Anthills Of The Savannah

The internationally acclaimed Nigerian author Chinua Achebe’s novel Anthills of the Savannah (1987) is set in the fictional West-African country Kangan in the post-colonial 1960s. Echoing the real political breakdown, several violent coups, and an ethnic cleansing campaign again the Igbo people in 1960s Nigeria, Anthills of the Savannah describes the aftermath of a military coup in Kangan. The novel focuses on the last days in the lives of the newly installed military dictator, Sam, and his two friends: Chris, who becomes a member of the cabinet, and Ikem, an outspoken journalist.

The novel opens with a cabinet meeting of the new Kanganese government. We learn that two years ago, after a popularly supported coup, the career soldier Sam was installed as His Excellency, a dictator. Unsure on matters of policy and needing support, Sam recruited his two childhood friends to high-level positions: Chris Oriko as Minister of Information and Ikem Osodi as editor of the National Gazette, an important newspaper. Although the three share a common background and all were educated abroad in England, for the last two years they have grown politically and temperamentally very different. Sam is power-hungry, selfish, and paranoid. Ikem criticizes government policy and champions the arts. Chris, pragmatic and calm, is forced into the role of mediator.

After meeting several other African dictators, Sam decides to also become president-for-life, abandoning democratic ideals. A national referendum is called to confirm the change, but the Kanganese region of Abazon refuses to participate in the vote. To punish the province, Sam limits their access to water despite the fact that the country is experiencing a drought. In response, a delegation from Abazon travels to the capital to beg for relief. In a bout of paranoia, Sam convinces himself that the Abazonese representatives are actually about to stage a revolt – a revolt that has been organized and supported by someone close to him.



Chris and Ikem are both worried that Sam’s increasingly erratic fears about betrayal make him an unstable and dangerous leader. The two friends respond differently to their concerns. While Chris decides to stay in the government in hopes of containing Sam from the inside, Ikem writes critical and almost radical editorials in the Gazette. Chris asks Ikem to tone down his rhetoric.

The novel flashes back in time slightly to introduce us to the women in these men’s lives. Ikem’s pregnant girlfriend, Elewa, is from the working classes. Uneducated, she works in a store. Chris’s fiancée is the well-educated Beatrice, a woman who was childhood friends with Ikem and works as a state administrator for Sam. Because she has connections to the government, the educated media classes, and also the common people, Beatrice sees the situation from a much clearer vantage point than either Chris or Ikem. She tells them that their reactions to Sam aren’t productive.

Back in the present, Sam becomes convinced that Ikem is behind the “rebellion” being fomented by the Abazon representatives. He orders Chris to fire Ikem from the Gazette. Although Chris refuses to obey, Ikem is still removed from the position. After he gives a fiery speech criticizing the dictatorship to university students, Ikem is arrested and killed by Sam’s secret police.



This extrajudicial murder jolts Chris into the awareness that Sam has become a monster. Chris contacts the international media, revealing the reality of the regime to them, and goes into hiding with the help of some sympathizers, including Emmanuel, a student who was deeply inspired by Ikem. Chris’s goal is to escape the capital city and to travel to Abazon with Emmanuel by bus. Chris’s defection infuriates Sam, and he orders a nation-wide manhunt for both Chris and anyone who helps Chris or withholds information about him.

Because Chris takes a bus to Abazon, he is forced to reconnect with the people and land around him. At the same time, Emmanuel meets another student, Adamma, and forms a romantic connection with her. Suddenly, the bus is overtaken by a mob of drunken revelers. Chris learns that these people are celebrating the overthrow and assassination of Sam – his dictatorship has just been toppled in yet another coup. The streets are full of both joyful festivity and scary chaos, and after Chris, Emmanuel, and Adamma are separated, Chris notices Adamma being kidnapped by a soldier who is about to rape her. Chris runs to intervene and the soldier shoots and kills him.

After finding out about her fiancé’s death, Beatrice holds a naming ceremony for Ikem and Elewa’s newborn daughter. Usually, the naming is performed by a man, but Beatrice is symbolically trying to break the cycle. She names the baby Amaechina, a male name that means “may the path never close.”



Anthills of the Savannah received rave reviews and was a finalist for the 1987 Booker Prize for Fiction, an incredibly prestigious award. Echoing most of the scholarly opinions, the critic Holger Ehling has called this work the “most important novel to come out of Africa in the 1980s.”