Saving Mr. Ugwu

1329 Words6 Pages
Saving Mr Ugwu The Nigerian Civil war was a three-year ethical and political conflict in the 60’s. The conflict was a result of tensions between the Muslim Hausas from the North and the Southern Christian Igbos. The tensions were various but included issues which where ethnical and religious. Lin Anderson tries to describe the ethnical and hierarchical tensions a man is exposed to in the short story Saving Mr Ugwu. Tensions which originated both from the white rich men, who had hired him to do their dirty work, and from being an Igbo whose job was to deliver an unsatisfying pay check to a crowd of Hausas. Mr Ugwu is the main character of the story and we hear about his point of view. He belongs to the Christian Igbos which is one of the more dominant tribes in Nigeria. Lately, the Ugwu family has been moved from the country’s largest city, Lagos, to the bush because of Mr Ugwu’s work. The working Hausas, where the Ugwu family now lives, dominate the bush. From the Ugwu family’s point of view the bush is not a desirable place to live. Mr Ugwu describes the bush as “godforsaken”, “uncivilised” and “barren”. When Mr Ugwu smells the rain he is instantly reminded of “home”, which probably is Lagos, a place full with life. Mr Ugwu is very affluent. He lives in a bungalow and has people hired to take care of it. He is very aware of how lucky he is and he says too himself, “The Company has been good to him (…)” (p. 2 l. 41-42). But his work is hard and it is normal for him to work on Saturdays: “Today, Saturday, is payday and he is on duty. There is nothing strange about that (…)” (p. 2 l. 47). In the environment where Mr Ugwu lives, the hierarchy plays a huge role. The Europeans are the people with the highest influence and the people who are highest in the hierarchy. They treat those, who are below them rather badly. Mr Ugwu is below the Europeans but even though
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