See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/338669564

Chester Alington's Quest for Meaning in Buchi

Emecheta's The New Tribe

Article · January 2007

CITATIONS READS
0 9,516

1 author:

Ndèye Sanou Lô
Cheikh Anta Diop University, Dakar
2 PUBLICATIONS   0 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

African Civilisation and Africa in the modern and contemporary world View project

All content following this page was uploaded by Ndèye Sanou Lô on 18 January 2020.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

 Safara, n°6 Janvier 2007

Chester arliington’s quest for meaning

in buchi emecheta’s the new tribe
*
Ndéye Sanou LO
Motif structurant du roman de Buchi Emecheta, The New Tribe, la
quête de sens met en crise la notion d’identité et éclaire la
dimension psychologique et humaine de l’œuvre. Notre lecture est
axée sur la double inscription de ce thème dans le parcours
aventureux du personnage principal et la stratégie narrative de
l’auteure nigériane.
La quête de sens s’enracine ici dans une recherche effrénée des
origines, entraînant l’éveil du « héros-quêteur » à tout un monde
de rêves et le condamnant à se sentir étranger à demeure.
L’investigation psychologique qu’opère le récit, épouse les
contours de cette déchirure identitaire essentielle.
The New Tribe décrit une quête spirituelle et ontologique qui
s’achève dans l’acceptation d’une identité humaine pleinement
assumée. Buchi Emecheta pose un regard critique et lucide sur
l’intégration des populations d’origine africaine dans une société
multiraciale.

Introduction

The New Tribe traces a young African boy’s search for his true self.
The plot centres on the figure of Chester Arlington, from his early
childhood days to his adolescence. The early sections of the novel recount
the circumstances of his adoption by an English family. From the very
beginning of the story, Buchi Emecheta highlights the character’s interior
landscapes and gives us some clues revealing that he suffers from a crisis of
identity and a feeling of exile.
Besides the theme of adoption with the great resentment it can
generate in some children, The New Tribe explores the complexity of a dual
heritage, both racial and cultural, and exemplifies a human experience
rooted in a quest for selfhood. Trapped in a world of white symbols,
Chester’s attempt to emancipate himself from that encapsulated white
community – which he views through the eyes of both an insider and an
*
Enseignant / Chercheur, Département d’Anglais UCAD
 Ndéye Sanou LÔ

outsider – not only throws light on his psychic wounds, but it also lays
emphasis on the hero’s pathetic quest for his own land.
My concern in this paper is with Chester Arlington’s quest for
meaning. I intend to show how the different phases in the hero’s search for
his biological roots, gradually lead him to self-introspection and
repudiation as well as transformation and discovery of his own being.
Besides the analysis of the character’s lack of a sense of belonging, what I
wish to consider in the last resort, is that The New Tribe offers an in-depth
exploration of the quest motif. In many respects, Chester’s feeling of
dispossession, his story of displacement and his quest for meaning can be
perceived as transitional steps lining a path which is basically that of
separation, initiation and return, the three stages of the traditional quest.

1./Chester’s psychic fragmentation

The determining impact of the social environment on the character is
clearly emphasized in the novel. The fact is that Chester Arlington is the
only black person in his family and in the small seaside town of St Simon.
Consequently, he faces the terrifying problem of answering these
inescapable questions: ‘Who am I?’, ‘Who are my real parents?’, and
‘What is my story?’… This traumatic experience affects a very little child
who is doomed to see himself as an alien in his own family. In his
simplicity and infantile interpretation of signs, he arrives at the conclusion
that Arthur and Ginny cannot be his real parents. The unvoiced awareness
of his difference, which is the result of the black boy’s empirical
observation, explains his habit of introspection. The need to scrutinize
himself and his actions haunts him. At the beginning of Chapter III, the
author explores the symptoms and the origins of the child’s uneasiness and
his search for coherence, defining implicitly an inherent rootlessness:
Chester could not remember the exact moment when he
knew he was adopted. It was like learning to feed yourself.
You knew you must have been taught while you were in the
cradle, but you could not pinpoint the exact minute or the
particular hour. It began as a glimmer and gradually became
a solid awareness, established, but somehow imprisoned
inside him. However, even at the age of four or five, he felt a
sense of unbelonging. He instinctively knew that broaching

34
 Chester arliington’s quest for meaning….

the subject with his parents would cause pain, and so he kept
1
silent, but he was sure it would come to light one day.

Living in an all-white neighbourhood and attending an all-white

school, Chester seems well adapted to this community. His code of
behaviour is friendly and unselfish. On page 11, he comforts a classmate
and shows his readiness to help. He longs for brotherhood and finds
companionship in a male environment. Ray Miller and his brothers are his
friends. The children feel free to wander from home to home. Yet it is with
his sister Julia that Chester demonstrates his ability to relate to others. They
are like siamese twins. At the beginning of the novel, Julia’s role is a
supportive one: she is her brother’s defender. Chester’s difference makes
his sister especially sensitive to his situation. In the following scene, the
little girl reacts impulsively and defies the headmaster who seems to be
tainted by some form of racism. Even though he may be well meaning, the
analogy the headmaster makes between Chester and an evil-natured
creature like the devil, is shocking. (p. 22) He seems to perpetuate
unconsciously a kind of racism inherited from colonial days. His words are
not free of religious and racial overtones insofar as they are reminiscent of
the stereotyped image of the black man, presented in colonial literature as
the demonic savage. As David Rabkin has observed, “the development of
racism is practically co-incidental with the rise of imperialism.”2 However,
one has to admit that the end of colonialism does not coincide with the
disappearance of racial prejudices, which on the contrary, continue to shape
in a large measure, the western world’s attitudes towards the descendants of
the colonized people in Africa. In that respect, the attitude of Chester
Arlington’s schoolmates is meaningful. They use the word ‘devil’ in a
mocking way, reproducing the same pattern of racism as the former
colonizers. (p. 22) That is to say that the historical, social and cultural
contexts of life govern – consciously or unconsciously – people’s mind and
behaviour. Even Ginny, with her well-intentioned concern with Chester’s
racial identity, is imprisoned within some racial preconceptions. It must be
noted that her own parents are retired colonial administrators.
1
All quotations in this article are from the Heinemann Educational Publishers, 2000 Edition
(African Writers Series)
2
The New Tribe, pp. 9-10.

