The novels on colonial Africa are the most echoed of this loss of human prestige. The image of rejection of the paternal figure is relevant in African literature. Indeed, the oral tradition shows that the man symbolized virtues such as security, courage and perseverance while patience, beauty, love or softness characterized the woman. However, compared to that staged by Ayi Kwei Armah in The Healers [1] through the character Buntui, Asamoa Nkwanta and Achebe in Things Fall Apart [2] through Okonkwo and his father Unoka, it is less demonstrative. Indeed, Armah does not celebrate male virility as we can see with the general Asamoa Nkwanta, that is, all the physical and moral traits traditionally considered specifically male. Thus, it is noted that there are very few physically strong male characters in his novels, such as Okonkwo, the man who embodies the masculine ideal in Thing Fall Apart. On the contrary, we notice that the psychological traits of his characters are more accentuated by culture and changes. While Armah’s portrayal of the male gender position in African society is unambiguously dealt with in his fiction. However, one may ask: How do the authors account for the ideal of male virility in their works? How the concept dramatically loses its prestige during the colonial and postcolonial periods? How this change persists in today’s African society whose total peculiarity is largely described? 

It argues that the degradation of African identity perceptible through various figures including those of the wrestler, the warrior, the uncle, the father or the man merely, all these images sometimes mingling in the matrilineal Akan (Akan: are ethnolinguistic groups of people of Ghana, Asante (Ashanti), Fante (Fanti) and Guang languages; some scholars also consider Twi a distinct Akan language. Most Akan peoples live in Ghana, where they settled in successive waves of migration between the 11th and 18th centuries; others inhabit the eastern part of Côte d’Ivoire and parts of Togo. Yams are the staple food crop in the Akan economy, but plantains and taro also are important; cocoa and palm oil are major commercial resources. Traditional Akan society is composed of exogamous matrilineal clans, the members of which trace their descent from a common female ancestor; these clans are hierarchically organized and are subdivided into localized matrilineage, which form the basic social and political units of Akan society. Britannica, [3]) and patriarchal Igbo (Igbo: also called Ibo, people living chiefly in southeastern Nigeria who speak Igbo, a language of the Benue-Congo branch of the Niger-Congo language family. The Igbo may be grouped into the following main cultural divisions: northern, southern, western, eastern or Cross River and northeastern. Before European colonization, the Igbo were not united as a single people but lived in autonomous local communities. By the mid-20th century, however, a sense of ethnic identity was strongly developed and the Igbo-dominated Eastern region of Nigeria tried to unilaterally secede from Nigeria in 1967 as the independent nation of Biafra. Britannica [4]) societies whose cultural specificities are set to naked by the authors. We will focus mainly on two characters that best illustrate our theme respectively Asamoa Nkwanta and Okonkwo. Other characters in both novels will be mentioned for the sake of analysis. By using a contrastive method, we will focus on analysing the image and condition of male characters in The Healers and Things Fall Apart, as well as, anti-colonialist theories, that promote a rupture with the Western alienating system. After analysing the origins of the mutation of male virility, we will be interested in his degrading status in postcolonial society.

The Origins of the Mutation of Male Virility

Wrestling is one of the oldest traditional African sports. It is a sport that shows a person’s physical strength and ability to compete with peers. Indeed, in Armah’s historical novel The Healers and Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, the Ghanaian writer explores this form of manifestation of masculinity by empirically questioning the social functions of masculinity. In the novel’s opening scene, Achebe celebrates a wrestling match between Okonkwo and who defeated the village of Umofia’s best wrestler Amalinze the ‘Cat’ who brought him to earn his lasting prestige. The tendency of narrators and storytellers to refer to Africa’s past and history is relevant as long as it is perceived from the beginning as a living memory that traditional Africa celebrated through oral tradition and customs of both the Akan and Igbo people. The plots in the novels are revealed through a balance between past, present and future to show how changes occurred from their beginnings to modern times. The narrator in The Healers articulates:

The way the people who still remembered talked of them, there have been festivals made for keeping a people together. They were not so much celebrations as invocations of wholeness. They were the festivals of people surviving in spite of unbearable pain. They were reminders that no matter how painful the journey, our people would finish it, survive it and thrive again at the end of it, as long as our people moved together.

