. Any critic that went against the government and the president was dismissed as “traitors and sell-outs” and either exiled like Mad Medico, or killed like Ikem and Chris. Until the dictator is either dead or exiled himself, the people will never be free. It is only in the hands of the people to rise above the government and to do what is right, to form in numbers and to overcome evil. It is not always on the shoulders of the leader to do what is just for their people, but it is up to the people to know the difference and to set the leader straight when they get out of line. Like Ikem said, it is up to the people to understand and to educate themselves on the matters that intertwine and intervene in their daily lives and for the future. To take action when they feel it is necessary. The government should be there for the people, by the people, never against them, but it hardly seems likely that this will ever be a worldwide phenomenon. There seems no logical reasoning as to why these dictators become the way they do, but unless there are people to stand against them through knowledge and justice, they, like the cicadas that linger on in the tops of trees only to awaken to unsheathe their unwanted shells, will never stop their covering reign down upon the streets of the benevolent man.
Work Sited: http://abesha.wordpress.com/2008/01/31/top-12-africas-worst-dictators/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-16010171