35
 Ndéye Sanou LÔ

Consequently, her mentality may have been framed by their ideas about
Africa and the Africans. It is then possible to detect the evil effects of her
influence on her adopted son’s development. The point is that Ginny plays
an important part in the boy’s psychic partition and, most important, she
can be held responsible for directing Chester’s life and initiating him to the
knowledge of his roots abo she is completely ignorant. Her obsession with
the latter’s origin has led her to make an original child-book for a typical
African boy, nurturing her adopted son on the stories of his African culture.
Likewise, she exposes her disquietude and reacts vehemently on realizing
that people insist on her son’s difference, as she demonstrates when Doris
refers to Mr Egwu and his children and calls them Chester’s own people.
(p. 45)
It is ironical to notice that Ginny – subtly or unconsciously – happens
to use the expression: “your people’, reminding Chester of his African
descent. Such words have disastrous effects upon the child’s mind. His
conscience is muffled by a poignant sense of exile: In bed that night, he
thought about her words. ‘Your people.’ He thought the Arlingtons were
his people. The sense of unbelonging strengthened. (p. 12)
Suffering from a real split of personality, Chester feels disoriented.
As a black boy brought up by a white couple, it is an exceedingly difficult
adjustment for him to make, when his mother alludes to his status as an
outsider. Though Arthur and Ginny are devout Christians, firmly believing
in the Christian ideals of love and charity and always preaching that it is
good to help the poor, Chester nevertheless sees himself as an alien in his
own family. On discovering how helpless and miserable he is, the black
boy becomes actively preoccupied with his biological roots. Gradually, he
sees himself as someone coming from an ethnic minority. As the novel
progresses, his emotional insight grows sufficiently to allow him to
question directly his adoptive father about his biological mother. The
opening paragraphs of Chapter IV relate the poignant scene. (pp. 13-15)
Arthur Arlington finally finds himself forced to tell the truth. Both
children are deeply affected by the history of their life. In the light of the
revelation, it appears that Julia is in many ways, just as an outcast like
Chester. In fact, they have in common a social identity shaped by the story
of their birth. However, they experience differently the strong emotional
impact of this confession. Julia remains shocked and upset whereas
Chester’s first reaction is violent. Conscious that the first normal
experience of life involves maternal and paternal care and affection, he
36
 Chester arliington’s quest for meaning….

seems to rebel against the idea that it is possible for a woman to abandon
her own child. Paradoxically and contrasting with Julia’s attitude, Chester’s
rebellion takes the form of a rejection of his adoptive mother. And since
then, he shows his determination to be less vulnerable to the psychological
mechanisms Ginny consciously uses, to bring him to meet her own wishes.
He is convinced that his mother’s attitude contradicts his legitimate desire
for invisibility in which he experiences a comfortable feeling of at-
homeness.
The first sign of change in him appears when he refuses to keep on
assuming the part of the first king in the nativity play. This protest
foreshadows his developing strength of character. Seen from such a
perspective, this refusal can be considered as his first act of rebellion and a
conscious negation of his hybrid identity. At the same time, the black boy
reveals to his mother his sufferings at being unmercifully teased by his
classmates. (p. 22)
Chester cannot stand reality nor can he escape from his sense of
personal loss. Being black and therefore not belonging, he is so concerned
with his own status that he fails to pay particular attention to Julia’s
frustrations. If they are still close to each other, having in common the same
agony of a traumatic past and attempting to make the best of a bad
situation, they nevertheless see themselves as victims of an act of
abandonment. However, unlike Julia, so obsessive is for Chester the
question of his biological roots that he becomes more and more aware of a
widening chasm, which separates him from his adopted parents. The gap
turns into a break, which is accentuated by a lack of communication. Full of
latent protest and seized by the threat of annihilation, he actually retreats
into himself and builds a temporary fortress in which he can hide his
disarray and heal his secret wounds. Chester’s talents as an actor3 are
remarkable. The child begins putting on a mask and offering an impassive
façade to his family. He is condemned to repeating a pattern of
dissimulation and self-dissimulation, assuming then a different persona – in
the Latin sense of an actor’s mask.

3
David Rabkin, “Ways of Looking: Origins of the Novel in South Africa”, in The Journal
of Commonwealth Literature, Vol. XIII, Nº1, 1978, p. 33.

