ELIJAH BENAPAMO

TOPIC:

EXISTENTIALISM IN MONGO BETI’S MISSION TO KALA AND PETER

ABRAHAM’S TELL FREEDOM

i
TITLE PAGE

ii
CERTIFICATION

iii
APPROVAL

iv
DEDICATION

v
ACKNOWLEDGMENT

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 Abstract

Existentialism is a philosophy that view humans as isolated beings cast into the universe as
aliens; to conceive the human world as possessing no inherent truth, value or meaning. It shows
that the human life is a fruitless search for purpose and significance, and it moves from
nothingness to nothingness filled with anguish and struggle. Albert Camus used the myth of
Sisyphus (1942) as a metaphor to explain the continuous struggle of human; it shows the
absurdity of existence. This research therefore, gives a general overview of existentialism as a
broad term in philosophy, as well as its integration into the world of literature. The work also
gives a general overview of the components, thought and clarity to the concept. The research
also covers the historical background and the evolving of existentialism. It further explained
some existentialist principles such as; subjectivity, anguish, nothingness, absurdity, death,
existential Nihilism, existentialism and humanism, etc. The concept as mentioned above is what
forms the focus of the two South African and Cameroonian authors in this study; Mongo Beti in
his mission to Kala and Peter Abraham in his Tell Freedom. In essence, these texts serve as
basic sources for this research. The project therefore, uses existentialism as theoretical
framework for analysis and interpretation of the novels under study. The objective of this study
portrays that literature is life, and can be used to solve societal problems, as well as launch one to
a better understanding of self, life and society.

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

COVER PAGE - - - - - - - - - I

TITLE PAGE - - - - - - - - - II

CERTIFICATION - - - - - - - - - III

APPROVAL - - - - - - - - - - IV

DEDICATION - - - - - - - - - V

ACKNOWLEDGMENT - - - - - - - - VI

ABSTRACT - - - - - - - - - - VII

TABLE OF CONTENT - - - - - - - - VIII

CHAPTER ONE:

INTRODUCTION-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1

1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY.-----------------------------------------------------------------1

1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM----------------------------------------------------------------3

1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY--------------------------------------------------------------------4

1.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY-----------------------------------------------------------------4

1.5 DELIMITATION AND LIMITATION OF THE STUDY-------------------------------------5

1.6 RESEARCH QUESTIONS---------------------------------------------------------------------------5

1.7 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY--------------------------------------------------------------------5

1.7.1 RESEARCH DESIGN-------------------------------------------------------------------------------6

1.7.2 RESEARCH SAMPLING TECHNIQUE-------------------------------------------------------6

1.7.3 METHOD OF DATA COLLECTION-----------------------------------------------------------6

1.7.4 METHOD OF DATA ANALYSIS----------------------------------------------------------------6

1.8 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK------------------------------------------------------------------7

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WORKS CITED ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7

CHAPTER TWO: REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE-------------------------------------8

2.1 INTRODUCTION--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------8

2.2 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND--------------------------------------------------------------------9

2.3 EVOLVING EXITENTIALISM-------------------------------------------------------------------10

2.3.1 KIERKEGAARD AND NIETZSCHE----------------------------------------------------------10

2.3.2 HEIDEGGER AND THE GERMAN EXISTENTIALISTS--------------------------------11

2.3.3 SARTRE AND THE FRENCH EXISTENTIALISTS---------------------------------------11

2.3.4 DOSTOEVSKY, KAFKA AND THE LITERARY EXISTENTIALISTS---------------12

2.4 TENETS OF EXISTENTIALISM-----------------------------------------------------------------13

2.4.1 SUBJECTIVITY------------------------------------------------------------------------------------13

2.4.2 DISBELIEF IN GOD-------------------------------------------------------------------------------13

2.4.3 CHOICE AS THE ULTIMATE EVALUATOR----------------------------------------------14

2.4.4 ANGUISH (ANXIETY)----------------------------------------------------------------------------14

2.4.5 NOTHINGNESS-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------15

2.4.6 THE ABSURD---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------16

2.4.7 DEATH------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------17

2.5 EXISTENTIALISM AND LITERATURE-------------------------------------------------------18

2.6 REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE--------------------------------------------------------19

2.7 EXISTENTIALISM IN SAMUEL BECKETT’S WAITING FOR GODOT--------------21

2.8 LITERARY REVIEW OF MONGO BETIS MISSION TO KALA AND PETER

ABRAHAM’S TELL FREEDOM BY OTHER SCHOLARS---------------23

2.9 THEMATIC REVIEW OF PETER ABRAHAM’S TELL FREEDOM--------------------24

WORKS CITED--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------25

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CHAPTER THREE: ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION--------------------------------------------26

EXISTENTIALISM IN MONGO BETI’S MISSION TO KALA---------------------------------26

3.1 INTRODUCTION-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------26

3.2 ELEMENTS OF EXISTENTIALISM IN MISSION TO KALA------------------------------27

3.2.1 THE BEGINNING OF THE STRUGGLE-----------------------------------------------------27

3.2.2 FREE WILL------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------29

3.2.3 THE ABANDONMENT---------------------------------------------------------------------------34

3.3 EXISTENTIAL NIHILISM-------------------------------------------------------------------------36

WORKS CITED--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------39

CHAPTER FOUR: ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION----------------------------------------------40

EXISTENTIALISM IN PETER ABRAHAM’S TELL FREEDOM-----------------------------40

4.1 INTRODUCTION-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------40

4.2 PLOT OVERVIEW OF PETER ABRAHAM’S TELL FREEDOM.-----------------------40

4.3 EXISTENTIALISM AND CHARACTERIZATION IN TELL FREEDOM--------------43

4.4 LEE’S FATHER---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------43

4.5 LEE-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------44

4.6 ANGELINA---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------47

4.7 AUNTY MATTIE (MARGARET)-----------------------------------------------------------------48

4.8 UNCLE SAM-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------49

4.9 COMPARISON BETWEEN SAMUEL BECKETT’S WAITING FOR GODOT, AND

PETER ABRAHAM’S TELL FREEDOM------------------------------------------------------------51

4.10 EXISTENTIALISM AND HUMANISM--------------------------------------------------------51

x
WORKS CITED--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------54

CHAPTER FIVE: SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS-----------55

5.0 INTRODUCTION-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------55

5.1 SUMMARY---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------55

5.2 CONCLUSION: MISSION TO KALA VERSUS TELL FREEDOM----------------------56

5.3 RECOMMENDATION------------------------------------------------------------------------------58

WORKS CITED--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------58

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 CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study.

Literature is an imaginative work of poetry and prose distinguished by their authors, and the

perceived aesthetic excellence of their execution.

The 19th century critic, Walter Pater referred to "the matter of imaginative or artistic literature"

as a " transcript", not of mere fact but of fact in it's infinitely varied forms. The art of literature is

not reducible to the words on the page, they are there solely for the craft of writing. As an art,

literature might be described as the organizing of words to give pleasure. Yet, through words, a

writer of literature elevates and transforms experiences beyond "mere" pleasure. Literature also

functions more broadly in society as a means of both criticizing and affirming culture values.

(Rexrot).

Imaginative writers have expressed in a broad way the meaninglessness of life through the

medium of literature. This vagueness, senselessness and absurdity of existence is made visible by

writers bringing to bare the concept of existentialism.

Existentialism is a form of philosophical enquiry that tries to explain the problem of human

existence and centres on the lived experiences of thinking, feeling and acting individuals.

Existentialism is an aspect of modernism. Modernism is a movement in the 20th century that

intentionally split or disconnects itself from the earlier conservative tradition. The background to

modernism is the Second World War which brought about destruction of human lives,

1
infrastructure and a sense of disappointment and meaninglessness of life. As a form of

modernism, existentialism reveals the ridiculous nature of human existence. It portrays a sense of

absurdity and the emptiness of life that came with the Second World War

To the existentialist writers, the starting point of every individual is the existentialist “ennui”,

which is a kind of fatigue and weakness. To them, life is pervaded by a sense of dread, anxiety

and fear in the face of an apparently irrational world.(Eze)

According to Soren Kierkegaard, the existentialist philosophy is connected with the view of the

absurdity of the human condition. He shows an individual in a strange world; man has no reality

if he unthinkingly follows social laws or convention suffering anguish and despair in his

loneliness. He may never the less become what he wishes by the exercise of free will. The

existentialist, though they define in doctrine attitudes, and disagree on certain points, they are

connected with man's being and feel that reason is insufficient to understand the mysteries of the

universe. They also believe that anguish is a universal phenomenon and that morality has validity

only when there is positive participation. (Stuli)

For Mary Warnock, existentialism enjoyed great popularity in the 1940s and 1950s and has

probably had a greater impact upon literature than any other kind of philosophy. The common

interest that unites existentialist writers is their interest in human freedom. Readers of

existentialist philosophy are being asked not merely to contemplate the nature of freedom but to

experience freedom, and to practice same. (Warnock)

The concept of existentialism as discussed above is what forms the focus of the two South

African and Cameroonian authors in this study; Mongo Beti in his Mission to Kala and Peter

2
Abraham in his Tell Freedom. In essence, these texts serve as basic sources for this research.

Therefore, this study examines the existentialist' viewpoints as contained in the texts mentioned

above.

In his text, Mission to Kala, Mongo Beti gives an account of the transitional stage of an

individual from adolescent to adulthood in the Cameronean society. The individual grows from a

stage where he lacks the ability to make decisions for himself to a stage where he is free to make

decisions for himself. This he depicts in the life of the protagonist, Medza.

In the same vain, Peter Abraham in his Tell Freedom narrates how the protagonist, Lee grows

from childhood to adulthood surrounded by hopeless circumstances that leads to his quest for

freedom and an independent life, free from racial force and discrimination.

