The Image of African Intellectuals and the Position of Education in Achebe’s No Longer at Ease

Year 2024, Issue: 23, 286 - 299, 10.12.2024

Yüsra Boylu

https://doi.org/10.46250/kulturder.1569688

Abstract

Education serves as a constructing process of the society and the intellectuals stand as the constructors of this process. The intellectuals have both positive and negative impacts on social construction and deconstruction. However, it is mostly the political motivation that determines the role of education and intellectuals in society. No Longer at Ease, with its protagonist Obi Okonkwo who goes to England for his university study and returns to his motherland Nigeria after four years of education, presents the expectations and contributions of education and exemplifies the ineffective status of African intellectuals resulting from the policies of the imperialist powers. The deliberate representation of the Easterners and the Westerners, their attributed racial properties, and the apathy and misconduct of the African intellectuals are of great interest in the novel and accordingly in this paper. The conflicting image of the Easterner and the Westerner intellectuals are particularized and the unsimilar outputs of education for the conflicting sides are analyzed regarding the educated people of the East and the West. This study delves into background information, examines the influence of education on society implying the vanity of the African’s education, offers the significance and role of the intellectuals, and deals with the contradiction of the African ones by presenting a picture of society, particularly that of intellectuals.

Keywords

education, intellectual, No Longer at Ease, African society, corruption

Achebe’nin Artık Huzur Yok Romanında Afrika Aydınlarının İmajı ve Eğitimin Yeri

Abstract

Eğitim toplumun inşa sürecine hizmet eder, entelektüeller ise bu sürecin mimarı konumundadırlar. Entelektüellerin toplumsal inşa ve yıkım üzerinde hem olumlu hem de olumsuz etkileri vardır. Ancak, toplumda eğitimin ve entelektüellerin rolünü belirleyen şey çoğunlukla politik motivasyondur. Üniversite eğitimi için İngiltere'ye giden ve dört yıl eğitim gördükten sonra anavatanı Nijerya'ya dönen başkahraman Obi Okonkwo ile Artık Huzur Yok, eğitimin beklenti ve katkılarını sergiler ve emperyalist güçlerin politikaları sonucu Afrika aydınlarının etkisizleşmesini örneklendirir. Doğulular ve Batılıların kasıtlı temsili, onlara atfedilen ırksal özellikler, Afrikalı aydınların ilgisizliği ve kusurlu davranışları romanda ve dolayısıyla bu makalede ilgi odağıdır. Doğulu ve Batılı aydınların çatışan imajı ayrıntılandırılır ve çatışan taraflar için eğitimin farklı sonuçları Doğu ve Batı'nın eğitimli insanları dikkate alınarak analiz edilir. Bu çalışma, konu hakkındaki temel bilgileri ele almakta, Afrikalıların eğitiminin anlamsızlığını ima ederek eğitimin toplum üzerindeki etkisini incelemekte, entelektüellerin önemini ve rolünü ortaya koymakta ve Afrikalıların çelişkilerini, toplumun özellikle de entelektüellerin, resmini tasvir ederek ele almaktadır.

Keywords

eğitim, entelektüel, Artık Huzur Yok, Afrika toplumu, yolsuzluk

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