37
 Ndéye Sanou LÔ

2./The identification process

Torn between the demands of his social environment and the quest for
his roots, Chester develops a false self which is modelled on both what his
parents forced him to be like and his immersion into his inner world. The
system of binary projection in which he is now placed, paves the way for a
sort of schizophrenic experience in which he exercises his narcissistic
omnipotence.
The boy creates his own narcissistic world in which he can live
independently and secure his own privacy against the inquisitiveness of the
others. In moments of intense loneliness, he encases himself in an invisible
shell through which nothing can penetrate. The loss of identity seems to
have inscribed itself so indelibly on his subconscious mind that it subtly
changes his mental world. As he draws further and further into himself, the
black child enters a remote and restful place, in which he not only finds
peace, but he also discovers a sense of racial identity and community. In
fact, it is through an internal voyage that he escapes from the bitter realities
of the present. Indulging in what Freudians call displacement, Chester
Arlington is now inclined to seek escape from himself in dreams.
From the hero’s experience of entrapment and confinement, stems the
knowledge that there is a world of his own beyond the limits of the small
town of St Simon. These recurring dreams serve as a reminder of his
identity and a foundation upon which to build his life. The inheritance of
property and power haunts the vast caverns of his interior landscape. He
imagines himself to be in a position of authority as the authentic son of the
land and the heir of an ancient African kingdom. The novelist skilfully
exposes the obsessive effects of the dreams in Chester’s psyche by
reiterated allusions to his city and to his dreams. The young boy’s
psychological fixations are evident a constant repetition of the two words.
The word ‘city’ appears twice at the beginning of Chapter VI and four
times at the beginning of Chapter X. The word ‘dream’ is repeated by the
end of Chapter XII and it is used five times by the end of Chapter XII.
In his private sanctum, Chester seeks his ‘Africanness’. His city
gives him some stable reference point and the hope that fragmentation is
about to end. Through the medium of his dreams, he can tackle life and its
problems in a positive and optimistic way. In psychopathological terms, the
child can now exorcise his feeling of guilt and his traumatic experience of
being. In this process, he locates himself in a royal history and place. It is

38
 Chester arliington’s quest for meaning….

significant that the dreams of his kingdom correspond to a traditional

African background of family and tribal togetherness. The beginning of
Chapter V resonates with the imagery of an exotic traditional land. If
exoticism is, as Graham Huggan puts it, “a kind of semiotic circuit that
oscillates between opposite poles of strangeness and familiarity”4, it is then
possible to understand how the exotic images of his traditional land have a
liberating power on Chester’s psyche. Significantly, such images enable
him to transgress the boundaries separating past from present. The
description of life in his city as it appears in his dreams is a scene, in a
more formal sense. (pp. 16-17) In Chapter X, Chester captures the sensory
details of life in his ancient city. The sounds, the smells and the colours are
vividly re-created. The richness of his imaginary world leads him to
dramatize the episodes of his adoption. Dissatisfied with the flat version of
his personal history given by his adoptive father, he instinctively changes
the events that came about his life and succeeds in convincing himself that
his version is the authentic one. Besides the romanticism of his royal
African heritage, Chester’s repudiation of Arthur Arlington’s story calls to
mind the classic example of some children whose tendency consists in
substituting their comfortable own vision of reality to the crude and
sometimes unbearable presentation of facts that interfere in their life. In this
sense, Chester remains prisoner of an infantile delusion of omnipotence and
it is logical for him to embellish the legend of the tribe’s lost son and
Mpulasi’s story, as a tangible proof that he is truly the only heir to the
kingdom. (p.43)
A psychoanalyst might say that it is because he lacks a territory of his
own that Chester searches for such a place. Most importantly, these dreams
can be interpreted as his introduction into the realities of his Promised
Land. They foreshadow the first stage in his search for an identity which is
symbolized by two incidents that occur almost simultaneously in his life:
his encounter with the Ugwu’s family and “The Equiano Week”. Both of
these events represent the adolescent’s first initiation into his natural home,
Nigeria.
4
On this point, refer to page 21, when Ginny says: ‘I know Chester likes to act’ and page
64, the author’s comment on Chester’s new maturity: “He had always loved performing and
now he felt he was in a role which required a particular script”.

39
 Ndéye Sanou LÔ

Chester made Enoch Ugwu’s acquaintance at the Clinton Chalets where

the latter was holidaying with his two children. The emotional intensity
with which the novelist narrates this climatic action is emphasized by the
character’s mixed feelings of surprise and joy and the constant repetition of
the word ‘smile’. (p. 34) The secret osmosis that seems to link Chester with
this black family is coupled with a kind of empathy, culminating in a
complete identification. He is pleased to discover his physical resemblance
with Thomas and his mute complicity with Enoch.
It is clear that Enoch and his two children embody a kind of response to
both his search for recognition and quest for roots. This new feeling of
belonging plays a crucial part in Chester’s pursuit of truth. From this time
on, begins an entirely new chapter in his life. He becomes more self-
confident in his own identity. “The Equiano Week” gives him the
opportunity to broaden his knowledge about his African ancestry, making
him definitively certain about his heritage.
Olaudah Equiano is a legendary figure, invested with the mantle of
black heroism. His story demonstrates that even if black people have been
brought to Europe in slave ships and in chains, they are still able to
overstep the legacy of their oppressive past and fight for their dignity. In
other words, this ex-slave’s personal accomplishments provide a testimony
to the black Africans’ potential power to survive the shock of their
alienation in order to transcend the raw realities of their existence. In the
following quotation, Paul Edwards underlines Equiano’s exceptional
stature. He draws parallels between the black hero’s genuine accounts of
his life-story and other renowned adventurous characters such as Robinson
Crusoe and Gulliver:
[…] The situation of Equiano has a touch of both Robinson
Crusoe and Gulliver: from one point of view, his is a story of
economic and moral survival on the bleak rock of slavery, a
study in initiative and adaptability not entirely unlike
Robinson Crusoe’s; and from another, it is a tale, like
Gulliver’s, of new perspectives gained by physical
alienation, in this case of the black man in a white world. An
important difference, of course, is that Crusoe, Gulliver, and
their adventures, emerge largely from their creator’s
imaginations and have the distinctive marks of conscious
creative artistry about them, whereas Equiano is apparently