Therefore, this research is aimed at examining the futile endeavors of man in his search for

comfort and freedom as portrayed in Mongo Beti's Mission to Kala and Peter Abraham's Tell

Freedom through the lens of the existentialist critical approach.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

This study seeks to examine the causes and consequences of irrational decision making and the

state of hopelessness faced by man and its effect in the society. This is examined from the

perspective of the authors, Mongo Beti and Peter Abraham in Mission to Kala and Tell freedom

respectively.

The work will also study how the authors narrate the meaninglessness of life from different

points of view style and structure to reflect their status as existentialist narratives. These

problems will be tackled by drawing on events in the texts under consideration.

3
1.3 Objectives of the study

The objectives of this study include:

1. To examine the consequences of irrational decision making in the society as portrayed in

Mongo Beti's Mission to Kala

2. To identify the state of hopelessness and futility in man's daily endeavors as examplified in

Peter Abraham's Tell Freedom

3. To examine irrational decision making and the futility in man's daily endeavors through the

view point of literature as observed by the authors, Mong Beti and Peter Abraham.

4. To justify existentialism as the appropriate critical approach for the interpretation of Mongo

Beti's Mission to Kala and Peter Abraham's Tell Freedom.

1.4 Significance of the Study

Existentialism looks at the state of absurdity, "the conflict between the human tendency to seek

inherent value and meaning in life and the inability to find any." Absurdity affects mankind by

causing humans to second guess their existence and to search the meaning of life. Therefore, the

most important aim of this study is to show the ability of literary writers to express the sense of

emptiness, fear, dread, fatigue and weakness faced by man in an apparently meaningless world.

On this note, the study lies in its over all contribution to scholarship. In effect, students and

researchers who may want to engage in literary criticism from the angle of existentialism will be

4
beneficiaries of this work. This benefit extends to researchers who might want to use the primary

texts under study as their reference material.

1.5 Delimitation and Limitation of the Study

The research focuses primary on the existentialist approach to literary criticism through the

examination of Peter Abraham's Tell Freedom and Mongo Beti's Mission to Kala. It shall

however take into consideration issues related to existentialism in the texts under study.

By reason of the constraints of resources on the researcher's sources, this study will only be

limited to the analysis of the work of the authors mentioned above. The scope of the study will

therefore be limited to these texts.

1.6 Research Questions

A research of this kind poses a lot of questions some of these questions are as follow:

1. How does the text Mission to Kala portray the effect of irrational decision making in the

society?

2. How is existentialism portrayed in the novel, Tell Freedom by Peter Abraham?

3. How do man’s daily struggles lead to a state of hopelessness?

4. How can existentialism be justified as the appropriate critical approach for the interpretation

of Peter Abraham's Tell Freedom and Mongo Beti's Mission to Kala?

5
1.7 Research Methodology

This section is focused on the theoretical method that guides this research work. In addition, we

also have research design, sampling technique, and method of data collection and presentation.

The data to be used will be collected from the primary texts that are selected in this work to

portray existential issues in human life.

1.7.1 Research Design

The research method used in this essay is the descriptive research design. This method will be

used because it provides suitable answers to the research questions. The research will therefore

focus on describing and explaining events in the primary text.

1.7.2 Research Sampling Technique

purposive sampling technique is adopted in this work.

Purposive sampling is also known as judgment sampling. It involves the researcher using their

knowledge to select a sample that is most useful to accomplishing the purposes of the research.

This method is often used in qualitative research, where the researcher wants to get a clear

picture of a particular phenomenon. The research is therefore qualitative and purposive, because

they are the methods that best suit the research design and also answer the research questions.

1.7.3 Method of Data Collection

The research uses extracts from primary texts as its method of data collection. It also uses

reading of journal articles, electronic materials, online resources, text books and lecture notes.

The research is qualitative in nature.

6
1.7.4 Method of Data Analysis

The method for data analysis is simply analytic and interpretative.

1.8 Theoretical Framework

This research will be based on the framework of existentialism. Therefore, existentialism will

serve as a guide to the analysis of the texts under study.

Have you ever felt that you are not making any progress at all in your life? If so, you were most

likely having an 'existentialist moment.

According to a widely accepted definition, existentialism may be said to be a philosophical stand

point which gives priority to existence over essence. It is therefore the investigation of the

meaning of being.

The term existentialism was coined by the Danish theologian and philosopher, Soren

Kierkegaard. According to Soren, existentialism "is purely logical or scientific philosophy. In

short, a rejection of absoluteness of reason" (Roubiczek 10).

Existentialism in fact begins as a voice raised in protest against the absurdity of pure thoughts, a

logic which is not the logic of thinking but the imminent movement of beings.

Works Cited

Rexroth, Kenneth.hhps://www.britannica.com/art/literature.
Stuli, Shantanu. Existentialism and Stark Note of Alienation in the Modern Literature Research
Gate, March 2017.
Warnock, Mary. Existentialism. New York: Oxford University Press, 1970.
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https://www.study.com/academy/lesson/existentialism–definition-history-characterization-
examples.html

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 CHAPTER TWO

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

2.1 Introduction

Indeed, literature is life and life is literature. This is because works of literature are pure

expressions of our experiences in life. Therefore, literature is the imitation of life and a mirror of

the happenings around the society. These occurrences are refined and presented in artistic form

by the literary artists. These artists as well portray the realities of life, ranging from the

successes and failures of life which characterizes the human being. There is this endless strife for

materialism and survival. This struggle continues till one gets to his/her ultimate end which is

death. Struggle for survival has become the main focus of existentialist writers.

According to a widely accepted definition, “Existentialism” may be defined as a philosophic

stand point which gives priority to existence over essence. From the dictionary meaning,

existentialism is seen as a “philosophy of existence” (Raosaheb 14). This philosophical

movement (Existentialism) is not of the agreement that life has an inbuilt meaning, but that

individuals should form their own subjective values. Existentialism is a movement that started in

the 19th and 20th Century, it addresses important issues that relates to human beings.

Existentialism over the years is often associated with anxiety, dread, awareness of death,

struggle, absurdity, freedom and the meaninglessness of life. Some of the prominent

existentialists include: Sartre, Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, Heidegger, Camus, Fanon, Miguel Re

Unamuno and Simone Re Beauvoir. Existentialism pays more attention to human decisions and

9
actions. It was studied and divided into two major topic: “The investigation of human being” and

“the centrality of human decision” (Kierkegaard 16).

2.2 Historical Background

It was after the second World War that philosophers and writers saw the world as a different

place without a set of universal rules that applies to everyone. Due to the large numbers of

casualties experienced, post-war writers in particular found societal rules and views especially

unreliable. Serva states that:

Philosophers who debated the meaning of life in the 19th century Europe were

trying to understand what it meant to have a “self” and how human beings could

live an ethical existence. While mathematicians and scientists explored the natural

laws of the universe, religious people and theologians discussed God’s

expectation for a life and the human soul. At the same time, social scientists tried

to explain economic and social phenomena through methods involving logic and

reason. In comparison to the vastness of the universe, it is not surprising that

human experiences and lives often seemed brief and insignificant. (Serva)

Undoubtedly, people may have wondered why bad things happen to good people, they must have

questioned the existence of an omnipotent being. If there was an omnipotent being why did that

being seem so uninterested in what happens to them?

After the Second World War, existential writers started to think of human beings in a more

individualistic terms; as confused and powerless as they might be in the universe. Instead of

paying attention to what the society is expecting from an individual, existential philosophers and

10
literary figures aimed at exploring the meaning of life individuals created for themselves. Again,

Serva opines that:

Existentialists were not interested in painting a rosy and optimistic picture of the

world; instead, they were willing to point out challenges that had no solutions. For

them, human beings spend their lives in a void plagued by angst and despair in a

world defined by alienation and absurdity.

Absurdity has to do with the persistence of humans in living out their lives, despite little

evidence that what they do matter in the greater universe. Humans try to create meanings out of

their lives even when they know that there is no natural force or omnipotent being guiding them.

They simply continue to exist.

Existentialists make use of words like authenticity and freedom. Authenticity has to do with the

quality of taking responsibility for one’s own experience instead of saying that your experience

is being defined by outside forces such as God, the greater society or universe. An authentic life

is one in which you choose what matters to create your own meaning. This awareness leads to

freedom. However, this freedom comes with a price, since an awareness of reality is painful and

can lead to anxiety.

2.3 Evolving Exitentialism

2.3.1 Kierkegaard and Nietzsche

Soren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche are considered as the first philosophers that are

fundamental to the existential movements. Though, neither of them used the term existentialism,

they were more interested in people’s concealment of the meaninglessness of life and how
11
people try to escape from boredom. Kierkegaard and Nietzsche wrote that human nature and

identity vary depending on what values and beliefs they hold. These two philosophers were not

part of the 20th Century existentialist movement, but their works serve as the building or the

foundation to many existentialist writers after them (Coelho).

2.3.2 Heidegger and the German Existentialists

Karl Jasper was one of the first German existentialists. Jasper recognized the importance of

Kierkegaard and Nietzsche and attempted to follow their footsteps. Heidegger was influenced by

Jasper and Edmund Husserl. Although, existentialists see Heidegger as an important philosopher

in the movement, he denied being an existentialist.

2.3.3 Sartre and the French Existentialists

Sartre Jean Paul is one of the well known existentialist and is one of the few to have accepted

being called an existentialist. Sartre developed his own version of existentialist philosophy under

the influence of Hussert and Heidegger. Being and Nothing is his most important work about

existentialism.

In the 1960s, he attempted to match existentialism and Marxism in his work, the Critique of

Dialectical Reason. Albert Camus also wrote several works with existential theories such as; the

Rebel, the Stanger and the Myth of Sisyphus. He also rejected the existentialist label but

considered his work to be absurd.

