Beautyful Ones Are Not Born

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Prof. Onyinkwa B. Omwoyo
Ayi Kwei Armah's The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born
Hello there! This is a study guide in ONE single on Ayi Kwei Armah's The Beautyful Ones
Are Not Yet Born. I developed this guide by myself in 2017 as I studied the book for my BED (Arts) Degree in
Egerton University. There are essays and partial thought blurbs here and there which are original, and I have cited
where possible,so do cite correctly and avoid plagiarism. I hope this helps you .
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
University of Florida
African Writers: Voices of Change
Ayi Kwei Armah (1939-). Ghana.
Ayi Kwei Armah was born in 1939 to Fante-speaking parents in the port city of Takoradi, Ghana.
He left Ghana in 1959 to attend the Groton School in Groton, MA. Afterwards, he attended
Harvard. Much of his work deals with the problems of post-colonial Ghana.
Armah's first and best-known novel, The Beautyful Ones Are not Yet Born (1968), describes the
life of an unnamed rail worker who is pressured by his family and fellow workers to accept bribes
and involve himself in corrupt activities in order to provide his family with material goods.The other
workers who accept bribes are able to live a prosperous life, while he and his family live from
paycheck to paycheck as a result of his honesty.At times he perceives himself as a moral failure for
not providing his family with the money which would allow them to have the beautiful things that they
seek. His honesty also makes him a social misfit, and he is a man who is truly alone. The book is
filled with images of birth, decay and death, most notably in the form of a manchild who goes through
the entire life cycle in seven years.This manchild is a metaphor for post-independence Ghana.

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Chapter 1
Synopsis :
The book opens with an introduction to the everyday type of dishonesty that exists within Ghana. The bus
conductorshort changes his passengers normally, but today, being Passion Week, where everybody was hard -
pressed for money, passengers held out ‘exact fare itself, no more, no less…’ (2), and he could not cheat them of
their money. He remembers one passengerwhich he managed to cheat - he ‘placed in the giver’s hands….should
have given’ (3) and he smells the cedi which he was given and likes the odour.He smells the coins, then the cedi
again, now with a sense of shame. He turns around,and sees the Man. He starts to try to bribe the Man, but then
realises that ‘the Watcherwas no Watcher after all, only a Sleeper’ (5) when he sees the Man has a ‘stream of
spittle’ running down the side of his mouth. He chases the Man off the bus,and spits on him.
The Man walks to his workplace (The Railway and Harbour Administration Block), and along the way, he
notices the “K.C.C. Receptacle for Disposal of Waste” (7), and the ‘large amount of money paid for them’ (8) The
Man places his ball of used tickets onto the heap and continues his walk, only to be nearly knocked down by a ‘fast
advancing car’, a taxi, as he was blinded by its ‘blinding…light’. After being scolded (again!) by the taxi driver, he
walks past some shops with acronyms and abbreviations for names. Armah pauses here to muse a little on the
corruption (10) The narration then proceeds to describe Yensua Hill and the Atlantic-Caprice hotel, and the gleam it
offers.
Finally, the Man reaches the very old and dirty Railway and Harbour Administration Block, with its ‘squat
massiveness’.He walks up the cement stairs,and holds the banister, only to recoil in an ‘instinctive gesture of
withdrawal.’ (11). The chapter ends with Armah expanding on the banister, and its rot, which ‘embraced’ everything
that was thrown onto it to stop its ‘course toward putrefaction’.
NOTE :
1. (4) ‘Jesus wept.’
 John 11:35
 Jesus comforts the sisters and weeps at Lazarus’ death.
2. Armah’s exposition on the ‘impotence’ of the lack of money, and the ‘fullness of the month that touches each old
sufferer with a feeling of new power’ (2) as well as the ‘restless happiness of power in search of admiration’ (2)
 The people of Ghana are seen as ‘sufferers’ throughout the whole book.
 Money brings power and admiration.
2. Passion Week
 A reference to the week in which Christ died, a time of great suffering.
 In the novel it depicts the great suffering that each Ghanaian goes through when money runs low.
3. The smelling of the cedi
 ‘Old smell’ = great age of the corruption which Ghana has.
 ‘smell of the cedi’s marvellous rottenness’(3)
 Note that the lesser-value coins do not give as satisfying a smell as the cedi.
4. Atlantic-Caprice Hotel
 Atlantic : the ocean separating Europe and Africa in the east from America in the west.
 Caprice : an unaccountable change of mind or conduct; a whim; a freakish fancy.
5. The banister
 Notice that the Man recoils ‘instinctively’ to the touch of the banister,which is supposed to symbolize the
corruption of the country.
 c.f. to 31, where he says to the Timber Merchant : he does not know why he is an honest man.
Characters : :

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1. The corrupt bus conductor,who short-changes people.
2. The cedi passenger
3. The Man
Symbols :
Symbol Page Symbolisation
1. The Bus 1 Ghana & how its ‘rust’ (corruption) holds it together.
2. The cedi 2 Symbol of the country’s corruption and obsession with
money and power - the money wanted ‘admiration’. (2)
3. The Man’s drool 3 Symbol of the Man’s own unintentionallust after the good
things in life. *debatable
4. The Embassy and Tuskers
cigarettes
1 & 5 Colonialism and its lingering after-effects.
5. The dustbins 7 Symbol of the country’s desire to clean up its corruption and
bribery - just as the country has failed to clean up after its
own physical dirt and rubbish,so has the country failed to
clean up after dirty politicians. In the middle of the clean-up,
there is dishonesty.Not that the people do not want to clean
up - they ‘used them well’ (8) -referring to the dustbins.
6. The fast car with the bright lights 8 Colonialism and its lingering after-effects.
The country’s insatiable desire for western goods.
7. The buildings with the
abbreviated names
9 Colonialism and its lingering after-effects.
The country cannot get-rid of the British influence and the
corruption that it introduced into the country - ‘…the same
old stories of money changing hands and throats getting
moistened and palms getting greased. Only this time, if the
stories aroused any anger, there was nowhere for it to go’
(10) [c.f. 109 where justice is not served to the students who
complained against the embezzling supervisor/ Allocations
clerk.]
Even if the country were to want to complain against the
corruption, there was ‘nowhere’ for the complaints to go, for
the dishonesty has become a part of life in Ghana.
8. The Atlantic-Caprice Hotel 10 Symbol of the ‘gleam’ that the corruption brings - c.f. to the
‘light’ that good hard work brings.
9. The
Block
(Railway and Harbour
Administration Block)
10 Symbol of the changing political systems that Ghana has
undergone - just as the Block has undergone many layers of
painting, so has the country undergone changes in
governments.
The ‘petal of the hibiscus flower’ that the bricks have could
represent the ‘beautyful ones’that the country have, and have
been tainted and painted over by the ‘layers of distemper’ and
‘swirling grit’ and ‘engine grease’ (11) *debatable point
10. The Banister 11 Symbol of Ghana, and the triumph of the corruption over all
attempts to clean up (‘Ronuk and Mansion’ - turpentine used
to polish the banister - 12)
‘The wood would always win.’ (13)
The people also help the banister(Ghana) along its ‘course
toward putrefaction.’
‘But of course in the end it was the rot which imprisoned
everything in its effortless embrace It did not really have to
fight. Being was enough.’( 12)
Themes :

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1. Moral corruption and degradation [Internal
translating to external manifestation]
The bus conductor
The Man’s spittle
The cedi
2. Physical corruption and rot The Block
The banister
The general dirt [The dustbin as a symbol of the
failed clean-up efforts]
3. Colonialism The cigarettes
The fast car with the bright lights
The abbreviated building names
Chapter 2
Synopsis :
This chapter starts off with an introduction to the Man’s workplace. He wakes up the night clerk from ‘his
easy darkness’, into a ‘brief, strong terror’( 14). They talk a while, and Armah uses the Man’s thoughts in a sort of
stream-of-consciousness way to speakon the loneliness that night brings. The Man finds out that the control
telephones at Kojokrom were dead again. As the night clerk finishes logging in the train entries, the Man looks
around the train map and tries to sharpen pencils unsuccessfully,as the pencil-sharpener is broken. After checking
the night clerk’s log book, he meets a messenger who has just won the lottery, and they discuss it.
NOTE :
1. The goods train
 these carry Ghana’s main exports.
Characters :
1. The Man
2. The night clerk
3. The messengerwho won 100 cedi in the Ghana lottery
Symbols :
1. Light 15 The things in life attained by honest means. Notice that in
the office, ‘the light came dully, like a ball whose bounce
had died completely.’ (14)
2. Sleeping night clerk 15 The people of Ghana.
c.f. 80 Plato’s cave
The people of Ghana are all sleepwalkers afraid to wake up
from their sleep, lest they realise that their life is a
nightmare.
c.f. 33 Atia, the ‘sleepwalker sweeper’ *debatable point
3. Control telephones 16 Notice that they are broken ‘as usual’. Symbol of the
country’s disrepair.
4. Pencil Sharpener 17 This is broken too.The Man does it his way, using an old
blade in his drawer. Symbol that the Man does not follow
with the otherGhanaians in their cheating way of doing
things.*debatable point
5. Lottery 18 The widespread bribery in the country.
‘I hope some official at the lottery……have the rest.’
(19)
Themes :

