No Longer at Ease Summary

No Longer at Ease takes place in the mid-1950s in Lagos, Nigeria, in the waning days of British colonial rule. The novel follows Obi Okonkwo, a promising young Nigerian man from the rural town of Umuofia who was sent to England on a scholarship funded by a council of fellow Umuofians that had been formed with the purpose of raising funds to send Umuofians to study abroad. The council had expected Obi to study law, but once in England, he chose to study English literature instead.

Upon Obi’s return to Nigeria, he receives a cushy job in the Civil Service, where he soon finds that bribery, to which he strongly objects, is rampant. He falls in love with a young woman named Clara and strikes up a relationship with her, intending to marry her. However, Clara’s background stalls Obi’s plans: Clara is an osu, a member of a caste considered untouchable by traditional Igbo beliefs. Obi’s father Isaac is a strict Christian and considers the traditional folk culture of his community to be “heathenry,” but even he respects the prohibition against marrying an osu and firmly commands his son not to do it, as does his mother, who dies shortly thereafter.

Grief-stricken, Obi intends to go through with the marriage anyhow, but now Clara herself has mysteriously turned on the idea and becomes distant from Obi. He discovers that she is pregnant and helps her procure an illegal abortion, but after this, she refuses to speak to him again.

Meanwhile, Obi finds himself in mounting debt thanks to the combination of his lavish new lifestyle and his financial ignorance. Part of his job is to advance candidates in a competition for scholarships to England, and he finally feels that he has no choice but to accept a bribe from one of the candidates’ parents in order to extricate himself from his financial difficulties. Soon, Obi’s resistance to taking bribes dissolves, and he finds himself taking bribes regularly and living the high life.

One day, Obi caught accepting a bribe in a sting operation and brought to trial, where he is convicted. His fall from grace baffles and disappoints his many colleagues, friends, and family members, who all thought he was a promising young man.