In the Myth of Sisyphus, Camus uses the analogy of the Greek myth to demonstrate the futility

of existence.

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Simone De Beauvoir was a long time companion to Sartre. She wrote about feminist and

existential ethics in her works, including the Second Sex and Ethics of Ambiguity. Maurice

Merleau – Ponty, an often overlooked existentialist, was a long time companion of Sartre.

Michael Faucault would also be considered an existentialist through his use of history to reveal

the constant alterations of created meaning, thus providing its failure to produce a cohesive form

of reality. (Coelho)

2.3.4 Dostoevsky, Kafka and the Literary Existentialists

Many unrecognized literary writers have also had a major influence on existentialism. Franz

Kafka in his Metamorphosis created characters who struggle with hopelessness and absurdity.

Fyodor Dostoevsky, a Russian literary writer, wrote such novels as, crime and punishment and,

the Brothers Karamazov. These novels have covered issues relating to existential philosophy at

the same time denying the validity of the claims of existentialism.

In the 1950s and 1960s, existentialism experienced a renewal in popular artforms. In addition, art

house and films began quoting and alluding to existentialist thoughts and thinkers.

Existentialism considers an individual’s personal experience. Thus, it is considered as a

philosophy of being. The question is, does man’s existence have an essence? In this regard,

existentialism is attributed to the modern French existentialist, Jean Paul Sartre’s famous diction,

existence comes before essence. This implies that there is no pre-defined essence to humanity

except that which it makes of itself. Sartre adds that:

Man first is – only afterwards is he this or that. Man must create

for himself his essence. (Roubczek, 121)

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This gives some authority to the German existentialist, Martin Heidegger’s statement of man

being thrown into existence, which existentialists consider as prior to any other thoughts or ideas

that humans have definitions of themselves that they create. Sartre puts it that “…..man first of

all exists, encounters himself, surges up in the world – and defines himself afterwards.” (Sartre

3) So human has no essence that comes before his existence.

2.4 Tenets of Existentialism

2.4.1 Subjectivity

The human being as a being is nothing and he will not be anything until he becomes what he

makes of himself. This is the first principle of existentialism which is also called its subjectivity.

Sartre says:

Man is in fact a project possessing a subjective life and before this projection of

self nothing exists. So, given that existence precedes essence, it is only natural

that the man be held responsible for what he is. (Sartre 2)

This is the first effect of existentialism that puts everyman in possession of himself as he is, and

places the entire responsibility of his existence upon his own shoulder. Man is therefore his own

master. This also shows that man is a free being.

2.4.2 Disbelief in God

Jean-Paul Sartre says that,

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 Man’s freedom develops from the atheists’ disbelief in God. This gets precisely

endorsed in Fyodor Dostoevsky’s remark: if God did not exist, everything would

be permitted. (Sartre5)

This is the starting point of existentialism. Sartre also believed that there is no determinism. This

means that there is no God or any other power to compel or guide man in his choice. In other

words, man is free or rather condemned to be free. Here, the word “condemned” suggests that

man did not create himself yet he is thrown into the world and is at liberty to make or mar

himself, thereby bearing the responsibility of everything he does.

2.4.3 Choice as the Ultimate Evaluator

Man’s freedom exists in two opposite forms namely choice of freedom and freedom of choice.

This means that if man is free, he must be free to choose, but he can either make a right choice

which really sets him free or a wrong choice which enslaves him again. Therefore, human

beings’ role in the world is not predetermined, and every person is compelled to make a choice.

The exercise of choice is therefore the core of human existence. There is no escaping freedom,

because to exist is to be freely engaged in the world. (Sartre 2-3) What Sartre is saying here is

that human beings come into existence not of their own will, but because they cannot choose not

to exist. Sartre elaborates further in existentialism and human emotions, saying that:

Precisely, because here we are dealing with a choice, this choice as it is made

indicates in general other choices as possible. The possibility of living is lived in

the feeling of unjustifiability, and it is this which is expressed by the fact of the

absurdity of choice and consequently, being. (Sartre 25)

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2.4.4 Anguish (Anxiety)

Sartre observes that in choosing and committing himself, man gets committed not only to

himself but also to humanity as a whole, so he says, “in fashioning myself, I fashion man”

(Sartre 28) This leads to a state of anxiety or anguish that descends upon man as he realizes that

through his choice, he is acting as a decision maker who decides for the whole of mankind. The

realization of this responsibility gives rise to pain, anguish which is a part and parcel of human

existence. Sartre sees the bedrock of anguish in the state of a being that is not responsible for its

origin or the origin of the world. Due to the dreadful freedom to choose one form of action over

another, man is responsible for what he makes of his existence. The feeling of responsibility

brings about anguish. Sartre further says that:

Consciousness in one stroke opens up a world of possibilities, yet at the very

moment poses their annihilation. This says Sartre is our anguished lot. (Sartre 46)

2.4.5 Nothingness

There is this understanding that comes with anxiety called nothingness. Heidegger says:

Human existence thus appears as the nothingness of being, and as a negation of

every reality. Existential philosophy that deals with the nature of existence, in

fact, fluctuates between ‘Being’ and ‘Nothingness,’ and concludes by regarding

nothingness as the only possible revelation of being. (Heidegger)

Moving further, Heidegger also affirms that “Human existence cannot have a relationship with

being unless it remains in the midst of nothingness.” (Britannica article) Man’s entire existence

16
is believed to be paused between the two poles of nothingness: That before birth and that after

death. Heidegger rightly points out that:

Personal existence is launched between nothingness and nothingness, and it is

nothingness that is real, every other thing is absurd. (Blackham, 96)

So, in place of God there is nothing. As Heidegger observes, “At the very core of existence,

nothingness is dissolving being into nothingness.” (Roubitzek, 125)

Strangely enough, nothingness can never refer to non-existence, but always to something that

exists. So as Nietzsche predicts and Heidegger confirms, nothingness grows until it swallows

everything. Thus Simeone De Beauvoir says:

I look at myself in vain in a mirror, tell myself my own story, I can never grasp

myself as an entire object, I experience in myself the emptiness, that is myself, I

feel that I am not. (Roubiczek, 125)

2.4.6 The Absurd

The acceptance of nothingness leads to the concept of the absurd. This becomes the re-occurring

idea in Sartre’s view of existentialism. Absurd is primarily a state of alienation from the world.

To become aware of the absurdity of life. Kierkegaard says:

The awareness of the absurdity of existence enables one to transcend all

superficial thoughts and discover the inner reality. But once the transcendental is

dismissed altogether, the absurd becomes the final objective, and there is no

further attempt to make it meaningful.

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The philosophy that encompasses the absurd is referred to as absurdity. Absurdity is a

philosophy based on the belief that the universe is irrational and meaningless and that the search

for order brings the individual into conflict of the universe (Merriam-Webster Dictionary).

The idea of absurdity is a common theme in many existentialist works, particularly for Albert

Camus. Camus explains absurdity this way in “the Myth of Sisyphus.” The absurd is born out of

this confrontation between the human and unreasonable silence of the world.” (Camus, 24)

It is very easy to highlight the absurdity of the human quest for purpose. Sartre in his analysis

says:

It is common to assume that everything has a purpose, a higher reason for

existence. However, if one thing has a higher purpose, what is the reason of that

purpose? Each new height must then be validated by a higher one. This evokes

the common theological question: If human kind was created by God, who or

what created God? And if God answers to a higher power, to what power does

that answer? (Sartre, 25)

2.4.7 Death

Man at times wants to escape the falsehood of existence which hides in nothingness of existence.

The pains that come with the understanding of nothingness leads him to chose the only

possibility available to him which is death. Kierkegaard believes that one’s being is an existence

towards death. Heidegger observes that death is pure fact like birth. An individual is not “free in

order to die” (Balckham, 136) but a free being who dies. Death, thus becomes accidental in its

18
occurrence and therefore appear absurd. For extreme existentialists, death supports all the

negative experiences and is the final proof that life is meaningless. Sartre says:

Death is the limit, but also a constituent of my freedom. If a being was endowed

with temporal infinity, he could realize all the possibilities, he would disappear

with respect both to individuality and freedom. If an individual’s life had no

temporal limit, he would be pointlessly free. The finitude of life makes freedom

meaningless and possible. (Sartre, 67)

2.5 Existentialism and Literature

Existentialists communicate their ideas through plays, novels and short stories. Peter Richman

says:

Why did existentialism resort to literary expression? Art has a tendency to act as a

lens of thought which passes through it. In that sense, an existential author

absorbs the idea and expresses himself through written works. (Richman)

Some professional philosophers used literature to communicate their ideas of existentialism.

Jean-Paul Sartre who was a professional philosopher taught on the subject of existentialism

through his write ups. He is widely known for his novels, plays and short stories. Therefore,

Sartre’s literary works are embodied and widely known. With his works, he strengthened the

existentialist movement.

Soren Kiekegaard is also very prominent in the existential movement. He is usually considered

as the father of existentialism. Kiekegaard also made use of fictional devices. For example, his
19
first major philosophical work, “either or” shows the different views of his three characters he

created. Their views are expressed in forms of letters, diaries, aphorisms and essays.

Fredrich Nietzsche who is also a godfather of existentialism used literature as a means to

communicate his ideas. In his production, Thus spoke Zarathustra, he used poetic fiction to

describe his characters.

Martin Heidegger also believed in the importance of literature so he used poetry to portray his

idea, though not very successful.

Franz Kafka’s writing has long been connected with 20 th Century existentialism.