40
 Chester arliington’s quest for meaning….

doing no more than trying to tell the direct truth about his
own experience.5

Indeed, Equiano’s book is neither a novel nor a tale. It is based on

reality. Published in London in 1789, it was first entitled The Interesting
Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa the African.6
One might be tempted to say that this cannot be just coincidence
when Chester happens to know about ‘The Equiano Week’. It is like a
miracle, enabling him to get a large store of information about the Africans’
history. His life is suddenly replete with new and significant facts. This
cultural event brings Indeed, Equiano’s book is neither a novel nor a tale. It
is based on reality. Published in London in 1789, it was first entitled The
Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa
the African.7
One might be tempted to say that this cannot be just coincidence
when Chester happens to know about ‘The Equiano Week’. It is like a
miracle, enabling him to get a large store of information about the Africans’
history. His life is suddenly replete with new and significant facts. This
cultural event brings him nearly to the peak of self-awareness. He finds no
speech as resonant and influential on his life as Dr Ogude’s presentation of
Olaudah Equiano. (pp. 52-53)
The lecture given by the Nigerian historian cements definitively the
vital connection that relates Chester to his ancestral roots, embracing in its
symbolic reference his personal story and the Africans’ history: It also
seems to contain a specific prophecy and a kind of answer to his quest. (p.
53)
Indeed, Dr Ogude’s talk functions as a strong motivation for the
rootless black adolescent who sees much of himself in Equiano. As a
quester now entirely governed by a dream of glory, the accounts of
Equiano’s heroic exploits are emblematic of the adventurous life awaiting
Chester. Accordingly, he sets his own goals but decides to proceed step by
step. However, a dramatic succession of events occurs in the course of the
5
Graham Huggan, The Post- Colonial Exotic: Marking the Margins, p. 13.
6
Paul Edwards, “Equiano’s Round Unvarnished Tale”, in African Literature Today, Nº5,
1979, p. 13.
7
Ibid., p. 19.

41
 Ndéye Sanou LÔ

novel, hastening Chester’s separation from his adoptive family. Julia’s

pregnancy and the disappearance of the church funds, mark a turning point
in the narrative and in the hero’s crisis. Hurt and angered at being nearly
accused of having stolen the church money, Chester is determined to cut
himself off from his social anchorage in order to seek refuge in Enoch
Ugwu’s family, in Liverpool. Trapped in a harsh experience of life, the idea
that he will not be missed grieves him and he finds it hard to leave the
house where he was brought up and the only home he knows. From that
moment, the self-exiled character moves away from his family roots and
begins a process that takes him from St Simon to Liverpool and then
Africa.
Chester feels immediately at ease with Enoch and his two children.
He finds contentment in family life. Father and sons are like friends. At this
point, Enoch can be viewed as the reverse parallel to Arthur Arlington.
Significantly, he assumes the roles of a tutor and a father-substitute,
offering moral guidance to the disoriented young protagonist. Enoch Ugwu
undertakes Chester’s gradual initiation into his ancestral community. He
tells him where his family originates from. The adolescent’s tribal identity
is now clearly defined. (pp. 80-81)
In Chapter XVIII, Chester’s integration into this black family is
definitely established. He receives an African name: Iloefuna. This new
identity gives him the sense of belonging to a larger community: (p. 86)
Chester’s stay with the Egwu’s family takes the form of an initiation into
the world of adult responsibility. As the novel develops, the character gains
psychological autonomy. He is only nineteen when he chooses to be a day
student while working part-time in a leisure centre where he meets Esther
Willoughby. Chester is deeply impressed by this delicately balanced and
charming woman. Being black and therefore belonging to a racial minority,
Esther is not so concerned with her African roots. Instead, she demonstrates
her capacity for absorbing western culture. As a pragmatic young woman,
she strongly believes in individual accomplishments and sees the necessity
for performing good work as a springboard for a good integration into a
multiracial society. It is therefore difficult for her to understand Chester’s
obsession with his origins. Chester proudly proclaims that he is of Nigerian
descent and is still confident in the righteousness of his purpose to return to
his kingdom. He regards with pleasant anticipation his trip to Nigeria. His
encounter with Jimoh, a thirty-two year old Nigerian who escaped from a
detention centre, gives him the opportunity to execute his project. Chester’s
42
 Chester arliington’s quest for meaning….

acceptance to exchange his papers with Jimoh’s passport shows how much
the search for his roots is buried deep within his psyche. The young Briton
takes the identity of an ordinary Nigerian citizen returning to his home
country.

3./ The journey of discovery

Having undergone important changes in his life, Chester Iloefuna
Arlington reaches the second decisive stage in his development by
executing his plan. From then on, like many romantic seekers before him,
Chester can be seen as freeing himself from the bondage of dreams,
enacting actually an arduous and circuitous quest at the end of which he
envisions salvation.
The journey to Nigeria aboard The Sisi-Eko is long, not only for
geographic reasons, but also because the character is impatient to tread
upon his presumed ancestral soil. After Liverpool and Tilbury, Freetown
and Takoradi are, in the author’s words, a revelation. When the ship finally
arrives at Lagos Marina, Chester has become something of an explorer,
appraising with a foreign eye the first images of his ancestral land. Shocked
by the oppressive heat that enervates and debilitates, he immediately feels
uncomfortable in his new and chaotic environment. (p. 118)
Though he is charmed by the warm welcome that he receives from
Jimoh’s family, Chester begins to see Nigeria, not as the mythical paradise
it has appeared in his dreams, but as an alien land where he is subjected to
trials. The interference of his Cartesian logic with the new realities that he
discovers, makes him perfectly aware that he is both a part of this world
ethnically, but apart from it culturally. His English background in no sense
prepares him for his new life and he soon realizes that his quest requires an
arduous and dangerous expedition over a treacherous terrain. The picture of
Nigeria as a strange land is at first, emphasized by the way people drive,
which has little to do with what he knows. Jimoh’s brother, Karimu, and his
compatriots, drive without much regard for the Highway Code. Chester,
who has taken his driving test in England, is bewildered by the seeming
absence of traffic regulations. The fact that nobody observes any rule of
security heightens his sense of horror.
Following the character from the heavily trafficked and hazardous
roads of the city to his simple dwelling in the outskirts, we notice that he is
being initiated into the human realities of an unfamiliar world. In Festac
43
 Ndéye Sanou LÔ