The quote shows the real essence of these games at their outsets as a means of fair play. They were originally organized among young men in specific regions in both Akan and Igbo cultures and were considered a rite of passage between adolescence and adulthood. More than just a festival, they represented above all a means of fellowship, brotherhood and unity of all generations, attracting the attention of men and women of all ages, dignitaries and officials for two weeks. The circumstances that motivated their initiation testify to cohesive character.

However, the participants and their supporters forgot the purpose of this gathering and were used to appearing too excited because the only motivation was victory. In Esuano, the Land of Narrators, as in the Igbo village of Umofia, these inexplicable games have long lost their spirit of unity and brotherhood and no one ever thought to restore these games to their original state. This perversion of the games’ meaning is a subject of strong criticism from Armah, who blames the fact that society has not infused young people with a joyful spirit differently, to Achebe who just focussed on the cultural representation and original essence of the games. Moreover, it is a matter of celebrating the victories of one competitor over another. The narrator expresses his anger:

The games were now trials of individual strength and skill. At their end a single person would be chosen victor and isolated for the admiration of spectators and the envy of defeated competitors. […] A whole community gathered every chosen year to take part in rituals of wholeness. But at the end of the ceremonies of wholeness, a single individual was held up to be glorified by the whole community. Where was the root of wholeness in such a strange ritual of separation? 

His disapproval has taken the form of an accusation of deviating from tradition, accusing him of botching an assassination with the intent to strangle a contestant in violation of the rules of the game. The description of the scene shows not only the horror of a perverted tradition but also the use of human energy for horrible purposes. The physical description of the participant indicates that his physical qualities far prevail over his morals.

As the giant stood now, his body seemed near to exploding. Every muscle bulged with some huge, uncontrolled tension. The inner tension was visible in the massive face. It seemed to have pushed all the giant’s features outwards, so that his teeth, which were enormous, each yellow one separated from its neighbour by ample space, strained aggressively forward, forcing his slimy lips permanently open.

Armah’s message in contrast goes beyond a mere depiction of a physical fight that chronicles the wrestler’s botched death. This is a criticism of the unusual deployment of the African forces. For instance, Buntui’s physical features illustrate a giant and tall man. He is also sleek and with movements in his accent. Not only was he large, but his muscles were as described “pushed hard against the skin as if the covering it provided were not sufficient” and his eyes were “pig-like”. All these qualities prove that he was a monster. But the ultimate description occurs when we discover that “Buntui has a huge body and such a tiny brain to control it”. This same description of the giant as having confidence in his male virility but lacking a brain. As a result, he will be later in the novel used for dirty jobs as the Killing of the Prince of Esuano’s House is also relevant in Achebe’s description of Amalinze the Cat the author describes them in the opening scene of the novel:

[…] Amalinze was a great wrestler who for seven years was unbeaten, from Umofia to Mbaino. He was called the cat because his back would never touch the earth…was a wily craftsman, Okonkwo was as slippery as a fish in water. Every nerve and every muscle stood out on their arms, on their backs and their thighs and one almost heard them stretching to breaking point. In the end, Okonkwo threw the Cat [2].

Here the author emphasises the physical features of both challengers. They are described as having unbalanced criteria. Buntui and Amalinze are similar in their gigantic aspects while Okonkwo appears as smart and brave in every action which allows him to defeat the most outstanding wrestler from Umofia to Mbaino. The narrator describes him as having:

[.. ] fame had grown like a bush fire in the harmattan. He was tall and huge and his bushy eyebrows and his wide nose gave him a very severe look. He breathed heavily and it was said that, when he slept, his wives and children in their houses could hear him breathe. When he walked, his heels hardly touched the ground and he seemed to walk on springs, as if he was going to pounce on people quite often. He had a slight stammer and whenever he was angry and could not get his words out quickly enough, he would use his fists. He had no patience on unsuccessful men.

But, both wrestlers physically exhibit their male virility. The so-called wrestlers, Buntui, Amalinze and Okonkwo all excelled in wrestling and embody the unfairly asserted masculinity of Africa.

The image of man presented in Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, contrasts, Armah who does not celebrate manhood, which means that all physical features and moral qualities are traditionally considered to be specifically for men; but more important his capacity to rationally find strategies to challenge Western cultural hegemony. One can recognise that there are very few physically strong male characters in his novels, for instance, Okonkwo, the man who embodies the ideal of male virility in the novel, for instance, “he ruled his household with a heavy hand. His wives, especially the youngest, lived in perpetual fear of his fiery temper [...] [2] he embody the patriarchal authority of Igbo culture on women.