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1. The Ghanaian struggle against the corruption The night clerk (15)
2. Political failure within Ghana The broken control telephones
The broken pencil sharpener
3. Corruption The Ghana lottery
Chapter 3
Synopsis :
Armah describes the ‘stewy atmosphere’ which the Man works in, where everyone ‘seemed to sweat a
lot…inner struggle that was going on.( 20) The Man converses in Morse with a fellow colleague at Insu Siding, then
goes for his lunch break, which is spent walking toward the harbour, as he has no money for food.
The Man muses on the ‘cycle of debt and borrowing’ (22) while walking through the steel tracks. He
walks past a ditch and notices through the ‘clarity of his starved vision’ (23) , a vision of hope seen in the clean
water the ditch gives when its dirt is blocked. Armah once again uses the Man to ask questions on the reason for the
corruption, why it started, why it has no answer.
He returns to his workplace to get an overtime slip, and we are introduced to a ‘blind fool’ (24), the
overtime clerk, who tries to talk like an Englishman. He signs up for overtime work, a sign that he is perhaps hard
pressed for extra money. He walks back to his desk, and starts a conversation with Obuasi, anotheroperator at the
end of the Morse,which ends at precisely 4:30 p.m. - the time work ends.The Man starts thinking of the oppression
of the office, but his reverie is interrupted by Amankawa, the Timber Merchant, who offers him a bribe to get him to
get ahead in the wagon allocation queue, but the Man refuses it. Amankawa leaves in a huff as the night sweeper,
Atia, arrives. As soon as the ‘new man just out of Secondary’ arrives, the Man leaves too.
Note:
1. The beauty of the ditch and the train tracks(22)
2. The imagery of the ‘eating and its spewing out’ (24)
3. Overtime slips
 The Man is poor, and needs money.
 But we see evidence from later passages that suggest he perhaps does not want to go home to see his family.
4. Pg. 31  The Man does not know why he is so righteous
Characters :
1. The Man
2. The overtime slip clerk
3. Amankawa, the corrupt Timber Merchant
4. Atia, the sleepwalking sweeper
5. The new man just out of Secondary
Symbols :
Sweat 20 The ‘inner struggle’ (20) within each Ghanaian
Harbour 21 All things gotten by honest means.
Note reference to the sea  a symbol of ‘clean’
things.
Train tracks 22 Symbol of the Man’s journey through the book.
Filthy ditch and sudden
cleanness
22 Symbol of Ghana’s corruption, and hope for the
future, which would bring about the ‘beautyful
ones’ who were clean from the dirt.

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Food and Excrement 24 Cycle of life and death.
Overtime slip clerk 24 Colonialism and its lingering after-effects.
The clerk tries to imitate the British accent.
c.f. also 109 for his history with his boss
Amankawa, the Timber
Merchant
27 Representation of the widespread bribery
throughout the country. Note the fact that ‘The
wallet was not fat’ (30)
 Even poor people have to participate in the
bribery
The new man out of
Secondary contrasted with
Atia, the sweeper
33 The new man is the symbol of dreams that every
Ghanaian has of the good life, and Atia is the
symbol of the honest man’s failure to attain the
‘gleam’.
Poignant that it is left to Atia, the poor honest
man,(beautyful one?) to clean up after the
corruption. *debatable point
Themes :
Cyclical nature of life 22 - ‘endless round that shrinks a man to
something less than the size…’
24 - ‘the thought of food now brought with
it a picture of its eating and its spewing
out…controlled’
 Eating brings excrement, just as life
brings death
 Shows the uselessness of trying, of
dreaming in Ghana, because all will come
to nought.
Poverty The Man is too poor to buy lunch
The clean stream in the ditch Symbol of hope for Ghana
That it had ‘a cleanness which had nothing
to do with the thing it came out from’ (23)
But then also note that the note of
optimism is clouded when the stream turns
into mud again.
Does this mean that corruption will always
win?
Colonialism The overtime clerk trying to talk like an
Englishman
Corruption Amankawa
Armah’s description conveys his disgust at
such a lowly person  wolf
Increasing isolation of the Man
Inversion of moral values in Ghana
31
‘ he felt lonely in the way only a man
condemned by all things around him can
ever feel lonely.’
‘The Man was left alone with thoughts of

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the easy slide….a man who refused to take
and to give what everyone around was busy
taking and giving : something unnatural.’
34 ‘As he went down a shadow rose up the
bottom to meet him, and it was his own.’
Dreams The new man just out of Secondary
He was full of dreams
 So was the Man until Oyo’s pregnancy
killed his dreams for the University of
Legon
 c.f. Chapter 9 [117] for his story
Chapter 4
Synopsis :
The Man walks to the bus stop,and along the way, he sees a mother removing mucus from her baby’s
nose,and encounters a prostitute who approaches him with her ‘fragile shine’(35). He sees a car, and sees Koomson
getting oranges and bread, and buy anotherloaf after much flattery from an old woman. Koomson notices the Man,
and strikes up a conversation.They make an appointment for the following Sunday evening,and the Man greets
Estella (Estie to Koomson).
The Man waits for the bus,and Armah uses him again to muse on the ‘lit windows’ in the Post Office, and
to observe the bus conductorand the bus driver urinating onto the clean-your-city can.(39) When the Man finally
gets onto the bus and goes on his way, there is a vivid sensory description of the smells that the Man smells while
going home, from the rust, sea,rotten tomatoes, rubbish,lavatory, spice etc…(40 &41)
The Man gets off at his stop,and walks home, only to be greeted by the silence of the ‘reproach of loved
ones’. He gets into what seems to be a very old and tired argument with his wife over his refusal to bow to the
rampant bribery that Koomson is participating in, and getting his ‘clean’ life. They are interrupted by the old woman
next door, asking to borrow a little sugar‘for the children’. Oyo lies (as we later find out in Chapter 8) that they
have finished theirs. The fact is that they have just enough for themselves, and not enough to share. After she leaves,
Oyo calls the Man an ‘Onward Christian Soldier’ and a ‘Chichidodo Bird’.
Note:
1. The Man stands in the ‘ambiguous shadowbetween the lights’ (36)
2. Armah’s description of Koomson and his (apparent) virility on 37.
3. Armah’s sensory style on 40 &41
4. Analogy of the Chichidodo Bird and the Soldier
5. ‘The reproach of loved ones’
 This is a often repeated phrase
 The Man is being silently pressurised into dishonesty.
Characters :
1. The Man
2. The unknown woman and child
3. The prostitute
4. Koomson and Estella
5. Oyo and the Man’s children
6. The old lady next door

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Symbols :
Symbol Page Symbolising
1. The mucus 35 The internal rot of the country
2. The gleam / shine 35 The false riches that corruption and vice bring
3. The prostitute 36 Moral degradation of the country
4. The fawning bread seller 36 The ‘yes-men’ that exist to suck off the wealth of the rich
5. The car 36 Colonialism and its lingering after-effects.
The impermanent product of the ‘gleam’ as it too, will rust
like the bus.
* debatable point
6. The filthy smell 40-41 The rampant corruption and moral degradation everywhere
in Ghana.
7. Silence 41 The isolation of the Man
8. Onward Christian Soldier 43 Symbolising the Man, and his want to do the right thing,
even though everyone is doing otherwise.
9. Chichidodo Bird 45 Symbolising the Man who lives among the filth and
dishonesty and hates it, but still likes the fruit that it brings.
Themes :
The lure of the ‘gleam’ The prostitute.
Koomson’s new car.
Estella’s wig and perfume.
Atlantic-Caprice Hotel
The boat
The moral degradation and rot of the country The filth and stench of the urine and
latrines/lavatories
Hope for the country
*debatable point
The sea
Isolation of the Man The mocking of Oyo
The silent eyes of his children
Poverty The old woman next door
Chapter 5
Synopsis :
The Man finds that he cannot sleep after the argument with Oyo, and gets up to go to the Teacher’s house.
Oyo does not ask where he is going, or when he is returning.
Along the way to the Teacher’s house,the Man recalls a friend, Rama Krishna, who tried to escape the rot
of Ghana by becoming a holy man, and yet died of consumption (TB- tuberculosis).He walks along the breakwater
that prevents the sea from flooding the road, and headlights of oncoming cars come and occasionally blind him,
making the ‘darkness of the night even deeper and more infinite than before’.(49)
He reaches the Teacher’s house,and looks in, seeing the Teacher naked, reading a book , ‘He Who Must
Die’ (Teacher is learned) while listening to Congo music on the radio. He enters, and they hear a song before the
Teacher switches off the radio. They talk about the song,the book, and about Oyo’s insults at the Man for letting go
of the bribe by Amankawa, the Timber Merchant. The Teacher speaks in a very nonchalant way of the Man’s family
situation, and his instinctive avoidance of the bribe, playing down the Man’s heart-sickness.They discuss Koomson,
the disillusionment of the Man and Teacher etc…
Note:
1. Armah’s description of Ghana as a ‘dark tunnel’ (47), and the insects that dance the ‘crazy dance’ (47)

