FATHERS OF NATIONS GUIDE, QUESTIONS AND ANSWERSSuffering, Oppression and DeathFATHER OF NATIONS THEMES/ISSUES/THEMATIC CONCERNS
Suffering is at different levels: psychological, physically and emotional.
Most of the sufferings in the novel are psychological and emotional. Many characters have undergone harrowing experiences that have brought untold suffering to them. Prof. Kimani loses his daughter in a road accident. He also loses his wife Asiya to his former colleague at the university turn a Member of Parliament. This loss of wife brings about a fight between him and Newborn Walomu. The fight earns an arrest and charges of assault pressed on him. He's jailed for six months and a demotion follows thereafter. All these accumulate to a dejected man which brings a lot of psychological and emotional suffering. He is a disturbed man. When Tad Longway comes along and proposes Path Alpha, he readily accepts for he finds solace in the whole thing. After being rejected by Ms. Rahma Mahmoud, Engineer Tahir avenges by slapping her, something she does not take lying low. She retaliates and throws something at him which gets to his eye and slits it. In revenge, Engineer Tahir goes to court to seek justice and the court rules based on the Arabic law which calls for gorging out her eye in return. Because of the psychological suffering he undergoes, Tahir leaves Tripoli for Benghazi.
Comrade Ngobile Melusi undergoes psychological trauma too. After helping the ruler, he's left to languish in poverty he is not appointed a minister. When the Ndebele leader misses out on appointment, the southern part of the country inhabited by the Ndebele demonstrate and riot. Property and lives are lost. Ziliza, Mclusi's wife dies in the exchange. When his economic status changes and he's forced to go and stay in the slums which are later on flattened "to create way for roads." All these eat on the nerves of Comrade Ngobile Melusi.
Pastor Chineke Chiannaka after his controversial sermon is arrested. He's later on released and given conditions among them not to preach, something very difficult to live by. The African leaders (fathers of nations) are oppressors. They expose the common citizen to untold suffering. The four men are good narratives of this assertion. After falling out with the fathers of nations, Prof. Kimani, Pastor Chiamaka, Comrade the heavy and long arm of the Melusi and Engineer Tahir government meets them and does not give them room to express themselves. They have to be organized by an outside force to seek alternative way from the status quo by advocating for Path Alpha, a new strategy and discourse as opposed to Way Omega. Apart from the physical death of Tuni , Ziliza and many others, there's also death of vision. The fathers of nations have no vision for the continent and direction for their countries. The discussion at the summit is jerky and disorganized. There's also death of vision of our founding fathers of nations. The vision was to fight ignorance, disease and poverty. Several years after independence, the continent is still wallowing in miasma of confusion and stagnation.
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