Focused on Jewish folks in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Kafka scales through

the ghastly experience of World War I. The death and the destruction which

desolated central and western Europe without a doubt had an effect on Kafka’s

feelings. He afterwards never finished a full-length novel, but is significantly and

generally popular for his novella, the Metamorphosis, in which a man endlessly

strives to end up his life. Like numerous existentialist journalists, Frank Kafka

saw the individual as a being caught up in a system and a world beyond

comprehension. (Kafka, 71)

Samuel Beckett is another prominent existentialist. He brings together the idea of literature and

existentialism. He dramatized characters that appear deficient and strange. In his play, Waiting

for Godot, he used literary devices to show that existence itself is troublesome, disappointing and

shows itself in no other way than what the individual has made for himself. Therefore, Becket

mirrors through his theatre, the craziness and meaninglessness of existence. (Richman)

20
There is therefore a close relationship between literature and existentialism. The existential

writers use literature as a medium or means through which they communicate their points.

Existentialist philosophers have utilized various literary concepts like poems, poetry and essays

to pass across their messages.

2.6 Review of Related Literature

Existentialism in Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis

Kafka’s the Metamorphosis is a comic story that can also be analysed based on psychoanalytical

matters. We see a story of Gregor Sama the main character who wakes up one morning and sees

himself as a bud. The author’s style of narration brings to our notice the absurdity of life and our

inability to answer the big question about ourselves. (Margaret and Audrey)

Absurdity in the Novel

The fact that neither Gregor Samsa, and his family wonder about the transformation brings about

the absurdity in the novel. There is no scientific explanation for his metamorphosis. Gregor’s

only concern is how to adapt to his new life. He sees the events as a simple situation, despite its

tragic aspect. The writer through Samba’s situation tries to bring out existential questions such

as, the meaning of life, how to communicate with others, relation between an individual and his

own body and mind. (Margaret and Andrey)

Self and Existence in the Novel

In the novel, Samsa is ignorant of what he looks like, because he has never seen himself in a

mirror after the metamorphosis. He has no idea about his present outward look.

21
There is a relationship between Kafka’s idea in the novel and Kierkegaard’s thought. According

to Kierkegaard:

The self is built in opposition to the finite and infinite. The finite is your

determined and fixed characteristics, where as the infinite is the possibilities and

the capacity of choice that you possess as a human being. There must be a balance

between the finite and the infinite to build yourself. Indeed, if an individual only

explores his infinite part, he will fall in a dark mood of paralyzing incertitude and

anxiety. On the other hand, if the finite is too important, there is no more freedom,

doubt, or reflection. When you lose yourself in the finite, it means no alternative

exists and it therefore is alienation. (Margaret and Andrey)

Gregor is lost in the finite of his own body because, his own self alienates him: Though he has an

incomplete self, he goes on thinking and trying to communicate. He may still have a self as an

individual, but the others do not see him as a real person.

The perception of the family towards him finally destroys him. Kafka therefore conveys as

universal feeing of unease and a relevant interrogation about the human self.

2.7 Existentialism in Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot

Samuel Becket used the characters in his play to show the doctrine of existentialism. Waiting for

Godot is seen by literary critics as one of the prominent plays that showcase the idea of

existentialism. In the play, Vladimir and Estragon are put in an absurd situation without any

purpose, and they do nothing to change their pitiable condition.

22
 Existentialism emphasizes on the practice of doing something and creating a

purpose while accepting existence in the world. Hence, one can move out of their

present situation and can give their lives a meaning but they do nothing. They

have the freewill to make their lives better. (Anwaar)

There is a portrayal of illogical, ridiculous and nonsensical way of thinking. Estragon’s dialogue

confirms this fact. He says: Nothing happens, nobody comes, nobody goes, it’s awful. They can

do nothing about the awful situation they find themselves.

The play shows a situation that has no beginning and no end. It is a situation which every person

in the world is facing. Beckett is of the view that the play is more about waiting. Thus, it is true

that humans are all living in an absurd world where everyone is waiting for the ultimate end,

which is death. So, absurdity as depicted in the play is one of the major characteristics of

existentialism.

Beckett also explained the pointlessness of existence. The characters just go on living even when

they know that their living has no essence. They do not give up on life. No one is yet to answer

the question of human existence in the world. Just like the case with the protagonists of the play,

they are waiting for Godot, it is the only way through which they would know the purpose of

their lives.

We also realize in the play that Estragon and Vladimir are living a miserable life because they

are free. It means that freedom of will is also a problem according to existentialists. Lucky, one

of the characters in the play is very much satisfied with his life as compared to Estragon and

Vladimir. Although Lucky’s life is tough and dictated by his master, he does not consider it so.

23
This is because a purpose has been set for him by his master. On the other hand, Estragon and

Vladimir have no purpose; their biggest problem is freewill.

In conclusion, the characters in the play are used to portray the problem of the universe. Man is

living in a purposeless world. The question is, why are they living? It would have been easier for

humans if their goals were set. Free will is humanity’s greatest problem because they are left

with the duty of finding their purpose in life. Purposelessness is the primary concern of

existentialism, and Samuel Beckett used the characters of Estragon and Vladimir in his play

Waiting for Godot to portray this fact. (Anwaar)

2.8 Literary Review of Mongo Betis Mission to Kala and Peter Abraham’s Tell

Freedom by other Scholars

Review of Mongo Betis Mission to Kala as a Bildungroman/Narrative of Growth

Clearly, Beti’s Mission to Kala can be analysed as a Bildungroman (Reuben).

A bildungroman is a novel that looks at the growth and development of the main character from

childhood innocence to adulthood. It is a novel of formation, education and coming-of-age of the

protagonist.

Bildungroman can also be defined as a literary genre that focuses on the

psychological and moral growth of the protagonist from youth to adulthood

(coming-of-age). At this point, character change is therefore extremely important.

(Tamuno)

24
Mongo Beti’s Mission to Kala is a growing up novel because it narrates the transitional process

of the protagonist, Medza from a naive, innocent school boy to an exposed adult. As a young boy

in school, he is been sponsored by his father. Having failed his examination, Medza is scared of

his father’s wrath. It shows the innocent and formative stage of Medza.

Despite his failure, he embarks on a mission to Kala to bring back Niam’s wife. He leaves his

premodial base, Vimili to accomplish the task given to him. In Kala, Medza is exposed to many

things and discovers many truths about himself. There is a transformation in the character of

Medza, because the Medza at the beginning of the novel is totally different from the one in the

middle of the novel. He returns to the his village and resolves never to be scared of his father

anymore. He even challenges his father and fights him openly. Medza rewrites his failed exam,

gets a job and never returns to his father’s house. All these show that Medza has reached

maturity where he can decide for himself.

2.9 Thematic Review of Peter Abraham’s Tell Freedom

Peter Lawson, a literary critic has carried out a thematic review of Peter Abraham’s Tell

Freedom. In his review, he looked at the issue of racism in South Africa. The novel shows how

racism affected the black/coloured South Africans. The South Africans were humiliated,

oppressed and discriminated against by the Europeans (whites). Abraham points to the welfare of

the Africans as they were badly treated and forced to live in slum areas like Street 19 in

Vrededorp, and their children sent to colored schools. The Europeans live in separate apartments

in very conducive environments. The Africans are always made to work under the Europeans.

Others scholars have also reviewed Peter Abraham’s Tell Freedom as a novel of

growth/bildungroman; there are also several thematic reviews on Mongo Beti’s Mission to Kala.
25
From the foregoing, we see that there are so many existing literatures, scholastic reviews,

analysis and criticism on Mongo Beti’s Mission to Kala and Peter Abraham’s Tell Freedom.

However, none of these reviews has attempted to analyse these narratives in terms of

existentialism.

This work therefore examines Mongo Beti’s mission to Kala and Peter Abraham’s Tell Freedom

as existentialist narratives.

26
 Works Cited

Roasabeb, More Vijay. Existentialism: A Philosophic Standpoint to existence over essence. The
South Asian Academic Research Chronicle, Vol. 111, No. 1. Jan. 2016, pp. 13-20.
Sartre, Jean-Paul. “Man is condemned to be Free.” Existentialism is humanism. 29 October
1945, Club Maintenant in Paris.
Kierkegaard, Soren: Fear and Trembling. New Jersey: Princeton University, 1983.
Balckham, H.J. Six Existentialist Thinkers. London: Routledge, 1961.
Heidegger, Martin (qtd). In “Encyclopedia Britannica Article.” Britannica.com
Roubiczek, Paul. Existentialism – for and again. London: Cambridge UP, 1966.
Camus, Albert. The Myth of Sisyphus. London: Penguim
Sartre, Jean-Pauk. Being and Nothingness. London and New York: Routledge, 2003.
Julien, Comlan ounkpe. Existentialism in Richard Wright’s Native Son and the Outsider.
Beti, Mongo. Mission to Kala. Ibadan: Heinele manot Educational Books, 1964.
Stone, Margaret and Tarley, Audrey. “Metamorphosis-as-existential-novel.” Existentialism 2015.
Blogspot.com/2015/09
Ahmed, Anwaar. “Existentialism-in-waiting-for-godot.” Google-Vignette. September 2019,
http://askliterature.com
Tamuno, Reuben. Mongo-Beti-Mission-to-Kala Sept. 2016. https://www.tammsenglishblog.com
Lawson, Peter. “Peter Abraham” Tell Freedom and Mine Boy. Theme-of-racism-in-Peter-
Abraham-tell-freedom-and-mine-boy. April 2021.
Coelho, Paul. Existential Content in the novel of Paul Coelho. The Southern Asian Academic
Research Chronicles. Jan. 2016.
Eze, Hyginus. Modern British Literature, “ENG 308.” Federal University Otuoke. June 23, 2020

27
 CHAPTER THREE

ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

EXISTENTIALISM IN MONGO BETI’S MISSION TO KALA

This chapter of the research is concerned with a close analysis of Mongo Beti’s Mission to Kala

as an existentialist novel.