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2. The irony that lies within Rama Krishna
3. Mention of the Chichidodo bird
4. The breakwater
5. Armah’s description of the Essei market
 poverty & disrepair in Ghana
 provides setting
6. The Congo music  note that in Chapter 8 the Man listens to it too (102)
7. The naked Teacher
 he is stripped of all his previous aspirations
 c.f. 78 ‘naked body is a covering for a soulonce almost destroyed…The Man remembers times when
his friend has been drawn to speak…
 Teacher’s past has made him disillusioned as he was unable to change the system
8. The song : (51 / 52)
9. The book that the Teacher is reading “He Who Must Die”
10. 51 - ‘two types of fools who took refuge in honesty -the cowards and the fools…’
 The Man is a fool?
11. The Man’s family situation with Oyo - it seems like they always quarrel about this matter
12. “Brother Joe” = Koomson’s wanting to be like a white man, adopting a white name - he is ‘Jesus Christ’ to the
man’s family
13. The conversation between the Man and Teacher
 note what they talk about
 Oyo and her insults
 The Man’s unusualmorality
 Koomson and his wealth
 The Man’s dream
 The Man’s hope
 The Teacher’s disillusionment
Characters :
1. The Man
2. Teacher
3. Oyo
4. Rama Krishna
5. Koomson
Symbols :
1. Dark tunnel 47 Ghana’s dark tunnelof corruption that the Man is trying to escape.
2. Insects of the
night
47 The people of Ghana caught within their ‘crazy dance’ of corruption and
dishonesty all for the ‘fire of the lamps’  things of the ‘gleam’.
3. Rama Krishna 48 His death by consumption (tuberculosis) exemplifies the internal rot that the
people of Ghana go through,that nothing can stop the corruption, even if you
lead a holy life. *debatable point
4. The breakwater 49 There is repeated mention of the breakwater in later chapters.
The Man and the Teacher seem to be associated with the place.
Could mean that the Man and the Teacher realise that there is something that
prevents the ‘cleanliness’ of the sea from cleaning away the dirt of Ghana.
*debatable point
More likely to be the association with the sea than this.
5. Congo music 50 Native music - sweet and sad reminiscence of the previous life before
colonialism. The Teacher and the Man belong to this period in time, before
materialism and corruption set in.
6. The song 51/52 The song refers to the journey that the Man has chosen,the path that he walks.
7. ‘He Who Must
Die’
53 Shows us that Teacher is educated
Reminds us of Teacher / Man who must die * debatable
8. Oyo’s mention 58 The path that the Man has taken, and the fact that he ‘had not the hardness that

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of roads and
cars
the gleam required’ (35), and that ‘Koomson had learned to drive’.(96)
Themes :
1. Pressure and conflict that the Man faces 46 - ‘The reproach of loved ones…’
 note the repeated words ‘the reproach of loved
ones’and ‘time’
2. Conflict between the Old world and the New world
order
50
 The Congo music
3. Hope for the Man and his meek rebellion 51/52  The song
*debatable point
4. Isolation of the Man Oyo’s insults
The Man’s feeling that he is a ‘criminal’ (54)
5. Death of hope in the Teacher Their conversation
Extra Note :
1. Song :
Those who are blessed with the power  People like Koomson ; the corrupt people
And the soaring swiftness of the eagle  Recall the ‘fast cars’
And have flown before,  Calmness of the Man in ‘letting them go’ first
Let them go.  Remember the Man’s meekness and
I will travel slowly, uncomplaining nature
And I too will arrive.  The Man will ‘arrive’ later at the good things
And have climbed in haste,  Corrupt people climb in haste
Let them go.
I will journey softly,
But I too will arrive.
The song is a minor technique that Armah uses to convey the pain and the sadness that the Man feels at going
‘slowly’ ,and being chastised by people all around by it.
2. In this chapter, you have to read the conversation between the Man and Teacher yourself to fully understand what
they talking about,as Armah uses their tone to convey many subtle clues and themes.
Chapter 6
This is the Chapter that is the crux of the whole novel. Comprising both the Man and Teacher’s thoughts,
Armah uses the chapter as a vehicle in which to convey his own views of Ghana and what he thinks of its past,
present and future. Note the recurring imagery , metaphors, symbols and themes that is Armah’s style.
Chapter 6.1
Speaker : Unconfirmed - could be the Man ; but more likely to be Teacher
Synopsis :
The speaker / thinker laments the ‘dizzying speed’that ‘beauty of the first days,the days of birth’
(62) goes into ‘quick decay’ (62). He mentions Aboliga the Frog, who shows a picture of the man-child, who ‘within
seven years it had completed the cycle from babyhood to …natural death’.(63) The speaker also mentions that
although there is a promise, like in the ‘days of hope’(63), ‘I will not be entranced,since I have seen the destruction
of the promises it made (the voices). But I shall not resist it either.’ (63)
The speaker remembers the days just after the men had returned from the war, and the violence and anger
and pain that the men brought with them, their ‘destroyed souls and lost bodies’(65). There is mention of the men
who could not take it, and went mad, like Home Boy, and the men who went on with their lives, like Kofi Billy, who
found work I the wharves until an accident caused him to lose his legs. A brief introduction to Maanan the
bootleggerand prostitute is given. This part ends with the ‘approach of something much like death itself.’ (66), and

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mention of the ‘white men’ and ‘gleaming bungalows’, and how their dogs have ‘as little love for black skins as
their white masters.’ (67)
Note:
1. Imagery of blood and dung
2. Mention of birth and death
3. Man-Child (whole life cycle is only 7 years)
4. The mention that the ‘wharves turned men into gulls and vultures, sharp waiters…seeking human flesh.’ (66)  Is
the wharf is good or bad? *debatable point
5. ‘deep silence’ (65)
6. ‘The thing that would have killed us,’ (66)
7. ‘White men and their gleaming bungalows…and huge dogs,’ (66)
Symbols :
1. Man-child 63 Cyclical nature of life
Ghana’s rapid decent into the cycle of corruption
2. Kofi Billy 65 The ‘beautyful ones’
3. Maanan 66 The ‘beautyful ones’
Symbol of Ghana’s moral degradation
4. Gleaming bungalows 66 Colonialism in the past
Lure of the ‘gleam’
Themes :
Cyclical nature of life/
Ghana’s passage into corruption
Man-child
Colonialism The war that men had to fight - not for their
own country
The white men
Chapter 6.2
Speaker : Unconfirmed
Synopsis :
The speaker here seems to be reminiscing of the past,and the fin he used to have playing with clean water,
picking unripe mangoes. Notice the repeated mention of ‘white’ and ‘sunlight’ - times before were better, cleaner
than before the corruption set in.
Yet, also notice the dark undertones of the memory of the 3 boys who were caught by black servants
guarding the white man’s house.It is a sign that the Ghanaians were under the rule and were serving the white men
already.
Note:
1. Repeated mention of ‘white’ and ‘sunlight’
2. Mention of the clean water
3. The lust of the 3 children for the white man’s mangoes and almonds and peanuts
 Sign of things to come
 That the black man would spend his life longing after the white man’s things
 *debatable point