Only a week ago a man who contradicted him at a kindred meeting which they held to discuss the next ancestral feast. Without looking at the man Okonkwo had said. “The meeting is for men.” The man who had contradicted him had no titles. That was why he had called him a woman. Okonkwo knew how to kill a man’s spirit [2]. 

Again, this passage shows the warrior and champion of Umofia Okonkwo, ‘killing a man’s spirit’ by referring him to a woman. He does so to impose his domination by showing his male virility on people who came to the meeting.

In contrast, we notice that the psychological characteristics of men in The Healers are more accentuated, in comparison to their physical features or other symbols that elevate masculine virility. But the portrayal of Armah’s generation in African society is relevant. It shows how the ideal man was drastically lost during the colonisation and how this change continues in today’s African society where there is a total irregularity clearly described. From this, one can say that the author’s approach to man’s conditions in colonial and postcolonial society lines up a deconstructive and reconstructive discourse to denounce social changes in independent Ghana and Nigeria.

Another factor to consider is, these celebrations, are an occasion for Armah to stress the issues in the postcolonial period that triggered the changing spirit of the games to the point that groups of people represented in The Healers could not understand the abuses. This very situation brought the author into denouncing all that have thwarted the desire for African unity and cultural empowerment. In this respect, his criticism of Wrestling in this novel parallels his criticism of African warriors whose self-imposed mission to society under British colonial rule does not contribute to people’s social cohesion in societies. For instance, Okonkwo resists Christian missionaries’ intruders in his village and then advocates for war against white men. But also, Densu the protagonist in The Healers determination to resist Ababio the manipulator in his purpose to prepare the ground for the White men are relevant illustration. However, one can question: how do the authors account for the ideal of male virility in their works? To provide an answer to this question, one must refer to the postcolonial theories. Indeed, postcolonial thoughts include such diverse analytical ways that writers draw their inspiration and conceptual resources from a wide variety of political and moral traditions and thoughts. We suggest that post-colonial analysis shares a broadly similar concept of power that is not aimed at eliminating or “domesticating” such differences but rather provides a starting point from which one can understand their various research regimes and themes. For instance, Dean sustains that Foucault’s thinking is a “new conceptual architecture of power” that seeks to replace the conventional identification of power with domination [5]. The main calling of authority is not only limited to oppression but must also be creative and productive. Why do people tend to lose interest in the traditional objective of the games, directed by essence not to the powerful, but to wisdom and entertainment? Therefore, games not only refer to the tradition as it were at the beginning but instead, they are today a field of experimentation disintegration due to the conditions in which they are held or perceived. Thus, it is important to note that, the figure of the man is the object of degeneration in Armah and Achebe’s works.

The image of the colonial period in Africa shows that the image of the human being is very different from the one portrayed in stories, legends and myths. Historically, it can be said that there has been a significant change mainly explained by social changes and contact with the colonisers. Indeed, the man symbolized virtues such as security, courage and determination, evidenced in both novels through the itinerary of the protagonists. These changes are linked to the decline of manhood, for instance, during tribal wars of people or against the invasions between kingdoms and against British colonisers, the society relied on male virility and courage to defend the community as the different missions of the general of the Ashanti army Asamoa Nkwanta in The Healers. This insurance, unfortunately, could not endure the time surprises and historical changes. Therefore, it gradually collapsed into a male figure that was only a shadow of himself, for instance, Unoka who is Okonkwo’s father in Things Fall Apart was weak, despite his quality on music and was fond of the periods after the harvest. He is a debtor who owed money to everyone and a palm-wine drunkard. This position leads to his high ranking and affluence in the community. However, he has never been the father that Okonkwo wanted. Besides, his son Okonkwo, who despite his position as a leader, fails because of not accepting societal reform in Umuofia and a shift in cultural values painted through his drastic unpredictable action against anything foreign or not masculine. This must change because it affects African cultural values and behaviours. 