Town, Chester realizes to what extent his dreams have distorted his own
views of social relationships in Nigeria. The idealized images of communal
existence, which owe much to his imagination, are replaced by a set of
values proper to an exploitative community within which money functions
as a passkey.
In this land of sharp contrasts, he has to adjust to a life of extreme
want. People do not hesitate to flatter and overpraise him, just to get some
presents or money. Reminiscing about the recent past and Enoch Ugwu’s
advice, Chester’s awakening to reality turns into a sense of consciousness.
He is driven to self-questioning and diagnoses the full extent of his foolish
adventure. (p. 120) However, convinced that there is no escape, he is not
yet ready to abandon his quest and pursues his nomadic life, which leads
him from Festac Town to Benin. The impression of dissolution and ruins
Chester discovers at the Oba Akenzua’s palace, in Benin, contradicts the
supposed greatness of the ancient African kingdom. Yet the place is
familiar to him. The author gives many hints to outline the connection
between the images that haunted the character’s mind and the palace. (pp.
125-126)

Increasingly, Chester identifies with that community. Most

importantly, the vision of a woman, the reality of the scenes and the clarity
of the details in the description of the Oba’s palace, are strong signals
comforting the quester in his feeling that he is reaching the goal of his
journey. (p. 126)
Another woman who is a young queen is also a familiar figure in his
dreams. She awakens in the young man some images within his mind that
connect him with this place. Animated by curiosity, Chester’s investigation
brings him into the most secret room in the palace, committing a serious act
of blasphemy, which obliges him to hurriedly leave the place by a back
gate. (p. 130)
Acting both as his mentor and as a cultural mediator, Karamu’s
explanations reinforce the hero’s awareness of the dreadful plight in which
he is. The difficulties, deceits and delusions awaiting him on his quest,
coalesce into an impasse. He is now distancing himself from the obsessive
pursuit of his kingdom, realizing how simple-minded he has been, to
undertake his journey on the basis of strong convictions only grounded in
mere dreams. The Chapter 23 ends on a note of disillusionment: Chester is
“dazed and confused at where his dreams had led him” (p. 131)
44
 Chester arliington’s quest for meaning….

Scepticism gradually gives way to a feeling of despair. The pilgrim is

at present full of doubts. Discouraged and down-hearted, he is relieved to
receive Enoch and Esther’s letters, but he decides to read his
correspondence after returning from the church where Karimu hopes to get
answers, which may help him to find his kingdom.
On one level, the protagonist’s peregrination through the bush, under
appalling climatic conditions, calls to mind the motif of the prophet going
into the desert to find answers. On another level, the road to the church
indicates a short halt on the journey, for evaluation and assessment. The
seeker begins recognizing the mirages of the quest. The author’s
exploration of Chester’s inner feelings underlines his re-awakening to
reality. (pp. 132-133)
The road to Karimu’s church is another trial Chester has to endure.
The excursion in the pathless bush heightens the sense of mystery, and
corresponds to a mystical motif characteristic of the quest journey.
The traumatic experience of the visit to the Oba’s palace, the
outrageous offence Chester has committed against the people’s traditional
beliefs and the unfulfilled expectations of the quest for his kingdom
crystallize into a basic sense of an impending danger. He knows that he is
taking the road of solitary sufferings.
Following Karimu, he leaves the main road, crosses cassava farms
and arrives at a clearing in the middle of which stands a very rudimentary
church. He is ‘dry-mouthed’ and ‘very thirsty’. The sweltering heat and the
long walk through the bush make him feel uncomfortable. He looks for
somewhere to rest. Surprisingly, the desolate church turns into a place of
remembrance and discovery.
Sitting on a wooden plank bench, Chester lets the past creep back
into his thoughts and he opens Enoch’s letter. The news reaching him
exacerbates his pain. Enoch Ugwu informs him about Arthur Arlington’s
illness and asks him, in an exhortatory tone, to return urgently to England,
and be near his adoptive father who is dying. The man that Chester used to
consider as his uncle is now the person who thinks most critically about his
behaviour. Enoch firmly condemns the adolescent’s disloyalty regarding
his father and tells him that the best he can do, is to forgive the latter,
instead of sweeping away what he had done for him. A few lines later, he
draws Chester’s attention on the vital importance of his British passport. It
is difficult not to perceive the authorial irony lying behind Enoch’s advice.
(pp. 133-134)
45
 Ndéye Sanou LÔ