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Symbols :
1. Sunlight 67 The old times, before Ghana was corrupt
2. Clean water 67 The old times, before Ghana was corrupt
3. Mangoes 67/68 The white man’s desirable things
Themes :
Old world and New world values Contrast the previous ‘dirty’ part with the clean
water and sunlight of this part
Colonialism The white man’s gleaming bungalow and his
desirable things
Chapter 6.3
Synopsis :
This is the chapter in which Maanan introduces the Teacher and Kofi Billy to wee, which apparently saved
the speaker from insanity. Maanan, Kofi Billy and the speaker smoke it first on the breakwater, then move onto the
beach when the night breeze brings the smell of shit toward them.
The speaker describes his experience of wee and then describes Maanan,‘a woman being pushed toward
destruction and there was nothing she or I could do about it.’ (72) and asks her forgiveness. (For what, we are not
told directly.) Maanan asks Kofi Billy what he sees,and he tells her. They leave, and we are told that after that
incident, Kofi Billy ‘hid himself from the world’ and later commits suicide by hanging himself, anotherof the
‘violence’ mentioned in 6.1 that had ‘turned inward to destroy the man who could not bear it’, and ‘Maanan was
trying after happiness again,in those ways that were to destroy her so utterly in the end.’ (75)
There is talk of the ‘white man’s cruelty’ from strangers from the West Indies, but nobody believes them
and calls them mad, but the speaker notices that it is hard, if you listen, to tell if they really are. The speaker then
recalls Tricky Mensah / Egya Akon ,a man who went to America and was converted to Christianity, and tried to tell
fellow Ghanaians of the black civil movement in America, only to be murdered for his money and Slim Tano, the
man who (apparently) killed Egya Akon, but later went mad and kept swearing ‘upon my fathers foot’ he did not do
it.
The chapter ends on a retrospective tone, remembering the ‘calmer things’(77) , the good times that wee
brought them, and the Employment office, with people ‘like us waiting for nothing’.‘There was something there
which I know we have lost these days.’(78) - the innocence and freedom that honest life brings.
Note:
1. The breakwater that they discover wee on
2. The description of wee and what it does to you - ‘make you see things…’ (70)
3. The description of Maanan-this is the part that leads us to believe that she is one of the ‘beautyful ones’.
4. Kofi Billy’s description of what he sees.(74)
5. 75 - ‘Shall we go?” (Maanan) “Can we go?” (Kofi Billy)  can one escape from the cycle ?
6. Repeated mention that Maanan and Kofi Billy are ‘destroyed’ - not ‘dead’ or ‘killed’.
7. ‘Money was life’ (77)
Symbols :
Symbols Page Symbolisation
1. wee 69-78 Attempts to escape the life they live

13
2. sea [#1] 73 Clean things - the sea has a cleansing purity
Themes :
1. Destruction and isolation of the individual Maanan
Kofi Billy
Teacher / Narrator of this part
 In line with the isolation of the Man
2. Hope [#1] wee
Chapter 6.4
Speaker : The Man
Synopsis :
The Man remembers what the Teacher was like before, and we find that Teacher apparently was
previously an activist, but had been disillusioned by the systemand corruption that lay ahead of him, his ‘soul once
almost destroyed.’(78)Now he is ‘unwilling to move closer to those of his old friends who were now in power.’ (79)
The Man also recalls a conversation he had with Teacher over the good that he could still do, but his
words met with one of the sharpest and most bitter words that Teacher had every said to him. The Teacher related
the analogy of Plato’s cave to the Man, and we see a parallel between the cave and Ghana.
Note:
1. Teacher’s past (79)
2. The analogy of Plato’s cave (80)
3. ‘one of the harshest things that he (Teacher) had ever said’ - the lines on the ‘bringer of the unwanted light’ (79)
Symbols :
Symbol Page Symbolising
1. Plato’s Cave 80 Ghana
The Man (?)
Themes :
1. Disillusionment of the people Teacher’s ‘almost broken soul’
Teacher’s nakedness
2. The unwillingness of Ghanaians to change
their ways
Plato’s cave
 the people do not want to see the light
 they prefer the darkness, and the
‘gleam’, not the pure light
Chapter 6.5
Synopsis :
The speaker opens this part of the chapterby lamenting the fact that Africa is cursed with its leaders, while
its people were ready for ‘big and beautiful things’, but later ended up ‘dying from loss of hope’ (81). We see the
hate and opposition of the white man that the leaders of Africa had gradually change to love. The lawyers growing
‘greasy’ while pretending to be ‘saviours’. The ‘black man trying at all points to be the dark ghost of a European’
(81), the very same people who were ‘climbing up to shit in their people’s faces’, while still asking for their people

14
to ‘have faith in us’ (82), not knowing that their people were unbelieving because they had ‘seen their arseholes and
drawn way in disgusted laughter’(82). The beginning of the chapteris the death of faith and disillusionment of the
people to the system, and to anyone who tried to change it, proclaiming to be their saviours because there are ‘no
saviours’(90).
The speaker then goes on to relate Este and the way he pokes fun at the politicians and their attempts to
overthrow the British, when Maanan comes in from a rally at Asamansudo all dolled up. She comes in with hope for
a ‘new’ and ‘young’ lawyer, and asks them to go to his rally at four o’clock, when she knows that ‘we had stopped
going long before’ (84). The speaker and Este go out of boredom, and find that news of the rally was very big
indeed.
Note:
1. ‘How long will Africa be cursed with its leaders?’ (80)
2. The black men who try to be European
3. Mention of the African leaders who betray the people they bribe with akpeteshie (probably an alcoholic drink) (82)
4. Este who was driven away, disillusioned
5. Maanan full of hope
Symbols :
1. Maanan 84 Hope
2. Este / Speaker 83 Disillusionment
Themes :
1. Corruption The corrupt African leaders
2. Disillusionment The speaker ‘stopped going long before’
3. Hope Maanan
Chapter 6.6
Speaker : The Man
Synopsis :
Armah uses the man to convey his bitterness at the broken promises, and the hope that was built up then
destroyed by the unkept ‘promises’ that the African leaders gave the people. He laments the fact that ‘nothing has
changed’, and that the beauty would only come with ‘the waking of the powerless’.
Note:
1. Cycles
2. Imagery of rot and decay
3. Image of flowering amid the dung
4. Mention of the ‘beautiful promise’
5. ‘Waking of the powerless’  people power will change the system *debatable point
6. ‘nothing in life has changed,nothing save your own hopes and the pattern of yourown disappointments,’(85)
Symbols :
1. Cycles 85 Cyclical nature of life
Ghana’s cycle of corruption
2. Flower 85 Hope [#1]
3. Beauty 85 Reminds us of the title [#2]

15
Themes :
1. Corruption The corrupt African leaders who did not
keep their promises
2. Disillusionment ‘nothing in your life has changed’
3. Hope The flower
Chapter 6.7
Speaker : Teacher
Synopsis :
The speaker continues where he left off from Chapter 6.5, only now they are at the rally listening to the
new man shouting for freedom. The speaker almost believes him, Este too, and they are silent about the weight of
hope and risk of being let down again, that believing in this man brings. Later, he asks himself ‘how could this have
grown so rotten with such obscene haste?’(88), and we find that the new man, whom Maanan loves,has gone the
crooked way.
The speaker mentions power, and we discover Koomson’s past as a harbour man, before he became a
minister by corrupt means. The chapter ends with a bitter criticism on Ghana’s corruption and government system.
Note:
1. Promise
2. Power
3. Winneba = socialist ideology base
4. Socialism - one step away from communism
5. Pg. 88 and the hope of youthfuland better supporters  hope?
Symbols :
Youth 88 ‘It was his own youth that destroyed him with the
powerful ghost of its promise.’  youth destroys
ambition with the promise of power
Power 88 Koomson
The lure of materialism through corruption and
politics
Winneba 89 Politics is a means to get rich through corruption
‘Men who know nothing about politics have
grown hot with ideology, thinking of the money
that will come.’ (89)
Themes :
Disillusionment ‘If only he could have remained that
way!’ (86)
‘How could this have grown rotten with
such obscene haste?’ (88)
‘And after their reign is over, there will
be no difference ever.’ (89)
‘…rot of the promise.’ (90)
‘No saviours.’ (90)
‘…only the impotent refuse.’ (90)
‘Getting takes the whole of life.’ (90)

