Civil Peace

“The bicycle had a little history of its own.”

The bicycle represents the material history of civilians during the war. Jonathan almost loses the bike during the war and buries it in the graveyard where his child is buried. The bicycle carries the history of war and postwar society. It survived, but it requires Jonathan’s ingenuity to become useful again in the present and future. It was a material object of war that is now part of the new postwar society, which Jonathan will use for his family’s survival. Achebe suggests that effort is necessary to move from the past and rebuild a future—the bicycle provides the mobility to do so.

“It wasn’t his disreputable rags, nor the toes peeping out of one blue and one brown canvas shoes, nor yet the two stars of his rank done obviously in a hurry in biro, that troubled Jonathan; many good and heroic soldiers looked the same or worse. It was rather a certain lack of grip and firmness in his manner.”

Achebe provides a flashback to an event during the war in which a man posing as a soldier tried to commandeer Jonathan’s bicycle; this passage shows the vulnerability, poverty, and corruption during the civil war. Whereas the soldier is in disheveled, ragged clothing, the clothing does not ultimately define his character to Jonathan. Many soldiers left the war with little except what was left on their backs. Jonathan looks past his physical appearance and discerns the lack of “grip or firmness” in his manner.

“That night he buried it in the little clearing in the bush where the dead of the camp, including his own youngest son, were buried. When he dug it up again a year later after the surrender all it needed was a little palm-oil greasing.”

This section shows how the bicycle survived the war and how Jonathan fixed it to work in the present. He finds it in the place where he buried it to prevent it from getting stolen—next to his youngest son’s grave. He greased it with “palm-oil” and “it was good as new.” The fact that the bicycle is by his youngest son’s grave suggests the historical overlap of past and present. The past is always present, yet Jonathan does not linger in the past he can longer control. Instead, he is grateful for the gift—what he does have—his bicycle.

“Nothing puzzles God.”

The proverb “Nothing puzzles God” is uttered whenever Jonathan encounters something good that happened after the war. To him, it is a miracle and suggests Jonathan’s deep faith in the power and mystery of God. Achebe, a Christian, might also be suggesting God’s omniscience as he provides Jonathan with what he needs to survive. At the same time, Jonathan might find some events puzzling. But to God, nothing is puzzling.

“His children picked mangoes near the military cemetery and sold them to soldiers’ wives for a few pennies—real pennies this time—and his wife started making breakfast Akara balls for neighbours in a hurry to start life again. With his family earnings he took his bicycle to the villages around and bought fresh palm-wine which he mixed generously in his rooms with the water which had recently started running again in the public tap down the road and opened up a bar for soldiers and other lucky people with good money.”

When the Iwegbu family returns to Enugu, they begin pitching in and finding different ways to earn money. They are eager, and their neighbors are also in a “hurry to start life again.” Through their work ethic and industrious nature, Jonathan and his family rebuild their lives and move past the tragedies of war, whose remnants are always in plain view. The children pick their mangoes near the “military cemetery,” juxtaposing a fruitful garden of life against a burial ground of dead soldiers. The Iwegbu family’s income is connected to the war: the children sell their fruit to soldiers’ wives, and Jonathan opens a bar for soldiers and others fortunate to have “good money.”

“Some of his fellow ex-miners who had nowhere to return at the end of the day’s waiting just slept outside the doors of the offices and cooked what meal they could scrounge together in Bournvita tins.”

In these lines, Achebe shows the economic struggles of a postwar society. The war ravaged the economy and shut down corporations and companies like the Coal Corporation, where the miners worked. They wait and wait outside the company doors, hoping it will reopen. To survive, they scrounge for food.

“But Nothing Puzzles God. Came the day of the windfall when after five days of endless scuffles in queues and counter-queues in the sun outside the Treasury, he had twenty pounds counted into his palms as an ex-gratia award for the rebel money he had turned in. It was like Christmas for him and many others like him when the payments began. They called it (since few could manage its proper official name) egg-rasher.”

Jonathan receives the ex-gratia award of 20 pounds, which the people call “egg-rasher” because they cannot pronounce it, showing the transition from indigenous languages to English. The ex-gratia incentivizes people to turn in Biafran currency. People were rewarded twenty pounds for showing loyalty to the Nigerian government and agreeing to use its currency. Jonathan does not think twice about turning in his Biafran money.

When Jonathan receives his money, it is like Christmas. He repeats his proverb and believes it is another sign of God’s support after the closure of the coal mine. While everything has fallen apart around him, God is constant and provides. The award reaffirms his faith.

“He had to be extra careful because he had seen a man a couple of days earlier collapse into near-madness in an instant before that oceanic crowd because no sooner had he got his twenty pounds than some heartless ruffian picked it off him.”

Nigeria’s civil war devastated the economy leaving the poor struggling to survive. Madness ensued in the conflict between the haves and the have-nots. As soon as someone appeared to have something, in this case, the award money, people of shady character described here as “ruffians” descended on him. This passage shows the precariousness of morality and social capital under conditions of scarcity.

“Though it was not right that a man in such an extremity of agony should be blamed yet many in the queues that day were able to remark quietly on the victim’s carelessness, especially after he pulled out the innards of his pocket and revealed a hole in it big enough to pass a thief’s head.”

Achebe shows the “agony” people felt and suggests that thieves and other petty criminals are not to blame. Jonathan then considers the “victim’s carelessness” when he gets robbed. Showing any wealth arouses envy and desire—especially when an individual is starving. Why would someone put their money in a pocket that can quickly attract attention and be confiscated? Achebe seems to be asking: Whose fault is it when a person is robbed? The thief or the society that creates the thief?

“Jonathan soon transferred the money to his left hand and pocket so as to leave his right free for shaking hands should the need arise, though by fixing his gaze at such an elevation as to miss all approaching human faces, he made sure that the need did not arise until he got home.”

Jonathan is aware of the social instability around him and understands the desperation of the people in his town. To protect himself and his windfall, he tries to rise above the crowd by looking upward and avoiding human contact. His strong mindfulness enables him to pass through the chaos without incident.

“Police-o! Thieves-o! Neighbours-o! Police-o! We are lost! We are dead! Neighbours, are you asleep? Wake up! Police-o!”

The family cries for help, confused as to whom to call. They are in the space between civil war and postwar society. Law and order have broken down. The thief points this out, referring to the police and soldiers as almost identical. Police represent social order, and the soldiers represent war. Nobody answers the family’s plea; there is neither now.

“‘My frien,’ said he at long last, ‘we don try our best for call dem but I tink say dem all done sleep-o... So wetin we go do now? Sometaim you wan call soja? Or you wan make we call dem for you? Soja better pass police. No be so?’” 

The dialogue comes from the climactic scene during the robbery of the Iwegbu home. After the family screams for help, the thieves’ leader tells them there is nobody to help them. He is aware of the situation in Nigeria. Law and order have broken down. Neither the soldiers nor the police can help. A soldier earlier in the story attempted to swindle Jonathan out of his bike. The police do not arrive. This leaves the reader wondering whether the thieves are paying off the police and precisely who is in charge.

“Awrighto. Now make we talk business. We no be bad tief. We no like for make trouble. Trouble done finish. War done finish and all the katakata wey de for inside. No Civil War again. This time na Civil Peace. No be so?”

The thief responds in pidgin dialect to the Iwegbu family to quiet them down because their cries for help to the police and soldiers are useless. The war did not end social conflict and ethnic tension. Social order has broken down. Nobody was going to help them; the soldiers and police had been swept up in a web of corruption.