Notes on the politics of 'The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born' by Ayi Kwei Armah
Heinemann, 1988, Oxford

Chapter One

Opening scene - bus conductor receives a cedi coin from a "boastful" (p.3) 'big man', - an introduction to the theme of wealth juxtaposed with grinding poverty

Waste is not collected in the city; symbolic of poor governance?

describes a building in which "only the name had changed with independence" (p.9) - again, symbolic in wider sense?
- comments that the same old corruption and mismanagement goes on as pre-independence, but now "there was nowhere for it [the anger] to go" (p.10)

Evocative, visceral description of a stair banister "The wood underneath would win and win until the end of time" (p.12) resilience of the wood (or people?) to the efforts of the polish (or government?)

Chapter Two

Unnamed narrator - what does this mean? Is Armah trying to stress the universality of 'the man?'

happy people are regarded with suspicion (like in Heller's Catch 22)

the messenger in the office has one 100 cedis on the lottery, but he will need to bribe an official to get even part of his money - he seems to accept this as a fact of life: "This is Ghana" (p.19)

Chapter Three

there is lots of heat and distraction "the sense of confusion which it would be impossible to fix and against which it would be merely foolish to protest" (p.20) again, a broader metaphor

refers to "the increasing numbers who had decided they were already so deep in despair that there was nothing worse to fear in life" (p.22)

extended discussions of dirt and cleanliness - a theme

the hero refuses to take a bribe from a wood contractor, even though it would be easy for him to do so
- later an optimistic young worker relieves him
- "the unwary freedom of the young man....filled the man with an undefined fear of things that had not yet come" (p.33) - inertia, even in time of dramatic change

Chapter Four

The man goes home to his wife, who is much more pragmatic than he is. She despairs the fact that he has declined a bribe, while Koomson and his wife are rapidly climbing in society. Koomson has offered the wife's mother a boat - the man doubts that Koomson is able to afford one by legitimate means.

Chapter Five

refers to 'the gleam' - a shorthand for the carrot of wealth, power, money etc - links to earlier descriptions of cleanliness and dirt

"the blinding light of beautiful new houses and the shine of powerful new Mercedes car. It is also the scent of expensive perfumes and the mass of a new wig"

the teacher sarcastically defends corruption, saying that the principled stance of 'the man' is "ill-mannered, unpatriotic" and brands him part of the "subversive elements who attack the nation's fabric"

the wife uses the metaphor of roads and driving to explain how corruption works in Ghana - to get anywhere, you need to learn to drive fast (or be corrupt) and avoid accidents (or being caught)
the teacher on freedom "if we can't consume ourselves for something we believe in, freedom makes no difference at all. You see, I am free to do what I want, but there is nothing happening now that I want to join" (p.61)

Chapter Six

references made to soldiers coming back to war who "brought murder in their hearts"

"the white men's gleaming bungalows were so far away, so unreachably far that people did not even think of them in their suffering" (p.66)

a boy is stealing from the white man's fruit yard - a comment on inequality?

"the white man, in case he exists, must not be waked up" (p.68) another comment on the distance, segregation of the white man

guard of the fruit yard; "the black men are truly angry, angrier than the dogs" (p.68) a reference to a comprador class?
 - on poverty "money was not pieces of paper the farmers burned to their wealth. Money was life." (p.77)

extended discussion of despair etc

"surely something could still be done by a good man...something for which people" questions the teacher

discussion of Plato's cave metaphor; the people's ignorance

"How long will Africa be cursed with its leaders?" (p.80)

"Our masters were the white men and we were coming to know this; and the knowledge was filling us with fear first and then with anger. And they who would be our leaders, they also have white men for their masters. (p.81)

castigates Ghanaians who pretend to be "the dark ghost of a European"

associations of British power, and those who inherit it with magic "they spoke to us in the knowledge that they were our magicians, people with some secret power behind them" (p.81)

disregards those Ghanaians who seek power in emulating the ways of the white man "We knew then, and we know now, that the only power a black man can have will come from the black people" (p.82)
- those leaders who plead "'Have faith inn us. We know the white man and his ways. Have faith in us. Plan R, Plan X, Plan Z. (p.82)
- Armah suggests that the ordinary people ignored, even mocked, these men "Better to let the clowns talk to each other and the white men they love with so much fire" (p.82)

Manaan tells the man and his friends that she is going to a political rally. This surprises them, as they have long since become scornful and apathetic towards politicians
- Manaan seems optimistic "His is new and he is young" (p.84)

the new politician seems to be arguing for a self-help philosophy - "let us look inward. What are we? What have we? (p.86)

sharp attack on those who pretend to follow an ideology in order to get rich

Chapter Seven

the teacher wonders "whether the rot and the weakness were not after all the eternal curse of Africa itself" (p.91)
- he has become more cynical and pessimistic "I saw men tear down the veils behind which the truth had been hidden. But then the same men, when they have power in their hands at last, began to find the veils useful" (p.92)

"that is all anyone ever struggles for: to be nearer the white man" (p.92)

the man wonders whether he really hates those who follow corruption or "whether it is envy that makes me hate what I see" (p.92)

gives example of people making money corruptly but cleverly, so they are not caught. Such men are held up as role models for society

Chapter Eight

one of the men's superiors used to work for a school, in the finance department, from which he stole money. Students at the school wrote a letter of complaint to the Ministry of Education, and were expelled. When others rioted in support, the school was closed
- "In another country they would be in jail. Here they are heroes." (p.110)

Chapter Nine

Oyo wants the man to buy expensive drinks and food to entertain Koomson and his wife; this is a struggle for them, especially with "the rise in price of things"

rise on consumerism: the man feels happy when he is shopping "because of the admiring glances of people in the shops, for whom a man's value could only be as high as the cost of the things he could buy" (p.115) - also because he feels briefly able to "do the heroic things that were expected of him all the time" (p.114)

Chapter Ten

the describes theft as "the national game" (p.129)
do the individuals of a nation reflect the ideology of the state - Plato?

"the socialists of Africa, fat, perfumed, soft with the ancestral softness of chiefs who had sold their people and are celestially happy with the fruits of the trade" (p.131)

Chapter Eleven

The taxi driver comments "everybody is making things now except us. We Africans are only able to buy expensive things"

the wife has delusions of grandeur - fantasises about being rich and powerful like Koomson and his wife, who they visit

the man appears to question his beliefs - contemplating corruption as justified by children, who benefit from 'the gleam' but are not tainted by the means of acquisition

Oyo agrees to sign for the boat

Chapter Twelve

cynical commentary on anti-corruption initiative:

"the net had been made in the special Ghanaian way that allowed the really big, corrupt people to pass through it" (p.154)

meaningless slogans "Build Socialism. Equality. Shit." (p.154)

Chapter Thirteen

comments on the time-wasting, meaningless jobs: "A job is a job. It did not matter at all that nothing was done on most jobs" (p.156)

the man hears of a military coup, where Nkrumah is removed. Members of the Party are being arrested and imprisoned

the man expects little to change: "New people, new style, old dance" (p.157)

people join demonstrations in support of the new government, without knowing anything about the leaders

"Someday in the long future a new life would maybe flower in the country, but when it came, it would not choose as its instruments the same people  who had made a habit of killing new flowers" (p.160)

Koomson is taking refuge in the man's house, fearing arrest and death. There is a dense semantic field of shit, one that has been used throughout the novel, now highly concentrated, as he escapes. visceral

Chapter Fourteen

Koomson and the man escape together across the sea, with the former minister having to ask for the help of someone who used to work for him

the man returns to his wife, still unhappy and disillusioned - a comment about continuity?