3.1 Introduction

Sartre and Heidegger in their existential theory says that, man has been thrown into a

meaningless universe in which they have no purpose at all. They are put in an absurd situation

by an unknown force and are living in mental pains and sufferings. Hence, the reason behind the

sufferings of humans is not the terrible world but that they are freely living in it. They are free to

choose, but the irony is that no choice is given to them. Existentialists believe that even not

making a choice is a choice. In concise words, existentialism is a theory that believes that “man

is what he is” (Ahmed). Its beliefs are centred on the idea of finding the meaning of life through

different choices and situations. In the process of living and making of choices, there is a vague

imagination that keeps man in a state of anticipation, that at the end of every struggle lies the

hope of survival.

This imagination sustains man. Life is therefore about making of choices and the entire process

of waiting; but the ultimate waiting is the wait for the final end which is death.

28
3.2 Elements of Existentialism in Mission to Kala

3.2.1 The Beginning of the Struggle

Mongo Beti’s Mission to Kala evaluates the struggle of life and decision-making. The novel

covers the story of mistaken identities, illogical decisions, failures and uncertainties. Its hero,

Jean Medza is alienated and lives an absurd life, as one stage of failure in life drives him to more

tedious tasks, and he passes through different stages of life into maturity and self-reliance.

The novel opens as Medza is returning to his home town, Vimili. School has just gone on

vacation and he has just left high school. He has failed the oral baccalaureat examination and is

uncertain about his life. This is the beginning of his struggle as he ponders on how to face his

father and the fate that lies ahead of him. He says, “I still had eight or ten miles to go before that

dreadful interview with my father" (Beti 5). He is uncertain about his future, and perhaps

terrified. This situation is a clear depiction of existentialism as stated by Jean Paul Sartre and

Martin Heidegger.

Humans had been thrown into a meaningless universe in which they had no

purpose at all. They are put in absurd situations by forces and are living in

mental pains and suffering. (Ahamed).

The fear of uncertainty, anxiety, dread, awareness of the future are the major themes of

existentialism.

However, when Madza arrives in the town of Vimili, he meets his Aunt Amou who gives him

news of a development that will allow him to avoid meeting his father. Amou tells him of a man

named Niam, who is married to a woman from another clan. The story of Niam and his wife also

29
shows the struggles of life, the process of waiting and decision making. Niam starts treating his

wife badly, he forces her to work too hard, while doing nothing himself. Also, Niam insults his

wife because she has no child for him. Niam’s wife must have been thrown into confusion and

anxiety, asking herself and God unanswerable questions on her present state of barrenness, life

for certain has become meaningless to her since the joy of every home is the fruit of the womb.

She is waiting for a time when God would remember her, with a vague imagination that keeps

her in a state of anticipation that at the end there will be hope.

Having waited for so long without any positive result, Niam’s wife begins an adulterous affair

since she is barren and disliked by the community. Adultery was common and did not attract

disapproval as people did not take it very seriously in their society. However, Niam’s wife made

the unpardonable error of choosing as her lover a man from a clan that is not her husbands.

For a woman to grant her favours to a man from a neighbouring tribe is bad

enough, if she goes with some rootless stranger, she is in all intents and purposes,

deliberately giving the most deadly insult possible to her kin, (Beti 8)

Finally, Niam’s wife runs away and returns to the forest village in which she was born. “The

unexpected thing was that she swore (it was said) never to return to her husband’s house again.”

(Beti 8)

Convinced, and more than willing to avoid having to tell his father of his failure, Medza sets out

on a bicycle to Kala. When he arrives, the villagers are engaged in a game against the

neighbouring village. This game, a particularly resembling version of dedgeball, showcases the

prowess of a tall, muscular man named Zambo, Medza’s cousin and son of Mama, the uncle with

30
whom Medza is supposed to stay. After the game, Zambo recognizes him and they greet each

other warmly. Zambo is prepared to see his citified cousin, the embodiment of sophistication and

Medza is quite willing to take this view of himself. This is the beginning of self realization which

will lead to illogical decision-making as expounded by existentialists. However as soon as they

arrive Mama’s house, an encounter imposes a different pattern on their relationship as Zambo

introduce Medza to his mistress who lives with him openly in the house of his (Zambo) father.

Medza is shocked that:

A young extremely presentable girl served us with a light supper; my cousin did

not bother to introduce her. So when she had gone back to the kitchen, I asked

Zambo if she was his sister or some relative. He burst out laughing then told me,

with shrugging indifference, that she was his mistress. (Beti 29)

3.2.2 Free Will

At this point, Medza knows that the sexual mores of his people are more permissive than those of

the French colonizers, but he is not prepared for the actual experience of this looseness. He hides

his surprise, but the central irony of the novel is established. Medza is now free to make his own

decisions and choices. Just as the existentialists have clearly stated, man sees himself in a

universe of free will “man is what he does” (Ahmed).

The people of Kala are fascinated by Medza, seeing him as a sophisticated, French educated

person. So dazzled are they by his scholastic accomplishment that they cannot see his perpetual

amazement at their subtlety, manners, and firm grasp of life. He struggles to project an air of

unsurprised acceptance while attempting also to comprehend their way.

31
Medza’s stay in Kala falls into a pattern that has very little to do with his mission. There is a

transformation, and change of life.

On the second day, he and his uncle, a skilled carpenter, visits the father of Niam’s wife in a

fruitless attempt of negotiation. After the solitary attempt, Medza proceeds to party. During the

day, he spends time with Zambo and his village friends, a jocular crew that appears to have no

particular ambition and no work. At night, Mama parades his nephew around the various houses

in the village. Everyone is eager to host on dinner for the newcomer, and Mama, for reasons of

his own, is equally eager to oblige them. This dinner are attended not just by the hosts and

Medza, but also by all the villagers who can squeeze in. after the food is eaten, the dinner turns

into extended interrogation sessions. Medza is placed in the center of the room and forced to

answer rapid-fire questions about his future, the white man’s knowledge, the country’s future

and anything that comes into anyone’s mind. (Beti 60-61)

Medza is put in a condition of discomfort by the situation, this condition extends to his admirers.

His entire existence is put to test and questioned by his admirers. On his part, he struggles to

maintain the status-quo bestowed on him by the villagers. He said:

They seemed to have no immediate inclination to let me go. I could hardly leave

by myself; it would have been the worst possible thing I could have done….

Afterwards, I waited to hear them say it was all over, I could go home…that is

how it would have been done at home if we were entertaining a casual stranger.

But things were different here. (Beti 62)

32
Medza’s entire stay in Kala is full of challenges. This interrogative sessions leave him drained

and weak, but they have their benefit. The morning after each visit, the host sends a gift to his

visitor, generally in form of a goat or chicken. By the time Medza has been in Kala for a week or

two, his uncle is obliged to build a corral and a pen for Medza’s growing wealth in livestock.

This is a potential build up for pain that will result from the loss of accumulated wealth of great

magnitude. Obviously, his loss will be immense. Without the accumulation of so much wealth,

his loss would have been minimized, and the “existentialist Ennui” which is some kind of

despair, fatigue and despondence of life would have been minimized.

Exploitation is also an aspect of existentialism, because it is part of human existence. Medza’s

Uncle Mama, uses Medza as a tool for acquisition of wealth. Mama has been orchestrating

Medza’s visit for his own benefit. He accepts invitations only from the richer and the generous

villagers. One day, he calls Medza into his workshop and gives him a long and circuitous lecture

on the twin virtues of gratitude and respect for blood. Medza is slow to grasp the point, but when

he deos, he is more than willing to grant what Mama has hinted at. He offers his uncle half of all

the gifts that he has received, and the visit continues. At the same time, Zambo is attempting to

orchestrate gift of his own for Medza. He is trying to find Medza a woman. Zambo is convinced

that if a county boy like him is sexually experienced, a city boy like his cousin must be

unbelievably sophisticated. Little does he realize that Medza is not only a virgin but also terrified

at the prospect of sex. Precisely, he is tantalized, but at the same time terrified that the woman

will be disappointed. He suspects (probably with some justification) that she will not keep her

disappointment to herself. In short, if he fails, his façade of sophistication will crumble. It does

not help that Zambo’s first choice for him is a girl from the city who has spurned every other

man in Kala, or that one morning, Medza awakens from an uneasy drunken slumber to find
33
Zambo and this girl sitting on his bed. Zambo leaves, smiling, but Medza ignores the girl’s

obvious advances and she leaves baffled. Later, Madza explains to Zambo that he suspects the

girl has venereal disease, and Zambo is satisfied. But he does not give up the chase. Zambo

instead turns his attention to the daughter of the village chief. Late one night, he leads him

through the dark to the house where the girl, Edima is waiting. Medza and the girl fumble at each

other in the dark but she leaves before consummation. Nevertheless, Medza is love-struck. He

enters into another phase of life. To him Edima is one of his greatest achievements, (though he

later abandons her due to his illogical reasoning and pursuit of freedom). From this point on, he

devotes all his attention to spending time with his new found love, Edima, who on her part is

more than willing to be chased.

Medza’s life in the village settles into a customary pattern. He spends time with young people

during the day, and is feasted by the older people of the village at night. The affair with Edima is

consummated, ironically, during the wedding feast of her father who just married his seventh

wife. During the gaudy festivities, no one is paying attention to Edima or Madza, the two take

advantage of the opportunity to sneak away to Mama’s house. The Idyll is interrupted by the

unwelcome arrival of Edima’s mother. She burst into Medza’s room screaming, drags her

daughter out of the house naked, hitting and scolding her violently. Medza is terrified, he

assumes he must face dire consequences and cannot imagine what will happen to his young

lover. But, when Edima has been dragged off, Zambo burst out laughing. He explains:

That old bag simply wanted to be able to tell the whole village that it was her

daughter you’d honoured with your-hm-attention… Did you see how she was

34
 hitting the kid? Pulling her punches like mad, and trying to make each smack

sound as loud as possible at the same time (Beti 140).

