Civil Peace
short story by Chinua Achebe
Civil Peace (1971) by Chinua Achebe is one of Africa’s most prominent authors and often considered the father of the modern African novel. The story explores the period that followed the Nigerian Civil War, also known as the Biafran War (1967-1970). The Igbo people of southeast Nigeria wanted freedom from the Hausa people and proclaimed independence forming the Republic of Biafra. Achebe investigates the period through the lens of his character Jonathan Iwegbu, whose motto “Nothing puzzles God” (82) guides him through the corruption and violence of postwar Nigeria.
- Jonathan Iwegbu counted himself extra-ordinarily lucky."
- Narrator
- He had come out of the war with five inestimable blessings--his head, his wife Maria's head and the heads of three out of their four children.
- Narrator
- That night he buried it in the little clearing in the bush where the dead of the camp, including his own youngest son, were buried.
- Narrator
- Nothing puzzles God."
- Jonathan Iwegbu
- Of courses the doors and windows were missing and five sheets off the roof. But what was that?
- Narrator
- As the weeks lengthened and still nobody could say what was what Jonathan discontinued his weekly visits altogether and faced his palm-wine bar."
- Narrator
- He had to be extra careful because he had seen a man a couple of days earlier collapse into near-madness in an instant before that oceanic crowd because no sooner had he got his twenty pounds than some heartless ruffian picked it off him."
- Narrator
- My frien... we don try our best for call dem but I tink say dem all done sleep-o... So wetin we go do now? Sometaim you wan call soja? Or you wan make we call dem for you? Soja better pass police. No be so?
- Thief Leader
- No Civil War again. This time na Civil Peace. No be so?
- Thief Leader
- 'I count it as nothing,' he told sympathizers, his eyes on the rope he was tying. 'What is egg-rasher? Did I depend on it last week? Or is it greater than other things that went with the war? I say, let egg-rasher perish in the flames! Let it go where everything else has gone. Nothing puzzles God.
- Jonathan Iwegbu
- Happy survival!’ meant so much more to him than just a current fashion of greeting old friends in the first hazy days of peace. It went deep to his heart. He had come out of the war with five inestimable blessings—his head, his wife Maria’s head, and the heads of three out of their four children. As a bonus, he also had his old bicycle—a miracle too but naturally not to be compared to the safety of five human heads.”
- Page 82
- The bicycle had a little history of its own.
- Page 82
- Jonathan Iwegbu counted himself extraordinarily lucky. 'Happy survival!' meant so much more to him than just a current fashion of greeting old friends in the first hazy days of peace. It went deep to his heart. He had come out of the war with five inestimable blessings—his head, his wife Maria's head, and the heads of three out of four of their children. As a bonus he also had his old bicycle—a miracle too but naturally not to be compared to the safety of five human heads."
- (Paragraph 1, p. 1).
- egg-rasher” because they couldn’t pronounce the official term “ex-gratia”
- Page 84
- Na tief-man and him people”
- Page 85
- Police-o! Thieves-o! Neighbours-o! Police-o! We are lost! We are dead! Neighbours, are you asleep? Wake up! Police-o!”
- 86