This same situation of loss of prestige noticed in both heroes Armah and Achebe’s work can be also found in the work of the Senegalese writer Kane [6] in his The Ambiguous Adventure. In this novel, Thierno the master of ‘quran,’ the sacred scripture of Islam, has been disappointed with his most outstanding disciple who went to Europe for further studies in philosophy. Samba Diallo as a man the appreciated disciple through his intelligence and good mastery of holly Coran and who is supposed to keep his male virility by having a strong mind to resist alienation through the cultural influence of the modern world, has been confronted with social changes as witnessed with Asamoa Nkwanta and Okonkwo. The mental evaluation of these men shows that the sociocultural changes have alternated their natures and brought them into a disinclined destination. This man, Samba Diallo has known a tragic end, due to his refusal to obey the strict rules and codes of conduct of the society when he comes back to his home country. At the end of the novel, we learn that a fool killed him for not attending the prayer.

The novels about colonial and postcolonial Africa are the most telling of this loss of dignity and characteristics that are specific to man’s virility as witnessed in these two novels. The image of the rejection of the father is mainly related to historical events. First of all, if is worth considering, is the colonisation and its impacts, which created contacts between other cultures, beliefs about superiority or inferiority, due to a limited and partial world view, are invariably wrong-headed and destructive. For instance, Okonkwo could not accept changes the Christians brought into his village that created division and a rupture with local traditions that once celebrated the unity of Africans. Besides, distant reasons for this loss of dignity that today’s modern society experiences dated back to the time when Africans, were seduced by the Western way of life and gradually abandoned their traditions. Capitalism and Modernism created divisions in societies with an everlasting social demand for goods and material processions, placing man in uncomfortable positions in case of inability to meet the requirements. An example in the response of the beggar children according to the narrator in Why Are We So Blest? who have only their mothers as the remaining members of their families. They know nothing about the whereabouts of their fathers, except they are dead. Even Solo could not succeed to understand the situation of those children.

I have made a few attempts to find out who they are, but they do not say much. When asked about their families they talk of their mothers. About their fathers they all give the same answer: “Mon père? Il est mort.’’[…] It is not an emotional statement they make about their fathers, just a statement of fact [7].

This quote from the Ghanaian author’s novel sheds, light on a real fact concerning the missing fathers from their loss of prestige to death in African novels, as in both novels’ understudy. The image of the father no longer keeps its characteristics of male virility and position in modern society. It was his conditions that pushed him to escape the threat of decay, which stripped him of all fatherly dignity. He had no choice but to leave the country or commit suicide. The narrator quotes the word of Obeirika who interprets his death as:

[… ] an abomination to take his own life. It is an offence against the earth and a man who commits it will not be buried by his clansmen. His body is evil and only strangers may touch it. That is why we ask yourself to bring him down, because you are strangers.

Okonkwo has been the one accused of depersonalizing society. However, the acculturation that its emergence gradually caused was more devastating than the deaths or his whereabouts which was credited with, rightly or wrongly. Another factor to consider is the distress over the loss of tradition and customs, whether driven by his love of the tradition or the meaning of his devotion to it, which can be seen as the main reasons for his retreat and suicide. These similar problems have been recognisable through various figures, including those of the wrestler, the father, the warrior or uncle, husband simply. Therefore, the past serves as the standard for explaining the current situation and the factors that explain it abound in Armah and Achebe’s novels.

Man’s Degrading Prestige in Postcolonial Society 

The long-lasting oppositions between men, his culture and the effects of colonialism have been Armah and Achebe’s concerns while writing their novels, Armah’s account of man is widely dealt with in his novel The Healers. The character who best illustrates the degrading prestige of the man is Asamoa Nkwanta, from the peak of the social hierarchy. Indeed, he has reached the highest level of recognition a soldier ever has in the armies’ kingdom of ancient Ghana depicted by Armah as follows. Indeed, he is first represented as ‘Srafo Kra’ which means in the Akan language, the soul of the Ashanti army, the greatest general ever had in the history of the Ashanti army, then “Master General” and finally ‘Osajefo’, he is the army itself. As commander-in-chief, the military represents more than just a passion to him. However, life turns into a situation of disadvantage and weakness. This brave man faces two main problems due to his social status. The question on: how the concept dramatically lost its prestige during the colonial and postcolonial periods? The first answer to this request is linked with the tradition, of which he seems to be a victim. Similarly, Achebe’s novel Things Fall Apart paints the life of Okonkwo the warrior censuring the Igbo culture and tradition, after he highly valued them. He also wanted to avoid changes coming out of the landing of the Christian missionaries. These situations brought him into a confrontation until he knew a tragic death by suicide. It may be more accurate to say he values tradition because of the high cost he has paid to uphold it, for instance, he kills Ikemefuna and moved to his mother’s village Mbanta for seven years. The second is a political issue. According to the narrator, the story about the male virility of these intelligent and charismatic warriors and strategists is told in a wretched way. In doing so, the characters evoke the reader’s consideration for the tragedies experienced in societies. Uchendu explains this to Okonkwo:

It is true that a child belongs to his father. But when the father beats his child, it seeks sympathy in its mother’s hut. A man belongs to his fatherland when things are good and life is sweet. But when there is sorrow and bitterness, he finds refuge in his motherland. Your mother is there to protect you. She is buried there. And that is why we say that mother is supreme.