Chester’s attitude during the initiation ritual that Jimoh’s brother and
his people perform in the church foreshadows the spiritual development to
which he is subject during the progression of his quest. At first, he
ostensibly assumes the role of a distant observer who perceives this strange
celebration as another debilitating illusion, deriving from his desperate
attempt to recover his heritage. Afterwards, and more acutely than anyone
else, he realizes that the ritual recitation is actually an ecstatic moment of
revelation.
Mowunmi’s hypnotic state arouses some curiosity in him. Acting as
the priestess of the ritual, she is transfigured and seems to be in a trance.
The ceremony can be perceived both as a rite of passage and an act of
repentance meant to strengthen Chester’s Christian faith. On one level, we
can discern some parallels between Chester’s quest and Jimoh’s Christian
dream: the church symbolizes the latter’s Christian idealism. It is the
church of Christ the Redeemer, in which the worshippers, under the
guidance of Mowunmi, their acknowledged spiritual leader, ‘eat the corn of
life’, and celebrate the final authority of life. On another level, the striking
analogy between the new names Karimu and the congregation take when
they are in the church and some outstanding biblical characters is fraught
with symbolic overtones. It adds a new meaning to this ecumenical
ceremony. The celebrants resurrect and reinterpret biblical myths to make
them relevant to their own situation. Jimoh, the exile, is named Jeremiah.
Karimu who is charged with the task of helping Chester in his quest, is
Ezekiel, the biblical figure who is said to have accompanied the Jews
during their Babylonian exile. We can also liken Mowunm holding Baby
Isiaka to the Virgin Mary. Yet Mowunmi’spreaching to the converts also
recalls Enoch Ugwu’s exhortation for forgiveness. In this atmosphere of
jubilant celebration, the impenetrable code: ‘Chialianu’ can be seen as a
signal for the revival of Chester’s faith. (pp. 134-135)
The halt in the church has a direct bearing on Chester’s attitude
during the progression of the quest journey. Resuming his wanderings on
the highways and byways of Nigeria, he seems to move at the mercy of
events that are beyond his control. Even though he knows that he runs
head-on into difficulties, he is also convinced that his life is utterly bound
up with that of Karimu who, as the novel progresses, becomes more and
more his initiator.
The pivotal point of the quest journey coincides with Karimu and
Chester’s arrival at the Oba of Chamala’s palace. The visitors are suddenly
46
 Chester arliington’s quest for meaning….

thrust into a kind of comfortable and modern fortress guarded by a dog.

The author overemphasizes the numerous decorations and the heavy
furniture of the reception room. The detailed description of the room, with
its “soft pink deep-pile carpet”, “gold painted straight backed chairs”,
“three ceiling fans edged with gold” and “air-conditioners”… reinforces the
impression of plenty. The evocation of the “majestic wooden throne” is a
sign of the Oba’s social rank. Contrasting with the heat in the church, the
temperature is artificially “ice-cold”. Nevertheless, in Chester’s eyes, the
palace is nothing but “a mixture of luxury and ostentatious bad taste”,
highlighting the proprietor’s devotion to a materialist way of life. The
Oba’s attitude confirms such an impression: he accepts all the presents
brought by the visitors before inquiring about the reason for their visit.
After Karimu’s account of Chester’s dream, the Oba remains silent for a
long moment before asserting the authenticity of this story: The Oba of
Chamala demonstrates another dimension of his talent, skilfully presenting
himself as a man who, despite the solid academic education he has acquired
in the United States of America, is still in touch with his traditional world.
Moreover, he is able to communicate with his ancestors through the
medium of divination. Possessor of a magical force, he subtly makes his
guests know that he is capable, by virtue of his intimacy with his ancestors,
to consult them for guidance.
Chester’s scepticism contradicts his companion’s readiness to accept
the Oba’s proposal:

‘We thank you for your offer of help, sir. You Obas like
things to be done well.. We will bring whatever you need, if
na money, if na camera, if na watch, anything… so Mr
Chester will find his family.’ (p. 139)

The Oba is satisfied with Karimu’s answers, confirming his insatiable

lust for wealth and high standard of living. However, he does not forget to
play fully his role. Behaving the way a rich and generous person of high
birth is supposed to do, he makes it clear that he is not the one who thrives
on the blood and sweat of the under-privileged people. The Oba of
Chamala loftily concludes:‘No visitor visits my palace and goes home
empty-bellied.’ (p. 139)

47
 Ndéye Sanou LÔ

The author’s remark underlines the fact that the Oba has
treated his guests in a royal fashion: It was the best food
Chester had yet eaten in Nigeria. (p. 139)

Karimu and Chester leave the palace, ignoring, at their greatest peril
the dangers of the road which quite surprisingly, turns into a grotesque
killing field. Chester fears for his life when the passengers of the Range
Rover shoot at them. This incident, which symbolizes his closest encounter
with death, corresponds not only to the culmination of the quest but also its
transformation. In this road so fraught with agony and dangers, the quester
is now the object of a quest. As a result, the pattern of the quest for a
kingdom changes to become a perilous pursuit of the quester. Chester
seems to have regained his faith and utters Jesus’name. In an instinctive
desire for self-preservation, the two companions leave their car and run into
the bush. They stop running only when the Range Rover crashes into a tree.
Panic-stricken, Chester is now fully aware of the endemic violence that is
likely to lap around them at any time. The worst is yet to happen. A few
lines later, with the description of the Oba of Chalala’s death, the novelist
reveals that humans can actually behave like wild beasts. Man’s inhumanity
to man is brought to its extreme limits, when the reader discovers with
Chester, the identity of their assailants. The situation is, if anything,
shocking. The presence of the Oba of Chamala inside the crashed car,
calling Chester’s name for help, is close to a ghostly apparition. The hero
experiences something beyond definition. He fails to understand how the
very man, who had just treated his guests well in his palace, could have his
life deeply rooted in treachery to the extent of keeping a gang of thugs.
(p. 140)
Thus, the country that the questing protagonist used to view as a new
Eden turns out to be not only a labyrinth in which he wanders hopelessly
but also a nauseating arena within which danger and violence surface
viciously. The Oba of Chamala appears to be the final embodiment of the
perverted social institutions. His grandiose funeral and the newspapers’
truncated account of his death are representative of a degenerate and
farcical world.
After this incident, Chester loses the strength to overcome the
difficulties he faces. His pathological condition worsens. He is nearly on
the verge of death when Karimu and his family lead him to the river and
wash him with Mother Goddess Oya’s holy water.