16
Materialism Note 89 - list and criticism of all the
things that materialism brings - cars,
bungalows, women, wigs perfume,
blouses, whiskey, cigarettes…
Ideology and socialism Winneba
Characters :
1. Teacher - notice that the books he reads - “He Who Must Die” by the Greek writer, and his knowledge of Plato
leads us to believe that he is learned.
2. Aboliga the Frog - the one who shows the picture of the man-child
3. Home Boy - the soldier that went mad
4. Kofi Billy - he went to war, came back and worked on the wharves, and lost his right leg beneath his knee when a
steel rope cut it off. He smoked wee with Teacher (?) and Maanan, and then killed himself.
5. (Sister) Maanan - bootleggerand prostitute.She is one of the ‘beautyful ones’, but goes mad in the end. She
introduces the Teacher and Kofi Billy to wee.
6. The 3 boys who went after the white man’s mangoes
7. Tricky Mensah / Egya Akon - man who went to America and was converted to Christianity, and tried to tell fellow
Ghanaians of the black civil movement in America, only to be murdered for his money.
8. Slim Tano - the man who (apparently) killed Egya Akon, but later went mad and kept swearing ‘upon my fathers
foot’ he did not do it.
9. Este - a man who makes fun of the political system, but in the end is driven away (apparently overseas)by
‘something he loved at first’ (83)
10. The ‘new young’man - probably Kwame Nkrumah, who promises freedom from slavery, but later follows the rest
into corruption.
11. Koomson - we find out more about his past as a railwayman and a docker at the harbour, and how he entered into
politics and corruption.
Chapter 7
Synopsis :
The Man walks home, and Teacher goes part of the way with him. They talk along the way, and the Man
brings up the fact that he is unsure if he hates or envies the power and money. He speaks of his uncertainty of the
situation, of his conflicting desires. On one hand, he wishes to remain morally ethical and upright. Yet, he wants to
be a good husband,father and son-in-law. But without becoming corrupt, he cannot be any of these,which is his
moral dilemma. The Teacher apologises for not being more of a help, and explains the hollowness he feels at life.
Armah then uses the Man’s consciousness to again expound on the uselessness ofhard work, and the corrupt
lifestyle of the Ghanaians with their ‘stolen cars’ and ‘gleam’.
The Man mentions Zacharias Lagos, and Abednego Yamoah, 2 corrupt men and their fortunes (and
misfortunes), and makes a quiet observation that he has not something in him that lets him take the ‘leap’ into the
gleam.
He walks home, and attempts to make love to his wife, but when he feels the scar made from Oyo’s
caesarean section, he stops,turned off. He goes to sleep without disturbing Oyo at all, with a ‘half-dream’ already
formulating.
Note:
1. ‘Death of hope…’ (91)
2. Past of Teacher  was Teacher pro-Communist ? He talked of Castro and Mao.
3. Teacher’s loss of hope - ‘You used to see some hope, Teacher.’ (92)
4. Repetition of destruction (93)
5. Veils (92)
6. ‘Veranda Boy’
 tells us that Maanan’s ‘new young man’ was presently in power, from Chapter 6 to now (~ 6 years ? )
7. Emptiness of life (94)
8. ‘Vague but intense desire’ - for materialism ? (94)
9. ‘There was only one way.’ (95)
10. The mention of Koomson driving
11. Mention that the people who did not ‘drive’ were the ‘unsuccessfuland cowards ‘(96)

17
12. ‘The last child had had to be dragged out of its mother’s womb…’
 reminds us of Chapter 6.1
 ‘trailing dung and exhausted blood’ (62)
13. The fact that Oyo did no awaken
14. The Man’s dream of his exams, his inability to move, and his lack of answers
Characters :
1. The Man
2. Teacher
3. Zacharias Lagos - corrupt man who cheated on his sawmill, got busted,yet everyone called him a ‘good,generous
man, and cursed the jealous man who had informed on him.’ (96)
4. Abednego Yamoah - corrupt man who sells government petrol, and never gets caught.‘The whole world says he is a
good man.’ (96)
5. Oyo
Symbols :
1. Veils 92 Lies that politicians tell - the ‘rot of the promise’ (90)
2. Stolen cars 94 Materialism
3. Driving 96 Corruption and Politics
4. Oyo’s scar 98 The irrational thing that divides the man from Oyo
So has Oyo’s love of corruption
Themes :
1. Corruption Zacharias Lagos / Abednego Yamoah
2. Inverted value systems Zacharias Lagos / Abednego Yamoah
3. Emptiness of life Teacher’s words  94
Hard work brings an illusion of peace of mind(95)
4. Isolation of the Man He feels alienated because he cannot ‘leap’ into the ‘gleam’ (96) or ‘drive’ like Koomson
5. Dreams Teacher’s dream(91) Man’s ‘half-dream’ (99)
6. Relationship between
Oyo and the Man
‘There was love in her. There had always been…’ (98)
Chapter 8
Synopsis :
The Man wakes up from a dream, which seems to be a parallel of his life, Oyo being his unknown
companion enticed by the bright lights of the car (materialism) rather than been blinded by them. He takes a bath,
and we see Armah’s very visual description of the filthy bathroom. He finishes, gets dressed,takes his breakfast
(where he discovers the truth/Oyo’s lie about the sugar), takes his lunch money and leaves to take an early ‘slow
train’ to his workplace, saving him the bus fare. He senses that Oyo is up, but is waiting for him to leave before she
gets up.
He reaches his workplace, and finds he is early. He sharpens pencils,and notices that the allocations clerk
comes in early. He suddenly has a stomach-ache, and rushes down to the latrine. He squats and reads the latrine
graffiti when he is there, graffiti that seems to capture the Ghana life very aptly. He finishes and goes for a ‘clearing
walk in the street outside.’(106)
He returns to the office, only to find Amankawa, the Timber Merchant there, in an act of bribery with the
allocations clerk and the supervisor. He sees the Man, and insults him, calling him a ‘wicked man’, one who would
‘never prosper’. (107) Armah uses this opportunity once again to write about Ghana’s inverted value systems - how
‘the timber merchant is right, the allocations clerk is right, and you are a fool’ (108). To add insult to the Man’s
injury, Obuasi jeers at the man’s reasons for working. (108) We are given the allocations clerk and the supervisor’s
history, and then the Man goes for lunch, ‘gari and beans with palm oil’, sitting under the shade of a tree and
listening to the people of Ghana talk of the corruption, materialism and sex like there was nothing wrong with the
immorality of it.
He returns to his job, and sleeps till 2pm, when ‘the new boy’ comes, all eager to ‘try’ the job. The Man
lets his take over, and walks to the wharves, looking out at the harbour workers and the sea.He sees and hears a
seagull, ‘beautiful and light on its wings’.
Note:
1. The dream with the lights and companion an the white towers

18
2. The pits in his mouth
3. The description of the shower, the rotten wood door and the accumulated scum on the floor
4. He listens to Congo music too (102)
5. Vomit at the train station
6. The 2 men who called the Man ‘Sah.’
 ‘journey’ (103)
 ‘as if to threaten him’ (102)
7. ‘The last shall be the first’
 Mark 9:35 - “…If anyone wants to be the first, he must be the very last…”
 Mark 10:31 - “But many who are first, will be last, and the last, first”
 The Man is last in this life, but he will become the first
 hope for the Man?
8. The allocation clerk’s reasons for coming early (105) and his history with the supervisor(109)
9. Some parts of the latrine are a ‘dazzling white’, and the ‘lights in the latrine are brighter than anywhere else’ (105)
10. Latrine graffiti
11. The ‘fool’ and ‘leap’ (108)
12. The ‘new boy’ (111)
13. The description of the seagull and the wharves
14. ‘painful hopelessness’(112)
Characters :
1. The Man
2. Oyo
3. The allocations clerk
4. The supervisor
5. Amankawa, the Timber Merchant
6. Obuasi
7. The ‘new boy’
Symbols :
1. Dream with the lights 100 The Man’s isolation from his loved ones
2. The pits in the Man’s
mouth
101 Internal corruption within the Man *debatable
point
3. The growth and rot in
the bathroom
102 The rot of Ghana’s corruption
4. ‘dead pencils’
5. issued by the
government
104 The ‘death’ of Ghana’s government
The ‘death’ that the Block brings
6. Latrine graffiti 106 See below
7. The sea and seagull 112/3 Hope for Ghana [#1]
Themes :
1. Isolation of the Man The Dream
Amankawa’s rebuke / jeer
Obuasi’s laughter
2. Innocence and
disillusionment
3. Loss of hope
The clerk’s ‘cage’ (105)
The ‘new boy’
‘…painful hopelessness’ (112)
4. Rot of the country The bathroom rot/scum
The vomit at the train station
The Man’s visit to the office latrine

19
The latrine graffiti
Amankawa’s outright bribe
5. Hope The sea and the seagull (113)
Extra Note :
1. Graffiti:
VAGINA SWEET
 sexual immorality in Ghana
MONEY SWEET PASS ALL
 “Money was life.” (Chapter 6, 77)
 predominance of money over everything
WHO BORN FOOL
 Reference to the Man, a ‘fool’
SOCIALISM CHOP MAKE I CHOP
 People will go along with socialism, or any other government systemas long as there is food (chop) / money to
be made
CONTREY BROKE
YOU BROKE NOT SO
 Ghana and its people are broke
PRAY FOR DETENTION
JAILMAN CHOP FREE
 Satirical / humourous poke at the free food that jail brings
 Jail as an escape from the poverty
 Inverted system(jail would normally be viewed in a negative light)
Chapter 9
Synopsis :
It is a Sunday, the Sunday that Koomson is to visit. The Man wakes up and shops for the food they will
need, realising that he had a desire in him, and him alone for the material things too. He does not buy the made-in-
Ghana spirits because Oyo does not like them, but when he gets home, he gets into another argument with Oyo over
the fact that she wants him to get the liquor by illegal means.
They start to clean the house,taking out the ‘special plates and bowls and glasses’they reserved for
‘important visitors’ (116/7). The Man starts cleaning his chairs, and we find out that he is so poor that they are stolen
property from the town hall. He starts cleaning the bookcase also, and as he sees his books, Armah gives us the
background of the Man, that he had once aspired to go to the University of Legon, but was stopped by Oyo’s
pregnancy and their marriage. He starts to sweep and polish the house,and continues to remember the dream he
once had.
He stops for lunch, and sees how little the children have to eat, and we are given the impression that Oyo
forfeits her lunch for the children. He brings his children to his mother-in-law, and the beer to his friend Bentil’s
fridge. Along the way, we hear the conversation between him, his daughterAdoley (Deede) and his son about
materialism, and we see that they too, are tainted by the materialism that have gripped the country. His son cuts his
foot on something, and their grandmother makes a big fuss over them, and is hostile to the Man. He leaves them, and
goes over to his friend Bentil’s bungalow (?) and gives the beer to his friend to keep in the fridge.
Along the way home, he walks past an incinerator, past the lagoon with the ‘dead fish’ and other ‘little
fishes eating the torn white body’, the football park with a game later, the Central prison buildings, the golf course
with the black men with fake accents.He remembers the past,and compares it with today’s ‘black men with white
souls and names trying mightily to be white’ (126), and sees the ridiculous black ‘civilised’ names (Binful), and the
poor baby ‘stifling in a lot of woolen finery’.(126) He feels exhausted when he realises that the ‘only real