Asamoa Nkwanta has admitted to Damfo, a master therapist in these words: “The military was my life. I can't remember a single unlucky day as a warrior. I wanted to spend my life fighting for Asante and I wanted him to continue working in my blood after I died. My nephew…”. Therefore, this sentence ended with the sentiment that he still felt that the general wanted to pass on the art of warfare and hand over the army to his nephew my blood rather than his son. This above passage is an illustration of an African matrilineal society of Akan, particularly in Ghana and a man’s birthright normally belongs to his nephew, with whom they share the same blood. Therefore, Asamoa Nkwanta, who predicted a better future to his nephew before the latter one was brutally shot dead by the prince. The warrior leader did not expect this premature death of his Nephew, which activated his moral decadence to the point that he decided to end his profession discussed in Damfo’s words: “That murder sickened his soul and he can do nothing till the disease of his soul is cured”. The death of this nephew can be compared to that of Ikemefuna, who called Okonkwo “father”. This greatly contributed to his exclusion due to causes beyond his control and the journey of Ezinma Okonkwo’s favorite daughter with Chielo, the priestess of Agbala (Agbala: an Igbo word which means a woman; also used of a man who has taken no title). Achebe questions, particularly through Obierika, whether adherence to culture is for the betterment of society when it has created many problems and sacrifices regarding Okonkwo and his family. The suffering of the hero can be seen as the consequence of his strong desire to keep his male virility although the oldest man in the village of Umofia warned him to not participate in the murder of Ikemefuna. Okonkwo “… was afraid of being thought weak [2].” Yet, after the ritual he could not eat or sleep; "He felt like a drunken giant walking with the limbs of a mosquito.” Unfortunately, this has led him to his loss of self-prestige. Indeed, he should be the protector but not the murderer. Thus, the notion of failure correlates with the idea of change in Umuofia and a shift in cultural values. Asamoa Nkwanta and Okonkwo are all victim of their culture and social alteration. This can be explained through Okonkwo’s radical and inconsistent attitude against anything foreign or not virile like the attitude of his father Unoka.

Besides, another example of moral decay can be found in a conversation between Asamoa Nkwanta and Damfo therapist, in which the warrior was depressed but did not condemn the practice; rather his nephew was a victim of the royalty Nkwanta has been serving all his life. He keeps condemning this fact and suspects it is ambiguous and abnormal. In this sense, the author advocates for a more equal society and recognition of the social classes. This is the method that the author uses to deal with the problem. For instance, Armah uses a distinctive discourse to convince his readers to discover the truth. The conversation between Damfo the master therapist and Asamoa Nkwanta reveals important truths about the warrior’s unprofitable virility, despite his state of nobility, high recognition and glory in the Ashanti Armies; he could not save his nephew from this tragedy. The following conversation between two men, the warrior and the therapist, informs the reader of the status of a social pact that has the merit to be renegotiated. Here is an extract of this conversation:

 “You do not feel like serving royalty?’ ‘It never was my aim just to serve royalty,’ Asamoa Nkwanta said. ‘I like men who think well and act promptly for a good purpose. I respect them. If I find such men among the royals I respect them.’ ‘Do you find such men among the royals?’ Damfo asked Asamoa Nkwanta. Asamoa Nkwanta hesitated, a man searching his head for answers, before replying: ‘Osei Tutu was such a man.’ ‘Certainly,’ Damfo said. ‘But what of the royals today?’ ‘They have inherited royal power’ Asamoa Nkwanta said. ‘But the unfortunate thing is they have not inherited the skills and strength of personality that fit their uncles to be kings.’ ‘So you would say the first kings did serve the people well?’ Damfo asked. ‘Certainly. Of the likes of Osei Tutu and Obiri Yeboa, I shall always say that,’ Asamoa Nkwanta said. ‘Is it possible that what paralyses your will is a sense that the royals no longer serve the people? ‘The royals these days serve only themselves’, Asamoa Nkwanta said, sadly. ‘If that is true, what is the army you have built your life around?’ Damfo asked. ‘A plaything the royals indulge themselves with,’ Asamoa Nkwanta said calmly”.