48
 Chester arliington’s quest for meaning….

The healing ceremony related on page 146 reinforces the pattern of

the quest journey. The analogies Mowunwi uses identifying Chester with ‘a
body’ or ‘a dead person for sacrifice’ and the macabre effect of the setting
pictured as a funeral scene, hint at Chester’s suppposed ritual re-birth. The
central symbol of the river as the medium, through which the quester can
cross the abyss separating life and death, materializes his ritual union with
the supernatural world. He has to go on the brink of death before
experiencing a necessary change and for this purpose, he must leave aside
his past life to be born anew.
However, this re-birth cannot be achieved without disruption and
pain. Chester’s ritual bath in the river of life is a short halt before his
admission in the Lagos hospital. Suffering from severe dehydration and
malaria, his hospitalization marks the end of his quest journey. In this
sense, the hospital functions as the ultimate initiation allowing Chester to
join the realm of the living. The opening paragraph of Chapter 26 describes
both his seclusion and his physical transformation. Once again, the state of
inertia in which he is and the image of a disembodied human being, we
mentioned above, usefully demonstrate his metamorphosis. (p. 144)
Lying in his bed, the protagonist can delve into his past, journeying
back to the roots of his heritage. The memories of his homeland arouse
flashes of regrets and sharpen Chester’s awareness of his present situation.
Yet, the hospital also operates as a place where the quester is again
the object of a quest. If in the first case, he had to run away to save his life,
in the second one, those who love him strive to save him. Esther is the one
who is entitled to fulfil such a delicate mission. Her new role has been
forced upon her by the events. The first paragraphs of Chapter 25 relate the
long and vain investigations that his adopted family undertook before they
knew about his African odyssey. As her potential saviour, Esther is quite
sure that Chester, will not easily give us his quest for a kingdom without a
strong resistance. Therefore, her strategy consists in convincing him to
reintegrate his own identity and cope with his real life. (p. 145)
Chester’s reluctance to follow Esther to England is paradoxically the
hero’s last-ditch attempt to search for his kingdom. He finally re-examines
himself and decides to take up the burden of his life.
Freeing himself from the mirages of the road, Chester unearths from
within himself a new feeling of sympathy with his family. The possibility
that he has all along his path been misguided awakens some images within
his mind that connect him with his past. And curiously enough, this new
49
 Ndéye Sanou LÔ

intrusion of the past into the present and the evocation of his childhood
memories mark the starting point in the process of his enlightenment. It is
significant to note that such enlightenment is brought to the point where the
seeker’s spiritual regeneration might begin. In a moment of relaxation
which appears to be a sign of grace, Chester experiences a spiritual
harmony and a kind of moral illumination. (p. 145-148)
Pursuing this line of reasoning, there is every reason to believe that
Mother Goddess Oya’s holy water has a powerful influence on Chester’s
health. Here again, Mowunmi holds her spiritual mandate as the goddess’
priestess and prophetess. The holy water that she gives to Chester before
his departure for England preserves the sense of a ritualistic continuity. It
recalls the healing ceremony and the ritual bath in the river. In this sense,
the gift of the holy water is emblematic of his self-renewal. The idea of
water as a spiritual cleansing agent is here associated with Chester’s
spiritual regeneration. Moreover, in addition to its healing virtue against
malaria, the holy water is also supposed to soothe his psychic injuries and
give him the strength to survive the difficulties he may face in the future.
The rebirth we are noticing in him is matched by a growing awareness.
Chester recognizes the full significance of his spiritual transformation. At
the same time, he discovers how the purity of love that radiates from Esther
can be a good augury for the future arising out of lost hopes. Mowunmi,
with her special insight, displays a richer wisdom. Alluding to the fact that
Chester and Esther are emotionally linked, as spouses are, she declares:
‘You don’t need a palace to be happy, ehn Mister Chester?’ (p. 146)
In the plane for England, Chester is nearly reaching the truth.
Significantly, Esther leads him to rehabilitate his past and correct the false
opinion he holds regarding Arthur Arlington. His return to Liverpool
finally seals his complete reconciliation with both his family and his home
country. He is now a liberated person. Julia detects immediately his
metamorphosis: […] ‘You’ve changed. […] I only knew it was you because I was
looking for you. You’re thin and you look much older’. (p. 149).
The journey to Nigeria has been beneficial to his maturity. He has
acquired something more important than any kingdom, that is, self-
knowledge. Therefore, his journey back to his ancestral land was necessary
because, it was only by undertaking it that, on his return, he could
recognize the truth. As a matter of fact, what he has learned about himself
was undoubtedly the most significant discovery he made on his journey.
Chester’s mind is now endowed with wisdom. (p. 150) He has also found a

50
 Chester arliington’s quest for meaning….

sense of identity, which enables him to re-create his own private past. Julia
brings the missing parts in the patchwork of his past story. Revealing to
Chester that their adopted father wanted desperately to see him before his
death, she completes Esther’s account as regard his adopted father’s legacy
by giving irrefutable proofs of the latter’s deep and sincere interest in his
adopted son’s future. The mystery of his biological roots is at the same time
definitely elucidated. Julia gives a detailed account of Chester’s biological
parents. Many elements connected with his origins begin to range
themselves in a meaningful pattern, like a puzzle-picture. They transform
Chester into a man with a memory. Catherine’s story and the identity of his
real father, which has always formed another part of the mystery of his life,
are no longer a secret. (p. 151).
The bag Julia gives to Chester enables him to solve definitively the
mystery of his origins. When Esther opens it and discovers an old book,
Chester becomes for a few exalted moments, Ginny’s little boy. The
reading of the book releases images and scenes from his childhood
memories. It resurrects the elements of the fairy story that the adopted
mother has inscribed upon the African child’s memory. We can appreciate
here an important feature of Buchi Emecheta’s technique of anticipation.
The exoticism of the book and its indelible mark upon Chester’s psyche are
referred to precisely at the very moment of his arrival in Nigeria. The
author has been preparing for us this fundamental revelation by drawing a
powerful associative link between the character’s first images of Africa and
the evocation of an ancient book. The authorial statement on page 116
according to which ‘Chester felt he was entering a picture in a long-lost
storybook’, anticipates the final revelation.
In the concluding paragraphs of the novel, Chester immerses himself
in the world of childhood and recites the fairy story with Esther. The
process of illumination ends in the triumph of knowledge and peace over
blindness. In the end of the novel, the reiterated images of light transform
the golden image of the adolescent’s childhood into meaning. The novelist
shapes the conclusion of the story by giving the last words to Esther, who
finds in the old book the clue to Chester’s factitious dream world: ‘Chester,
Ginny gave you your dream!’ (p. 134).