20
gain…(was that) a few black men might be pushed closerto their masters, to eat some of the fat into their bellies
too. That had been the entire end of it all.’ (126) He walks home, trying to go faster.
Note:
1. The Man’s realisation of his innate desire for the good things in life.
2. His fight with Oyo - his ‘slow fury’
3. The Man’s past
4. The mention of dreams
5. Oyo forfeited her lunch
6. Adoley’s fascination with TV and the wireless
7. The tension between Oyo’s mother and the Man
8. The things that the Man sees on the way home
Characters :
1. The Man
2. Oyo
3. Adoley
4. Ayivi
5. Oyo’s mother
6. Bentil
7. The baby
Symbols :
1. White Horse
Whiskey
2. Vat 69
114/5 Materialism
Lingering colonial values
3. The spring-cleaning 117 Premonition of the coup that is to come to ‘clean up’
Nkrumah
*debatable point
4. University of Legon 117 The Man’s lost dreams
5. Mike / TV / Wireless 121 Materialism
6. The dead fish being
eaten by others
124 Cycle of life
Rot
7. Men in golf course
with European names
/ the baby
125/6 Colonialism
Disillusionment with the leaders of Africa
Themes :
1. Materialism The Man’s desire
Adoley’s materialism
2. Shattered dreams The Man’s dream to go to the University of Legon
3. Colonialism The black men playing golf
The black baby in wool

21
4. Rot of Ghana The fish
5. Bad family ties Argument with Oyo
Tension between the Man and Oyo’s mother
Chapter 10
Synopsis :
The Man listened to the radio for the score of the football game, then went to replace the chairs. He tried
to rearrange them, but decided that the old way was better.<!> he takes a bath again, and watches Oyo dress and
straighten her hair.
Oyo’s mother arrives late with the children, and the Man leaves to take a walk, arriving home just as
Koomson arrives in his chauffeur-driven car with Estella. They start to have dinner, and we see the Man seated apart
from the group, isolated. He makes cutting remarks now and then that shame Oyo and her mother. Koomson
entertains them with his anecdotes of ‘The Stages of Booze’ (133) When Koomson asks for the toilet, he tells him
there is none, only a latrine.. Bringing Koomson out to the latrine, we see Koomson’s disgust at the dirt, an irony
because he later has to crawl through the shit hole.
Returning to the dinner party without using the latrine, the subject of the fishing boat is finally raised, and
we see what Koomson’s method of getting the boat is - using the Commercial Bank’s money to buy the boat, and
using someone else’s name to buy it. There is only the matter of signing some papers, he tells Oyo, when the Man
asks the real cost and profit of the boat.When the truth is revealed by the Man , that they will have to fish for 12
years before they can pay off the boat, Oyo’s mother is speechless.
Koomson and Estella leave, and they make a date with the man and Oyo to sign the papers the following
Saturday. The Man exchanges more insults with his mother-in-law, and she leaves in a huff.
Note:
1. Oyo trying to straighten her hair
2. Tension between the Man and Oyo’s mother
3. The Man placing himself apart from the group
4. The Man’s cutting observations
5. Koomson’s anecdote - a man came to talk about socialism
6. Koomson’s disgust at the latrine
7. Koomson’s methods of getting the boat
Characters :
1. The Man
2. Oyo
3. Oyo’s mother
4. Koomson
5. Estella
Symbols :
1. Oyo straightening
her hair
129 Her desire to be like the white man
2. Koomson’s car &
Estella’s perfume and
wig / The Stages of
Booze
130
133
The car has ‘bright lights’
 Materialism
Corruption and debased value system
3. Latrine 134 Corruption of Ghana  Koomson cannot face it
now
4. Boat 135 Hope and dream for an escape out of the poverty

22
Themes :
1. Corruption Latrine
The Boat
2. Materialism /
Colonialism
Koomson’s car
Estella’s wig
Oyo straightening her hair
Chapter 11
Synopsis :
The following Saturday. The Man and Oyo take a taxi to Koomson’s house.Oyo insists on choosing a
‘new kind of car’, a Toyota, and tries to make conversation with the Man in the car about ‘Cousin Grace from
London’ that would elevate her in the eyes of the taxi driver. They arrive at Koomson’s house,and she scolds the
Man for not playing along with her. When walking into Koomson’s house,they meet Princess, his daughter,riding
on a bicycle.
They enter the house,and meet Koomson and Estella, and all the while Oyo is admiring the beauty and
light of the place, the tape recorder, the dining room furniture. Oyo mentions Regina, Estella’s sister, to try and
establish a connection between her and Estella, and we find out more of Koomson’s underhanded dealings.
When the time comes for them to sign the papers, the Man refuses to sign them, and Oyo does it for them.
They are brought by car to Kwesi Anan’s house to see the boat.We are left with the Man’s thoughts and howhe
wants the things that Koomson has,and could almost go the wrong way ‘for the children’, a repeated line in this
chapter.
Note:
1. The new Toyota (Japanese)
2. Oyo’s pretense
3. Description of Koomson’s house,and the feelings that it evokes in the Man
4. Justification for the corruption ? ‘For the children’ (145)
5. The gardener and his song (144)
6. Princess  ‘fearless, direct look of a white child.’ (144)
7. Description of Koomson’s house,with its affluence and light - TV, radio, liquor etc…
8. The local servants that Koomson has
9. Oyo’s disappointment at the Man
10. Introduction to Kwesi Anan
11. Mention of the sea in the end
Characters :
1. The Man
2. Oyo
3. The taxi driver
4. The gardener
5. Princess
6. The quiet servant girl
7. Koomson
8. Estella
9. Atinga, the steward boy
10. Regina, Estella’s sisterin London
11. Chauffeur
12. Kwesi Anan, the head crewman of the boat
Symbols :
New taxi 140 Materialism
Koomson’s house & its
wealth
143-151 Materialism

23
Themes :
The Man’s isolation Oyo’s disappointment in him
His refusal to sign the papers
Justification for
corruption
‘For the little children’ (145)
Westernization Koomson’s inability to pronounce the local names
Chapter 12
Synopsis :
Written more as a bitter message from Armah against the hopelessness ofclean-up efforts to ‘de-
uncorrupt’ Ghana, here we discover that the boat was not delivered as promised from Koomson, and the Man
refused to eat the fish that was brought to him. We see the continued isolation of the man from Oyo and her mother.
Note:
1. Read the chapter
2. Name of the boat
Characters :
1. The Man
2. Oyo
3. Oyo’s mother
4. Koomson
Symbols :
1. Name of the boat 152 Reminder of Koomson’s absurd Westernization
2. Fish 152 Reminder of Koomson’s forgotten promise
Themes :
1. The Man’s isolation 153 - he did not want to eat the fish
2. Disillusionment with the
system
‘The net had been made in the special Ghanaian way that
allowed the really big corrupt people to pass through.’
(154)
‘End bribery and corruption. Build Socialism. Equality.
Shit. A man would just have to make p his mind that
there was never going to be anything but despair, and
there would be no way of escaping it, except one.