In this passage the issue of male virility of the warrior is emphasised and the role of royals on their subjects. Indeed, the role of the Ashanti army is to serve and protect their people and defend against foreign aggressions, but not pursue fratricidal wars against their people the Ashanti. Asamoa Nkwanta character not only embodies the pride of the warriors but the moral decadence in all its forms in the novel. He is both a victim of male virility and a perverted tradition that, instead of creating a positive and inspiring force, constitutes a self-repressive one. Anti-colonial African literary writers were motivated to attribute African society’s problems to colour prejudice rather than class conflicts. As a result, the image of the warrior as painted in The Healers and Things Fall Apart, contrasts with that of the idealistic heroic warriors that Africa needs. 

Likewise, the character of the warrior Asamoa Nkwanta is a means to question the structures of African tradition, in this case, the importance of matrilineal society, which governs the customary law of Akan in Ghana and patriarchal Igbo society must be taken into account as suggested by the Ghanaian and Nigerian authors in their mission to cultural preservation. Indeed, as Asamoa Nkwanta demonstrated in The Healers, the fragmentary portrayal of Okonkwo colonial society contrasts with the father’s image, aware of his role and concerned about its protection. From Asamoa Nkwanta to Okonkwo, the gap between traditional and modern Africa is measured by the different interpretations of customs. A comparison of the traditional uncle and father with the moderns’ shows how colonial and postcolonial Africa look as a society in difficulty as it has lost its sociocultural references. The image of the man is either Uncle or Father; other characters appear according to society’s expectations. Therefore, they appear as symbols of the social and cultural collapse of both writers whose novels about postcolonial and colonial Africa evoke consideration. Indeed, despite the matrilineal prevalence in some African societies, the image of man either uncle or father remains the dominant figure in families structured on traditional models. They exercise fatherly powers, embody security and inspire admiration in their children. 

This face of the man, which some West African writers like Camara Laye admire in their work, is transformed in Armah’s and Achebe’s novels. The socio-cultural pressures on man dominate his portrait. The latter is extremely frustrated with his inability to meet the ever-changing demands of his culture and society due to the many efforts and recognitions remodelled today through different challenges that threaten the average people in independent African societies. So, do the protagonists of these novels, The Healers and Things Fall Apart Asamoa Nkwanta and Okonkwo as men. In the Ghanaian and Nigerian societies that both authors promptly portray, if morality is held in high esteem in the eyes of the people, they will be respected for their good actions for the sake of the society they served with dignity. Here, a man’s value is measured by his accomplishments. Unfortunately, the positive actions of a man do not mean he is above the cultural codes and rules of the society except being at the head of the kingdom or country. This is an explanation of man’s condition of inability to meet the requirements for his family in postcolonial African society which can be in this quote from Armah’s first novel.

“My poor husband!’’ said the old woman, over and over again. “You have no shoes to wear, so your poor little feet get torn to pieces. Ei, my husband, you have nobody, nobody to buy you shoes, so your little toes will all be destroyed.’’ She went close up to the boy and peered down at his feet, looking for the one with the cut on it. “Where is the wound, my husband? Where is it? You must know you have nobody, you are an orphan, a complete orphan. You mustn’t run around, like people who have men behind them, to buy them shoes. My poor husband!’’ [8]. 

The humiliation this man suffered at the hands of his mother-in-law is more evident here than it is. After getting in touch with the customs of the capitalist world, she unhesitatingly pushed aside the respect and dignity of her daughter’s husband and the virtues celebrated in ancient Africa. This father is so ashamed that he fails to set an example for his children that the father should follow. But what makes his situation even more dramatic is that communication between him and his wife has become impossible. Here he has lost his male virility, not only in his role as a father but also in his role as a husband. The man is silenced and excluded from the society. The only person he can communicate with is his friend known as “the teacher.” Here the hostility of society towards the two men is expressed in this work. They appear as nameless. So, the author could not imagine a better portrayal of weakness than that of these two men in their tireless search for moral and social values. Another character that embodies man’s loss of verity, in Achebe’s work is Unoka, who is Okonkwo’s father, a man the author paints negatively due to his weakness. He is not the equal of his son who celebrates his male virility. Unoka is morally indifferent and poor. He died from swelling and was likewise considered an abomination, a man who has lost his male virility.