At this dramatic point, when she has been forgotten, Niam’s wife reappears. It turns out that she

has been living with a man of ill repute in a house outside her village. Her open return with him

creates a scandal. Though adultery is tolerated, shamelessness is not. Medza is convinced that he

should leave Niam’s wife to her own abandonment, but Mama and Zambo convinces him

otherwise. They say, the wife may be an immoral slut, but she is, nevertheless, a wife although

she is necessary to Niam as a cook, field worker, and (potentially) mother of his children.

Beside, colonial French law dictates that either she returns to the marriage or the wronged family

benefits from the situation. According to the formalized French precepts about divorce, Niam’s

wife has a choice. She can leave her husband, but if she does, she must return her dowry. Thus, if

Medza complains to the chief, he will win back either the woman or a sizable dowry. The

struggles of life.

Accordingly, the family goes to the chief and the matter is quickly decided. Niam’s wife cannot

afford to pay the dowry, so she will return to her husband. After settling the affair, the chief

invites Medza, Mama and Zambo to his house for dinner, they decline, but the chief insists. As

they eat, they are entertained by dancers, drummers and processions that grow steadily more

elaborate, reminding Medza of the chief’s wedding celebration. At this point, Edima is brought

in accompanied by handmaids and dresses as a bride. To his shock (although for certainty he

does not object) he had been tricked into a wedding. The chief marries the young couple.

35
 The chief had taken Edima by the hand and was coming over in my direction,

trailing his daughter behind him, now he was joining our hands together. He

followed up this gesture with a long speech (Beti 152).

Medza had achieved his mission in Kala and has no choice but to leave. He remembers that his

father will be unspeakable furious now having failed his examination. But, Medza is now a

transformed character, there is a new self discovery and a mark of growth in him.

3.2.3 The Abandonment

On his way back to Vimili, he thinks of his father’s high hardness but resolves not to be scared of

his father anymore and that his father cannot trash him anymore. He says;

I was gradually abandoning myself control more and more… suddenly I know

that my father would never beat me again; that if he pushes me to the limit, there

was only one possible result- a to fight …. It took me many years to make this

simple discovery. (Beti 170-172).

Medza sets out to Vimili alone. This is the beginning of a life-turning irrational decision. After

the acquisition of so many properties including a wife, his decides to leave everything behind

(wife properties, family, friends, etc) in Kala and travels to Vimili all alone. This shows that the

essence of existence is just the struggle to survive for the moment. Life is ephemeral, therefore,

there is the absurdity of human existence. All the pursuit for fame and materialism is like a

mirage, they will all pass away, vanity upon vanity. The entire life is just a passing phase full of

36
struggles and then waiting for the ultimate end which is death. It shows the senselessness and the

meaninglessness of existence. These are the major themes of existentialism.

At home, Medza finds his father in a mood of indifference, his father utterly ignores him. Medza

attempts to provoke a confrontation by whistling and being insolent, but his father is not

perturbed. Only when Edima arrives is there a confrontation. His father attempts to beat him and

he alternately fights back and runs away. This is the height of Medza’s irrational decisions.

There is the overriding sense of lack of direction and purposelessness. What is the essence of

life, if one is just at the peak of one’s achievement and suddenly loses everything and goes back

to the starting point? Medza acquires so much but loses everything and runs away to an entirely

new environment to start life afresh. There is indeed a problem with human existence, a problem

of lack of satisfaction and vague imagination. This problem came with the massive destruction of

the Second World War. After the lost of so many lives and properties, humans are forced to ask,

what more is the essence of living?

Existentialism is therefore a form of philosophical enquiry that tries to explain the problems of

human existence, and centres on the lived experiences of thinking, feeling and acting individuals.

After Medza’s fight with his father, he watches his father for a moment, feeling genuine pity.

Medza decides his fate and leaves. He walks along the dusty path out of town, followed by

Zambo. Medza says:

My father gave up and went back to his house…. I stood there and watched him

go; and at that moment, I honestly felt sorry for him...ah, the hell with my luggage

37
 I said to the world at large, and walked away I was leaving, it was all over (Bet

179)

A brief epilogue informs the reader that Medza never returned to his village. “I have never

returned from that day to this” (Beti 179).

The last pages of the narrative show that life is really a waiting process full of struggle and

endless wandering. The narrator talks about Edima, and his struggle;

…. Had left Edima behind in our house, She was still waiting for me to come

back. Everyday absolutely convinced that it was only a question of time…it turned

out to be a life of endless wandering: different people, changing ideas, from

county to country and place to place… The tragedy which our nation is suffering

today is that of a man left to his own device in a world which does not belong to

him, which he has not made and does not understand. It is the tragedy of man

bereft of any intellectual compass, a man walking blindly through the dark (Beti

186-181).

The quotation above summarizes the concept of existentialism in Mongo Beti’s Mission to Kala,

stating the tragedy of existence as man finds himself in a meaningless universe with hazy

imagination of survival.

3.3 Existential Nihilism

Nihilism is a philosophical idea that is mostly associated with Friedrick Nietzche. “This idea

advanced principally by the 19th Century” (Muscato). The central point of Nihilism says that

moral values are baseless. All of our moral judgments and ethical standards are arbitrary and on

38
top of that, there is no way for humans to honestly know how to communicate absolute truth. So

the nihilists believe that there is no moral truth. They assert that:

With respect to the universe, existential nihilism suggests that a single human or

even the entire human species is significant, with no purpose and unlikely to

change the totality of existence (Storey 2011).

This means that every individual is born into this world alone without knowing why. This brings

about inherent meaninglessness of life.

In line with the concept of nihilism, in Mission to Kala, we are exposed to the arbitrariness of

individual’s moral and ethnical standard. This means that mans behaviour is based on his or her

discretion or judgment, not based on any objective or laid down standard.

Medza at the beginning of the narrative is known as a good boy with all moral uprightness.

This is shown at the beginning of the novel where he fears that his father would be very angry

with him because he had just failed his examination. He ponders on how to face his father and

the fate that lies ahead of him, “I still had eight or ten miles to go before that dreadful interview

with my father” (5). He arrive Vimili and is very obedient to the task that is given to him. He

goes to Kala to bring back Niams wife.

On getting there, he encounters a new way of life different from the one he knew at home.

Medza begins to have new orientations about his life and the world. He reasons that his father

would never allow him to have a girlfriend at his age, not to talk of her living with him in his

father’s house. But he realizes that in Kala, his cousin, Zambo not only has a girlfriend, but lives

with her in his father’s house. His morality is affected at this point. He begins to imitate Zambo’s
39
way of life that is totally different from the upbringing he had at home. Before this journey, we

were told that he was a virgin. In Kala, he acquires not only a girlfriend, but also a wife. This

clearly shows that Medza’s ethical life as a youth is arbitrary, determined by the environment he

finds himself. At this point, Medza begins to live life at his own discretion and judgment. His

morality begins to change.

Having achieved his Mission to Kala, he has to leave. On his way back, he remembers that his

father will be very angry with him because he failed his examination. At this point, Medza is a

transformed character with his own mind set. He resolves not to be scared of his father anymore

and that his father cannot trash him anymore. Medza says:

I was gradually abandoning myself control more and more. Suddenly I know that

my father would never beat me again; that if he pushes to the limit, there was only

one possible result- a fight… it took me many years to make this simple

discovery (Beti 170-172).

This shows that his values were baseless and abstract, not inbuilt. The once very obedient child

can look at his father eye ball to eye ball and exchange words with him. Not only that, he fights

with his father and now has his own decision to make not based on any laid down objectives. He

abandons everything and goes in search of freedom. This portrays existential nihilism.

Again, we see moral decadence in the character of Niam’s wife. She leaves her husband in

Vimili and runs to her lover in Kala. She careless about what people might say. Even when she

is aware that Medza is in Kala to take her back home, she still lingers a bit with her lover before

she finally returns to Kala. She does not feel remorseful for her action.

40
Another aspect of existential nihilism talks about the meaninglessness of life. This also can be

found in Mission to Kala. Life indeed is meaningless because an individual continues to struggle

on daily basis for the rest of his life. Medza acquires so much in Kala but finally leaves

everything to start a new life. He abandons his wife, properties and family. His struggle

continues. This shows the nothingness and absurdity of life.

Work Cited

David Storey. “Nihilism, nature and the collapse of the cosmos and history: the journal of nature
and social philosophy , Feb. 4 2012.
Vert, W. Existential Nihilism: the only really serious philosophical problem-journals of carus
studies 2008.

41
 CHAPTER FOUR

ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

EXISTENTIALISM IN PETER ABRAHAM’S TELL FREEDOM

4.1 Introduction

In this chapter, we continue with the analysis and discussion of Peter Abraham’s Tell freedom.

We explore the plot, as well as discussions on how some selected characters display existential

features. We will also look at existentialism and humanism, relating it to the text under

consideration.

Peter Abraham’s Tell freedom is a novel that is centered on racial discrimination, apartheid and

dehumanization of the "blacks" and the "colored" living in South Africa. This period is between

1948-1990. The novel is an autobiogical narrative that accounts for the childhood of Peter

Abraham in South Africa. During this period he suffered in the hands of the Europeans because

of his color. Being a witness to the gruesome apartheid system, he decided to pen down his

experiences. Abraham was born in Vrededorp a suburb of Johannesburge, South Africa. His

father was from Ethiopia and his mother was colored, with French roots. Abraham was five years

old when his father died. After which, he began to struggle to make meaning out of his life. We

will now consider the plot overview before the proper analysis of some selected characters.