24
Chapter 13
Synopsis :
This is the pivotal chapterfor plot in the novel. The Man goes to work and finds out that there has been a
military coup overthrowing Nkrumah and his ‘fat men’. He does not go out and demonstrate, but he feels happy
about the coup,until he reaches home to anotherproblem : Koomson.
The smelly Party Man has come to the Man for help. He needs to escape the military arrest, and Oyo is
really glad that the Man has not become like Koomson. The Man gives him his dinner, and leads him to hide in the
latrine. They escape through the shit hole, Koomson having to first remove the trappings of his wealth - his jacket
and his tie, and dive head first to escape the latrine. They escape and walk by back lanes.
Note:
1. Accident room and its loneliness
2. coup
3. Fear
4. Demonstrations against Nkrumah
5. The silence of the streets
6. The Man’s happiness
7. Oyo’s respect and gratitude
8. Description of Koomson and the smells he emits, and how he eats
9. ‘But here was the real change.’ (162)
10. Description of the latrine
11. Koomson’s expulsion through the shit hole
Characters :
1. The Man
2. The filing clerk
3. Messengers who bring news on the coup
4. Fearful allocation clerk, and Senior Men
5. Unionists who ‘won’t tolerate any Nkrumists now’
6. Oyo
7. Adoley
8. Ayivi
9. Koomson
Symbols :
1. Koomson 160~ Corrupt men who were corrupt on the inside as well
Internal rot of Ghana
2. Latrine 166 Koomson’s hell
Themes :
1. Isolation and
loneliness
The Man’s thoughts (155/6)
‘…the Man felt completely apart from all that was taking
place.’ (159)
2. Fear Of getting caught (157)
Koomson’s smell of fear
3. Disillusionment ‘New people, new style, old dance.’ (157)
‘New men would take into their hands the power to steal the
nation’s riches an to use of for their own satisfaction.’ (162)
Chapter 14
Synopsis :

25
Koomson and the Man walk through back lanes to freedom, which lies in Kwesi Anan and the boat.
Notice that they walk by the sea, and climbed to the base of the breakwater, walking along it to Kwesi Anan’s
house.He agrees to help Koomson in exchange for half the posession ofthe boat.
They walk towards the boat,only to be stopped by a watchman. The Man tells them to bribe the
watchman. They pass,and get onto the boat,headed for Abidjan. The Man bids farewell to Koomson, takes a lorry
tire and floats to shore, where he sleeps till morning.
Note:
1. The Man and Koomson’s journey to Kwesi Anan’s house
2. Their walk by the sea
3. Koomson’s having to ask Kwesi Anan for a favour, and the bribe of the boat
4. The Man gives in to corruption and bribes the watchman in a way
5. The Man leaves Koomson and is cleansed by the sea
Characters :
1. The Man
2. Koomson
3. The boy
4. Kwesi Anan
5. The watchman
Symbols :
The smell of shit all Koomson’s internal corruption has become external
Sea [#1] 172 Clean things
Hope for Ghana
Watchman 175 Symbol of the equally corrupt system that has taken
over
Themes :
Corruption Kwesi Anan and his bribe
The watchman’s bribe
Fear Koomson - Of getting caught
Friendship The Man (?)
Chapter 15
Synopsis :
In this final chapter, the Man wakes from his sleep on the beach, and sees Maanan with her ‘diseased soul’ ,
mad on the beach,trying to separate the sand.He closed his eyes and went back to sleep. Later, he wakes again and
starts to walk home. The Man notices police boundaries at the town border, and stops to see what is going on. He
sees a small green driver bribe a policeman. Nothing has changed,and as the bus leaves, he sees a poster at the back
of the bus “The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born”, in the shape of an oval, and a flower in the centre of the oval.
He walks home slowly.
Note:
1. Description of what the Man sees when he closes his eyes
2. Description of Maanan
3. Act of corruption
4. Bus poster
Characters :
1. The Man
2. Maanan

26
3. The bus driver
4. The policeman
Symbols :
Colours 180 Hope
Flower 183 Hope
Maanan 181 No hope
The act of bribery 182 No hope
Themes :
Corruption The bribe
Hope Colours
The bus poster
The flower
No hope Maanan goes mad
Corruption still present in Ghana
-----------------------------------------------------------
Some musings:
Does the novel fail or succeed from having one dominant viewpoint?
EC and LMA 31/97
To decide whether the novel fails of succeed we must first take into account Armah’s purpose for writing the novel.
We believe that Armah’s aim of writing the novel was to tell his reader of the sad state that his country was in,what
with all the corruption and bribery. Also, taking into account Armah’s own history, we could also say that his is a
social commentary swayed by his own disillusionment with his country as a whole.
By having one dominant viewpoint (that is,the Man’s),we can see deeper into the root of the problem that Ghana
faces because we see the mental thought processes ofthe man and what he feels about the whole entire situation.
Taking into account Armah’s aim of the novel once again, we see that having one dominant viewpoint is the best
way to convey the ideas that Armah wished to convey as it would be very confusing to have more viewpoints.
If the author wanted to present a wholesome, well-rounded commentary of Ghana using the same incidents, he
would probably use more viewpoints,but this is not Armah’s aim. He wished to present his own case and thus uses
the voice of the Man as a cover to project his own opinions.
---------------------------------------------------
by EC and LMA, 31/97
Oyo’s viewpoint in the novel
Oyo can be said to be a woman who is concerned for her family’s well-being and situation in life,but believes in the
wrong way of elevating it. This is shown for the larger part of the novel,where she is seen to be a woman
unconcerned with the ethics of gaining money.
On example of this was her mocking and cursing her husband because he would not let go of his principles and
accept a bribe offered to him by a crooked timber merchant. She sings “Onward Christian Soldier” loudly to the
Man when he first tells her of what he did, which shows us that she thinks that the Man is too self-righteous and
should have taken the bribe.

27
In the ensuing conversation with the Man, we see that she longs to be part of the “Atlantic-Caprice” crowd that
Koomson and Estella are in ,and envies the life that Koomson and Estella are getting, saying that “it is nice ; it is
clean”. However what she does not understand is that “Some of that kind of cleanliness has more rottenness in it
than the slime at the bottomof the garbage dump.” The Man does admit that he too would like to be rich and enjoy
“some entertainment now and then” but will not compromise on what he believes to get it. Because of this, Oyo
condemns her husband,calling him a chichidodo bird,a bird that eats maggots which grows in excrement, a thing
that it hates most. This reflects on what she thinks of her husband,that he likes the entertainment and the good life
which can only exist within corruption and bribery.
Later on in the novel,Oyo gets excited because Koomson and Estella were to come to their house to discuss a boat
that Koomson had promised to give her. You can see from her preparations that she was ashamed of her roots and
wishes that she had a wig so that she need not straighten her hair with the hot iron thongs,which she did because she
felt that “only aboriginal women wear their hair natural”. She was also quite distressed by the fact that she could not
get any European beer or wine to serve Koomson and Estella. All this shows that she feels ashamed of her position
in life,always in the shadowof people like Koomson and Estella,which is why she was so eager to get the fishing
boat,hoping that it would be her passport to a betterlife in the midst of these people.
When it came to the time for her to go to Koomson’s house to sign the papers for the release of the boat,she is
described to be in her element, refusing taxis because she wanted a better one. She was happy that she was on her
way to a betterlife, and was glad to be in a position to want betterthings for herself. However, even at this late
stage,she does not understand what principles have to be wrought to get this boat. This the Man understands fully
well and warns her about Koomson’s intentions. This she blocks out and concentrated on flattering Koomson when
they arrive at his house.
After that trip to Koomson’s house turned into history,Oyo finally realizes that her husband was right all along, that
Koomson had not meant to help them at all,and the offer of the boat was merely a passing comment that she herself
had jumped upon and exploited. All that Koomson was actually willing to give to her were a few fish that probably
came off his own fishing boat, and these were a painful reminder to her, showing her her mistake in trusting
Koomson and her foolishness at not wanting to listen to her husband.She turns her head down and refuses to look at
him, admitting her shame. However, at this point in time, she still thinks that there is nothing wrong with the life that
Koomson and Estella are getting, she is just very disappointed and ashamed that she was cheated by Koomson.
Only after the military coup that overthrew Nkrumah does Oyo realize the folly of her thinking. When Koomson
comes running to her husband for help in the middle of the night, fearing for his life, she realizes that all the luxury
and entertainment that she had always hankered after had a high price. Being a corrupt person like Koomson meant
that you would always be the target of envious people, and when the people staged an uprising, you would be the
first casualty.She finally appreciates her husband’s integrity and morals, telling him “I am glad that you did not
become like him,” with “real gratitude” in her eyes.
Oyo is essentially not a bad person.She is just a typical woman living in Ghana who wished the best for herself,
which is what we can say for any one of ourselves.It is just that her priorities are wrong, as she believe(d) that
morals could be exchanged for a better life.
----------------------------------
by EC and LMA. 31/97
Do you sympathize with or condemn Oyo? Give reasons.
We feel that Oyo should be sympathized with as she is a typical Ghanaian woman, brought up with certain ideas in
her mind. We feel that she was put in by Armah to show the reader what rationale a normal Ghanaian would have to
accept corruption and bribery as a part of their life. She is also a foil to the Man and the Teacher’s character,
showing us a contrast between the Man’s way of thinking and anotherGhanaian on the street.
We feel that Oyo should not be condemned even though she approved of the corruption and bribery for the larger
part of the book because she was only doing what she thought would be best.She is a product of Ghanaian society
which not only does not condemn corruption, it condemns you if you are not part of it.