How do these changes persist in today African’s society whose total peculiarity is largely described? The answer can be found through the analysis of both Armah and Achebe’s fiction related to the issues of the colonial period in which we note the contact between other cultures and the situation of man and his culture. To better understand the motives behind their approaches, one must review the reasons for the long-lasting trauma of colonial and postcolonial conquests to the failure and deadly revolutions experienced in Africa. 

In this context, the loss of prestige of man as a warrior, a father or an uncle can only be explained by a disorientation of their virility doubly by colonial existence and its outcomes in different African societies. Although, man’s decline experienced by characters such as Asamoa Nkwanta and Okonkwo and their fellows in the novels is so far linked to changes that come with colonialism and their cultural devotions, or as simply as men. Their condition as described in The Healers and Things Fall Apart is an illustration of the interaction with past and present in man’s everyday life in the complexity of his society. This situation altered his life to the point of pushing him to his prejudice or simply capitulating. This cultural past, with its dark side of beliefs, useless rituals and actions of rulers of the Ashanti Empire, according to the perception of the Ghanaian author, galvanised, firstly, socio-cultural and economic changes during the colonial period, for instance, the intricacy of the Igbo culture as described in Things Fall Apart. Then, the adoption of new social theories, misinterpreted by Africans as Modernism and Capitalism have pushed the “modern man” into a perpetual quest for power and material ownership have taken over his way of life to the point that he gradually loses his male virility as a father, uncle, or simply “Man” to reap the fruit of his indignation. Therefore, the only way for the “modern man” to keep his position in his society is to resort to African values as a guarantee of his ideal prestige and his freedom in his today’s society.

In the end, we can say that from the figure of the man either uncle or father, through that of the uncle and the father, the feeling that emerges from the literary productions of Armah and Achebe is that of moral exasperation. The pressing Socio-cultural problems in African society have altered the individuals’ living conditions, while colonialism has been so often associated with a depersonalisation of man in this work thus jeopardising male virility and pride in society. Armah and Achebe’s tones are far from excessive. Staged situations are often symbolised by the loss of dignity of the heroes this may be the strength of their message. In this, their painting of the attitude of men in African society seems to us even more relevant, because it goes beyond the symbolic representation and has shown more clearly the delicate and precarious situation of the African culture in the current context. However, the novels expose the authors’ need to revise certain socio-cultural beliefs for more inclusiveness and equal advantages of all Africans across their cultural codes of conduct and together be more efficient and successful in the decolonisation process. Therefore, they will certainly avoid man’s victimisation in his society. Otherwise, colonialism and some ancient cultural beliefs as portrayed in the authors’ work are favourable to male marginalisation. As a result, the analysis of the issues in this work shows that contrary to this principle of dignity and equity, colonialism under British colonial rule somehow succeeded in its politic of disintegration and socio-political changes in both Akan and Igbo communities. Consequently, European colonial rule imported into Africa for economic exploitation of the continent as well as, ranked and disruptive cultural practices engendered circumstances that jeopardised man’s condition in his social environment which is in contrast to Armah’s ideal representation of pre-colonial Africa. 

Therefore, a question arises: to what extent is man’s moral decadence as dealt with in Armah and Achebe the result of their attitudes in societies, to the extent that capitulation becomes obvious? Or is it not more judicious to consider this decadence as a vision of a cultural and anti-colonial doomed to failure?

1. Armah A.K. The Healers. London, Heinemann African Writers Series, 1979.

2.  Achebe C. Things Fall Apart. London, William Heinemann Ltd., 1958.

3. “Akan.” Encyclopaedia Britannica, www.britannica .com/topic/Akan.

4. “Igbo.” Encyclopaedia Britannica, www.britannica. com/topic/Igbo.

5. Dean M. Governmentality: Power and rule in modern society. The Modern Law Review 63.5 (September 2000): 785–788.

6.  Kane C.H. L’Aventure ambiguë. Paris, Julliard, 1961.

7. Armah A.K. Why Are We So Blest? London, Heinemann African Writers Series, 1974.

8. Armah A.K. The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born.Ghana, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1968.