4.2 Plot Overview of Peter Abraham’s Tell Freedom.

Peter Abraham’s Tell freedom is an autobiographical narrative about a young boy who tries to

comprehend his life and the world around him. The novel is set in South Africa. It focuses on the

frightful effect of the apartheid system. The protagonist, Lee struggles with the various
42
challenges thrown up by the system. The apartheid period in South Africa dates back from 1948-

1990. During this period, the blacks and the colored were not allowed to mingle with the whites,

they were asked to stay on their own as a different community. They lived in street nineteen

while the very poor lived below street sixteen. As a colored child, Lee is always deprived of

some rights which in most cases, were written “RESERVED FOR EUROPEANS.

The text is divided into three parts: book one, book two and book three. Each of the books

narrate one aspect of the life of the protagonist, Lee. In book one we see the childhood of Lee

between the age of three and four. He tries to recognize his father, mother and siblings. His

mother was a widow with two children living with her sister, Margaret in street nineteen before

she meets Lee’s father. His siblings are Harry, Margaret and Natalie. The youngest Natalie dies

in a fire accident. The family at first was a happy one until the death of his father. Then there was

a “shadow that was over the house. The solemn face of his brother and sisters, the new

strangeness of my mother” (12-13).

At this time the movement of lee from place to place starts. At first he leaves Vrededorp to

Elsburg with Aunty Liza, whose husband is Uncle Sam. Uncle Sam works in the laundry of the

white man. He brings home dirty clothes every night and takes away neat bundles every

morning. In Elsburg, lee is faced with racial discrimination. The white men are addressed as

“baas” and the women as “missus”.

Years later, Maggie and Harry arrive Elsburg, and takes Lee back to Vrededorp. There they

suffer hardship and poverty. Lee adapts to slum life. After sometime, Lee begins to work at the

smithy under Boeta Dick. There he meets a short sighted Jewish girl who makes him understand

the importance of going to school. Then Lee decides to go to school the next Monday.
43
Book two talks about Lee’s personal efforts to learn how to read and write, in the process he

becomes enlightened. Later, Lee moves to the city with Maggie and her husband. He becomes a

carrier in the market and he is always chased around by the police and real boys, because he has

no permit. Soon after, he begins to work in a hotel where he starts by 5am and ends by 12am.

Maggie asked him to stop working there. Again, he finds another work at the Bantu Men’s social

club. Not quite long after, he gains scholarship from Canon Woodfield to a missionary college

called “Grace Deus" at Pietersburg. Over there, he is confirmed and given the Holy Communion

and he becomes an active member in the church. After sometime, Lee leaves the college after the

discussion he had with his friend, Jonathan on how Christianity is associated with race and color.

Not only that, the college was to train teachers but Lee never had the passion to become a

teacher.

In book three, Lee writes to father Woodfield to apologize for leaving the school without his

consent. Rather than being offended, father Woodfield refers him to a nearby school, St Peters

secondary school which is very close to him. Lee meets Max Gordon who tells him that there is

no place for him in Johannesburg because no white wants a colored writer and blacks are

uneducated. Max refers him to Dr. Goolam Gool in Cape Town. On getting there, Gool

introduces Lee to his wife’s provincial council and expect Lee to support him. Since Gool was

not getting Lee’s support his face changes towards Lee. Lee leaves to the office of the liberation

league where he looks for a job. He never secures any job due to many applicants. He decides to

get a passport to leave for England, but the office turns down. Still in the process of looking for

job, he meets Roderiques who needs help to build up a school in Cape flats. Lee offers help and

assists as a teacher. Due to his ill health, he leaves Cape flats for Durban where he finally enters

a ship for England.

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4.3 Existentialism and Characterization in Tell Freedom

Tell freedom by peter Abraham is another insight filled text that shows how humans try to

survive and define their own meaning in life. The text through different characters discusses how

man gets disconnected from his once familiar environment and reconnect to another reality

which he is forced to accept. We also notice how humans live in bondage. There are instances of

relocation, dislocation and helplessness in the text. All these boil down to the concept of

existentialism, the emptiness of life. We will be analyzing the experience of some characters.

There are hints of existentialism in their social interactions. These characters are:

4.4 Lee’s Father

At the beginning of the novel we observe that Lee’s father who is an Ethiopian is disconnected

from his land of origin. From the narration we are told that, “he was the son of landowners and

slave owners. He had seen much of Europe before he came to South Africa” (10). From the

narration above, it can be said that Lee’s father had an aristocratic background and root. His

ancestry is linked to Ethiopian monarchs, one of whom is Emperor John IV. The name John IV

comes to mind as a result of the defeat of Italy in the battle of Adwa. John IV joined forces with

his former adversary, Menelik II to chase the Ethiopian colonies out of Italy at the battle of

Adwa. In the battle of Adwa (the first Italo-Ethiopian war), the Ethiopian forces defeated the

Italians invaded forces on Sunday 1 March 1896 near the town of Adwa. (Raymond) This means

that Lee’s father came from a powerful and well respected country. With such an Aristocrat root,

it will be so painful to be disconnected from such affluence and get connected to the harsh

realities of life in South Africa. In South Africa, the Africans are discriminated and dehumanized

due to their skin color. Their human rights are infringed upon, there were social restrictions. For

45
instance, certain areas are designated “for Europeans only, “Reserved for Europeans”. The

blacks as they are called are restricted to only slum areas like street nineteen and sixteen.

Lee’s father was denied of the privileges he would have enjoyed if he were in Ethiopia, where he

was close to power. Despite the pain of disconnection, Lee’s father continued to struggle for

survival until he finally meets his end. That is why we say existentialism has to do with the daily

struggle to survive until one meets his end which is death.

4.5 Lee

The novel centres around the character of Lee. His real name is Peter Henry Abraham Deras,

popularly called Lee. He represents the author of the novel, Peter Abraham. There are

existentialist features around Lee’s circumstances. There is suffering, helplessness, relocation,

dislocation portrayed by the character of Lee.

At the beginning of the novel, we see Lee who is between the age of three and four trying to

recognize his father, mother and siblings. After the death of Lees father and little Natalie who

dies in a fire accident, Lee’s migratory life begins:

I remember someone lifted me up and I looked into the coffin where my father

lay... Then they took him away with his going, the order and stability that had

been in my life dissolved. There was no bread-winner so we had to leave the place

that had been our home (Abraham 13).

At a very young age, Lee begins a different life journey, he begins to struggle to make meaning

out of his life. Firstly, he leaves Vrededrop to Elsburg with Aunt Liza whose husband is Uncle

46
Sam. In Elsburg, he treks several miles with other children to buy cracklings every Wednesday.

Lee is faced with racial discrimination; he suffers because of his color.

Years later, Maggie and Henry arrived Elsburg and take Lee back to Vrededorp. In Vrededorp

Lee and his family suffer hardship. Since they could not afford their rent, they move to Oupa

Ruiter’s house, and later to Aunty Mattie's house. Lee begins to steal from Indian stores when he

joins a gang of three boys. After sometime, Lee begins to work under Boeta Dick. He decides to

go to school after he meets the short sighted Jewish girl who makes him understand the

importance of school. He begins to go to school with a personal effort to learn how to read and

write. He becomes enlightened and no longer feels attached to his gang. Due to Maggie's

marriage to Christ Fortune, and the arrest of Aunty Mattie, Lee moves to the city with Maggie

and her husband. His struggle continues even in the city. He becomes a carrier in the market,

though, always chased by the “white” police for lack of permit. For three months he worked in

the market as a carrier and always hiding from police and the real boys:

If the police caught us, we went to jail… the police were nearly on us…there was

no way of escape. A wall of shoppers barned the way… Panic gripped me. The

police men gripped my hand… I sensed the police men mounting anger. He swung

me about violently. He glared down at me. His face was red (133-134).

Lee is faced with racial discrimination and strives to protect his identity. Not long after he begins

to work in a hotel where he starts work at 5pm and ends by 12 midnight. He moves in the dark

morning and late nights in lonely parts. Jim his colleague tries to tell him how unfairly life could

treat someone.

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Jim narrates how he obtained several passes when he left his village in North Tranvall, even a

trek pass and other passes. “A man’s life is controlled by pieces of paper” (143). Jim’s

experiences are also in line of the helplessness and sufferings South Africans had to go through

in other to survive. Lee grows so thin due to lack of rest. Maggie asks him to stop the work since

it is too stressful for him. Again, he finds another work at a Bantu Men’s Social Club. He obtains

a scholarship from Cannon Woodfield to a missionary college called “Grace Deus” at

Pietersburg. The college is to train teachers and Lee has never dreamt of being a teacher, he

wants to be a poet. He abandons the school and returns to Johannesburg. Lee meets Max Gordon

who tells him that there is no place for him (Lee) in Johannesburg because the whites do not

want a colored writer:

Dont be a fool. You know, and I know, that there is no room for you here. Who

wants a writer? The whites?... The black? They have no time for reading. Most of

them can’t. And those who can are improviding their miserable lot, not with

reading poetry (191).

Max refers him to Goolam in Cape Town. On getting there, Gool introduces lee to the inner

struggle of his wife’s provincial council. He leaves Goolam’s place to the office of the Liberation

League in search for a job which he never secures due to too many applicants. He decides to get

a passport for England, the office turns him down. Lee mets Roderiques who needs help to build

up a school in Cape flats. He offers to help as a teacher but due to his ill health, he leaves Cape

Flats for Durban where he finally enters a ship for England:

Also, there was the need to write, to tell freedom, and for this I needed to be

personally free.. When the first ray of the morning sun touched the sky in the east
48
 I got up and dresses. The long night was over. This was thee moment of departure

(224).