51
 Ndéye Sanou LÔ

It is ironical to notice that his quest for ancestors finally gives way to
gradual process of disidentification.8 However, Chester’s history is now
safely anchored. The lost book has been found in the vicarage, where it has
always been and Chester has become Arthur Arlington’s spiritual heir.
Besides, he can compensate for the loss of his imaginary kingdom with the
estate he inherits from (King) Arthur. As a result, the quest for paternity,
biological and spiritual, by which all his life had been directed, ends in a
moral rehabilitation of his adopted father. Thus the obsessive pursuit of the
parent figure who would make him complete, gives way to a moral
illumination about the meaning of his life, climaxing in the knowledge of
his true self and the thought that he has taken revenge over his fate. The
solace Chester finally finds in the ending of the novel indicates a new start
in which he can sense newness and the coming of redemption.

Conclusion
In The New Tribe, Buchi Emecheta is concerned with the
psychological damages suffered by minorities in England. The social
message of the novel lies in the interpretation of the disguised identities
Blacks may take in a dominant white community. If it is true that divided
heritages foster crisis of identity and rootless exile, it seems then preferable
to define and value one’s identity and culture with reference to one’s
present situation and environment. In other words, the quest for roots in the
context described in the novel, must not lead to the romantic revival of an
irrevocably lost past, but on the contrary, it is to be based on the creation of
new cultures. In this respect, the character who appears to be the
mouthpiece of the novelist’s didactic intentions is undoubtedly Esther. As a
member of a racial minority, she is acutely aware of the psychological price
minorities in England have to pay for their integration. Nevertheless, she
resolutely chooses to define herself as both Black and British. In her view,
which appears to be the novelist’s own opinion, claiming a close
identification with a past heritage would simply be to distort the truth and
wear blinders. Therefore, the representation of Africa as a mother awaiting
the return of a lost son operates only as a misconception of what the future
8
A concept borrowed from Charlotte Sturgess’s “Cultural borderlands and Textual Borders
in Larissa Lai’s When Fox is a Thousand”, Groupe de Recherche FAAAM, Université Paris
X-Nanterre, p. 393.

52
 Chester arliington’s quest for meaning….

holds for Black people in England. Following the many turns of the plot
and the leading character’s mental process, we can say that it is in Chester’s
spiritual regeneration that Buchi Emecheta’s packs the entire weight of the
novel. In other words, she provides us with a special perspective through
which to view the problems of identity and heritage in a multiracial context.
The solution she advocates for the Africans living in England consists in
reintegrating their different identities in order to cope with the realities of
their present life. Only then, could they finally reconcile with their natural
home and form a new tribe.
In its structure, The New Tribe reproduces the pattern of a cyclical
journey. The novel actually recapitulates the standard path of the traditional
quest, with its three fundamental stages implying separation, initiation and
return. Chester Arlington’s romantic quest for roots and past authenticity is
that of a classical quester who is doomed to undergo a redemptive journey
before attaining wisdom and illumination.
However, the traditional pattern of the quest journey is associated in
the context of the novel with wider sociological and philosophical
implications. Chester – whose name we can liken to quester because of the
homophony existing between the two words – is above all, a black boy
adopted by a white family. Therefore, the double theme of identity and
quest that permeate the novel clearly emphasizes the necessity, for the
adolescent hero, to move from a sense of isolation to the total recognition
of his real inheritance. The attainment of a revelation – that of his true self
– is possible only after a circuitous, but progressive self-education and self-
exploration that make him a full adult member of his community. His
rebellion ends in a feeling of acceptance of his identity. Finally, Chester
makes a home in his birthplace, accepting (King) Arthur’s inheritance. He
returns from his quest journey to discover that the kingdom he had been
searching has been all the time at home.
On a wider scale, The New Tribe deals also with a universal quest for
self and meaning. Chester Arlington affirms his human identity. His
continual pursuit of a kingdom fosters a quest for meaning, calling to mind
man’s eternal quest for significance and permanent adjustment to a life
which is essentially tragic. The psychological dissection of human
fallibilities gives a human dimension to the novel. Chester Arlington is full
of humanity because in the final analysis, he succeeds in unearthing within
himself an edenic dream of essential freedom.

53
 Ndéye Sanou LÔ

WORKS cited:

Edwards, Paul. ‘Equiano’s Round Unvarnished Tale’, Eldred Durosimi Jones (ed.)
African Literature Today, N° 5: The Novel in Africa, 1979, pp. 12-20.

-------------- (ed). Equiano’s Travels, London: Heinemann Educational Books,

1967.
Emecheta, Buchi. The New Tribe. London : Heinemann (African Writers Series),
2000.
Huggan, Graham. The Post-Colonial Exotic : Marking the Margins. London &
New York : Routeledge, 2001.
Rabkin, David. “Ways of Looking : Origins of the Novel in South Africa”. The
Journal of Commonwealth Literature, Vol. XIII, N° 1, 1978, pp. 27-43.
Sturgess, Charlotte. “Cultural Borderlands and Textual Borders in Larissa’s Lai’s
When Fox is a Thousand”. Groupe de Recherche FAAAM : Textes Et Genres,
Vol. 2, Université Paris X-Nanterre, 2006, pp. 393-399.

54

View publication stats