28
With this in mind,we can further understand Oyo’s’rationale for not understanding the Man when he tells her that
he has refused the bribe.We see that she is essentially not a bad person for not condemning bribery,because there is
nothing wrong with wanting something betterfor your life,especially one as hard as Oyo’s.
Her viewpoint is one shared by many of Ghana and thus we can say that Oyo is not to be blamed for her flaws,but
rather she should be lauded for her change in attitude and ability to see that she was wrong and change her way of
thinking in the end.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
#1 : Would you consider Armah’s ‘The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born’ a book of hope?
By LMA
Yes
• Maanan / Kofi Billy are ‘beautyful ones’
• The sea washes away the dirt and shit
• The ditch brought clearwater
• wee shows the light
• ‘Yet out of the decay and the dung there is always a new flowering.’Pg.85
• Repeated image of flowers
• End of Chapter 8, where he sees the clean work of the harbour, and hears the ‘plaintive song’of the white sea bird
• The Man gains Oyo’s gratitude in the end
• The Man is cleansed by the sea
• Kwame Nkrumah is overthrown by a military coup
• coming , just not here yetThe title - the saviours are just not born yet
No
I do not think that the novel is not a book of hope.Through Armah's use of depressing and pessimist themes,
characters and symbols, I feel that he is conveying a feeling of hopelessness,and any signs of optimism that he gives
his reader is false hope.
We see first in the novel, the rusty bus that the Man rides on. Taken as a representation of Ghana, and its rust for
Ghana’s corruption, we are told that Ghana is held togetherby its ‘rust’, corruption. If we were to take away the
bus’s rust,it would fall apart. In the same way, I feel that Armah is telling us that Ghana would fall apart if the
corruption it suffers from is removed.
Armah also uses repeatedly, the image of the sea. It is given a sense of cleanliness, but if the sea is the symbol of
things clean and good,then why does it have a ‘hundred other strong things’(Chapter 6) in its water ? Notice that
later, the man also wonders why ‘the sea is not much dirtier than it turns out to be’. (Chapter 8, 112)Does this mean
that the sea does not really clean? All it does it sweep the corruption and dishonesty underthe carpet, and puts on the
illusion of cleanliness.
This would also go in line with the general disillusioned and hopeless tone that I perceive in the novel. Notice again
the ditch and the clean water in Chapter 3. The water comes out clean from filth, but then changes into mud again
later. This could be taken as a symbol of hope, but why does Armah let the water be dirtied again? I feel that this is
Armah’s subtle way of telling us that any ‘beautyful ones’who come out of the filth of Ghana’s corruption will
eventually, be sullied again by it. It is like Armah writes :‘No saviours’in Chapter 6 (90).
Thematically, Armah also brings in the theme of the cyclical nature of life and death,or ‘food and its spewing out’
(Chapter 3). However, since we see that Ghana is caught in its cycle of corruption and debt, of dishonesty and
cheating, how can it escape from a cycle - something which goes on forever? Even though in Chapter 6, he tells us
that there lies hope within the cycle : ‘Yet out of the decay and the dung there is always a new flowering.’, I feel that
it is a false hope that he plants, a man hoping for the sake of hoping.In Chapter 13, even the Man’s optimistic
thoughts forthe ‘new life (to) maybe flower in the country’after the coup are laced with pessimism, because

29
immediately after that,Armah asks “The future goodness may come eventually, but before then where were the
things in the present which would prepare the way for it?” (160)
Armah uses the Man-child to showthis cyclical nature of life, and the ‘dizzying speed’that life in Ghana takes from
birth to death. The Man-child does not survive his fate, and thus in the same way, I feel that Armah is giving us the
impression that Ghana, too,cannot escape from its fate, the eventual‘course toward putrescence’like the banisterin
the Man’s workplace.
The banister itself also conveys a hopeless message to the reader. If taken to be anotheranalogy for Ghana, and its
rot and decay to be Ghana’s corruption and unprincipled methods, why does Armah write that ‘the wood would
always win…(imprisoning) everything in its effortless embrace’ .
‘The promise’ that Armah repeatedly tells us about is never fulfilled. Kwame Nkrumah goes corrupt, and no past
African ruler or leader has done anything to make good on their promise. They were only ‘climbing up to sh it in
their people’s faces’. Even though Armah says that the promise is ‘beautiful’, on the other hand, he also mentions
‘the rot of the promise’ in Chapter 6. This, again in line with the general ‘feel’ that the rot wins (because of the
banister) leads me to think that the novel is not an optimistic view of Ghana’s future.
The characters, Maanan and Kofi Billy, people who are supposed to be the ‘beautyful ones’go crazy, and commit
suicide also in the end. Egya Akon (Tricky Mensah)is killed, even though he is the harbinger of good news, that the
people of Ghana can escape from the oppression of the white man. He (in my opinion) is the person who has
ventured out of Plato’s cave (Chapter 6.4), who breaks out of Ghana and sees the light, only to be jeered by the
Ghanaians (like the man in Plato’s cave) , then killed. Justice is also not served to Slim Tano who (in my opinion
again) was framed for his murder by those who killed Egya Akon for ‘a few pounds’.He, too, goes mad, hapless
victim of the men who were afflicted with the ‘disease of the time’ - materialism, that deemed ‘Money was life’.
The one thing that takes them out of the life, and gives them hope by letting them see the situation clearly is wee. It
is ironic that a well-known destructive drug ,cannabis, should showthem the way. In itself, it casts doubts on the
honesty ofthe vision that it gives the group. Even if the sight it gives is to be taken at face value, Kofi Billy’s wee-
enhanced vision shows him what seems to be a hopeless vision,of people walking togetherin a large group. He
wishes that he can come out of the group to see just exactly where they are going, but it is impossible. ‘I am just
going,’ he finishes, in an ‘exhausted statement.’ There is no hope at all in his tone of voice.
The Man himself is not free from the materialism. Innately, he also desires the material things,and physically, he
too, gets too tired to ‘keep his hand off the dirt-caked banister’. (Chapter 8,111) In Chapter 9, he feels satisfaction
and pride in buying the ‘white man’s food’, not because of the admiration of the people around him, not because of
Oyo, but because innately, he too, desires the material things.However, he lacks the ‘hardness that the gleam
requires’(35), and has not ‘learned to drive’ (96) yet. Because of his own morality, he cannot take the ‘one bold
corrupt leap…into the gleam.’ (Chapter 7-96) The book that Teacher reads ‘He Who Must Die’, also does not sound
very positive, and can be read as a premonition of the Man’s eventual ‘death’ - that he will, in the end, follow the
path of corruption. We see this come true, as in Chapter14 (176) we see that he is the one who tells Koomson’s
boatman Kwesi Anan.to bribe the watchman.
Armah does attempt to offer us pictures of hope,like the seagull in Chapter 8, but along with the image of hope
come the thoughts ofthe man, which have a ‘painful hopelessness’(112). Also, in the end of the book, although the
bus posterproclaims hope in that ‘The Beautyful Ones Are Not yet Born’, the Man is witness to a worse systemthat
has taken over Kwame Nkrumah’s reign of corruption. He sees the bus driver bribing the policeman, but the method
of bribery was subtler, and harder to catch. The policeman did not say anything,just pointed to his teeth,and the
driver understood.The outright bribery and corruption of the country has been replaced by a similar system,equally
corrupt, only that the corruption goes on with more stealth and cover-up now. Notice that the policeman pretends to
check the driver’s documents. The corruption has ‘gone underground’and is covered up with the pretense of
honesty - is this not far worse than the blatant bribery of before? Armah’s prophesy in Chapter 6, that ‘after their
reign is over, there will be no difference ever. All new men will be like the old.’
Rama Krishna dies of the internal rot of consumption, even though he has escaped from the materialism and
corruption that Ghana offers. Since it is the internal rot that finally kills him, in the same way I believe that Armah
feels that it is this ‘internal rot’ that will eventually bring Ghana down, and there is no hope for Ghana, except to
continue in its eternal ‘rust’ and cycle of corruption and bribery. Like Armah says in Chapter 7, ‘There is only one
way’, and it is the way of corruption. (95)
#2 The Title

30
People who are ‘beautiful’ are pleasant to look at. People who are ‘beautyful’ are ‘full of beauty’, pure, clean and
good.Armah tells us through the title that these people have not arrived yet, have not been born to Ghana yet. All
Ghana has are people like Estella, ‘beautiful’ with her wigs and perfume.

Beautyful Ones Are Not Born

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