Lee’s life is not organized, he is disconnected from his family. He is living a purposeless and

directionless life. He lives a slippery life and drifts in the society. He lives a life full of fear and

desert with identity crisis. His life is aimless and he has no support from anywhere. He is living a

life that is controlled by laws like someone living in chains and captivity. Finally he abandons

everything and everyone in South Africa and leaves for England to start life totally afresh. This

shows the meaninglessness and emptiness of life. One goes from one struggle to another and

finally dies leaving everything behind. Lee roams aimlessly around the world without a

destination.

4.6 Angelina

Angelina is fondly referred to as a Lina in the text. She is the mother of Lee. A Cape colored

woman. Lina has also tasted her own part of the sufferings in South Africa. She was a widow

with two children and stayed with her sister Margaret before she met the Ethiopian man. From

the beginning of the narrative, she is seen as an unfortunate character that had gone through

pains and helpless situations. Starting with the loss of her first husband, second husband and her

little Natalie. She also faces oppressions from the people she works for. Her life is similar to the

life of any non Afrikan in the society. She lives a purposeless life. Lina and her family moves

from place to place. After losing her husband and Natalie, she is separated from her son Lee who

goes to Elsburg to stay with Aunty Liza. Her two children Margaret and Harry are always out

looking for ends meet. Angelina is condemned to servitude; she stays mostly in the house of her

pay masters, and is only allowed to go out once in a while. She lives like a slave and acts like a

49
beast of burden. She is uneducated, no social and economic mobility. Worst of all, she is like an

animal who gives birth to children and leaves them to stray. She hardly has time for her children.

What more can be painful than being separated from your loved ones? She helps to take care of

other people’s children, does the beddings of her “baas” and Missus”. At all time, she is

maltreated, yet paid close to nothing. Maggie recounts Angelina’s awful experience:

It’s nearly a year ago now… Ma worked for them, Maggie said. She was washing

and the tins of boiling water fell on her. They made her come home by herself…

what did that woman say? “I can’t help it if she is careless enough to get hurt.

She can’t ask for a penny from me”. (64).

Angelina is very poor. She lives below street 19 which is meant for the very poor people. Still

she could not afford the rent. The landlord asked her to pack out and she moves to Oupa-

grandpa Ruiter’s house. In the character of Angelina, we see existential struggle, a struggle that

lives with us.

4.7 Aunty Mattie (Margaret)

Aunty Mattie is another character that witnessed the penury, and destitution of life brought to her

by the South African system. She engages in a continuous battle for survival. Finally she ends up

losing everything to the South African police.

Aunty Mattie is the elder sister of Angelina. Angelina and her two children were living with her

after the death of her first husband. We see a description of Margaret:

50
 Margaret was the fairer of the two sisters, fair enough to “pass” Her husband

was a scot, he worked on the mines. They had a little girl with blond hair and blue

eyes. They lived in Nineteenth Street, Vredeporp (11).

Aunty Mattie is loud and assertive “she was short and stocky and fair in complexion and had

once been a very handsome woman"(76) she once lived above the colored before her husband

died. He was caught smuggling gold and arrested. All their money had gone on defense, then he

finally died leaving her penniless with their child Catherine. This is where her hardship begins.

“She was involved in many trades” (76). She becomes very bitter towards others and even

herself. The only people that pierce her harshness are Harry and Catherine. She sells firewood,

and during the weekends, deals with illicit liquor due to poverty. She packs out of her house in

19th street and finds herself in worst slum area, street 16. Aunty Mattie suddenly becomes old and

her feet were swollen with rheumatism. She relies on Maggie and her illicit liquor for survival.

One day, she is caught with Skokiaan. The police digs up two drums of it and finally arrests her.

After few days in the police station, they gather all the money she has saved, borrow, and even

sell all her furniture before she is bailed. She loses everything she had worked for all her life. She

stays with Catherine and her husband for few days then finds a job as a house maid in Mayfair.

She has to start life afresh. The reality of life is done on her. The world indeed is full of strive

and the final end of the battle for human survival is death.

4.8 Uncle Sam

Uncle Sam is another helpless character that suffers humiliation and poverty from the South

African government. He is the husband to Aunty Liza and they live in Elsburg. Uncle Sam works

in the laundry of the “white” man. He brings home dirty clothes every night and carries away

51
neat bundles every morning. Aunty Liza also partakes in the suffering of her husband because

everyday is washing day for her. The narrator says:

I noticed the thickness of her arms, and her big hands that were pitted with being

in water the whole day, white as sheet and swollen to twice their size (22).

Uncle Sam is very thin. Aunty Liza and Lee have to wait for him till he returns from work.

Aunty Liza irons clothes all through the night. Due to the level of poverty in the house, they eat

same food every day except on Sundays that there would be a piece of small meat to vary the

diet (26). Uncle Sam also depicts the helplessness of the African society among the Europeans.

This helplessness is portrayed when Lee fights with one of the “white” boys on their way back

from getting cracklings. Later that day, a “white” man arrives with three boys at Uncle Sam's

house and asked Uncle Sam to teach Lee a lesson or they will be thrown out. Against his will,

Uncle Sam gets a thick leather thong, while beating him says:

You must never lift your hand to a white person.. No matter what happens… you

must never lift your hand to a white person… he lifted the trap and brought it

down… (34).

Uncle Sam has to do what pleases his “white” landlord. It shows the helplessness of the African

society. After the beating, they still apologize to the “baas” even Lee who is in pain is forced to

apologize. Aunty Liza is sorry for Lee, and Uncle Sam weeps. He asks Aunty Liza to explain to

the little boy that the colored do not beat the “white”. The suffering of the African society is

clearly portrayed in this situation.

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4.9 Comparison between Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, and Peter Abraham’s Tell

Freedom

In comparison to Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett, the South Africans in Peter Abraham’s

Tell freedom are restricted and they live in confinement. They live in an absurd situation as if

they are put in a world without any purpose. They yearn for emancipation from the

dehumanization and discrimination in South Africa. The characters in a bit to survive move from

place to place. They are aware that their situation is awful yet does nothing to reverse it.

Peter Abraham like Samuel Becket try to explain the meaninglessness of existence. The

characters simply move from place to place (relocation) when they know that their struggle

would yield no fruit. They simply endure the hardship of life. Like Vladimir and Estragon in

Beckett’s waiting for Godot, the South Africans in Tell freedom are living a miserable life, not

because life is pain itself but because they are free. As earlier stated, the biggest problem humans

face is the problem of free will.

4.10 Existentialism and Humanism

The concept of existentialism as humanism is mostly associated with the 20 th Century

philosopher, Jean Paul Sartre. The concept was propounded in 1946. Sartre says:

The key defining concept of existentialism is that existence of a person is prior to

their essence. The term “existence proceeds essence” subsequently become a

maxim of existentialist movement (Sartre 24).

53
This means that there is nothing to dictate a person’s character, goal in life, and so on. Only an

individual can define his own essence. According to Sartre, man first of all exists, encounters

himself, surges up in the world and defines himself afterwards (Manlinge 2021).

In line with the explanation above, in Tell Freedom, Lee, though born into the apartheid system

where there is oppression and subjugation, tries to emancipate himself from the society he has

found himself. He surges up and tries to break the chain of poverty and suffering inherent in the

apartheid system.

First, he tries to acquire formal education since it is believed that education is for the Afrikans

alone. That is why the young man he meets in the market reading news papers is very surprised

that Lee could read:

I tried to read what he said about the black people’s picture. The young man raised his

eyes and looked at me over the top of the paper. I straighten up. “Can you read?”… ‘all

right, here read this to me’…by God, you can, too”. (148).

Again, Lee tries to develop himself as a writer. For that reason, he leaves Grace Dieu which he

believes is a teacher training college. He wants to develop himself in accordance to his purpose

for his life not in accordance with what father Cannon Wood field wants him to be.

Lee travels from place to place in search of a better life. Finally in Cape Town, he gets a passport

that will take him to England, away from the miserable South African society. He realizes that

there is nothing in the life style dictated to him by the South African government. He prefers to

be free. He wants to build himself and afterwards define his own existence. He says;

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For me, personally, life in South Africa had come to an end. I had reached a

point where the gestures of even my friends among the whites were suspects, so I

had to go to be forever lost. I needed not friend, not gestures, but my manhood.

And the need was desperate… I walked briskly down the rocks. And all my

dreams walked with me (224).

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 Work Cited

Jonas, Raymond. The battle of Adwa: Africans victory in the age of empire. Cambridge, MA:
Harvard university press, 2011.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/existentialism-15-a-humanism.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/peterabraham’s

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 CHAPTER FIVE

SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

5.0 Introduction

This research has attempted to examine the concept of existentialism using two selected texts.

Mongo Beti’s Mission to kala and Peter Abraham’s Tell freedom. The research has analyzed and

gave existentialist reading to these texts, showing the ontological, ethnical and philosophical

aspects of human existence. Thus, this chapter summarizes the work so far, draws the conclusion

of the study, and proposes a recommendation for further studies.

5.1 Summary

The research explore how Mongo Beti’s and Peter Abraham’s plot, characterization and setting

in Mission to Kala and Tell Freedom discussed and revealed existentialists thoughts and

principles such as absurdity, nothingness, choice, death, existential humanism and nihilism.

Those novels were written primarily to express the culture and values of the African system as

well as the gruesome effect of the apartheid system in South Africa. But, this research has

examined and gave existentialists view to these texts.

The first chapter is a general introduction and background of the study, statement of the problem,

scope and limitation of the study, research questions, methodology and theoretical framework.

The second chapter dwelt extensively on the review of related literature, a critical examination of

the concept of existentialism, evaluation of the relationship between existentialism and literature

as well as the philosophical movement of existentialism. The third chapter is focused on a

57
detailed analysis and discussion of one of the selected texts; Mongo Beti’s Mission to Kala. The

novel is analysed using existentialist features to explore the plot structure. This chapter also

examines the concept of nihilism as an extension of existentialism. Findings reveal that writers

have continued to use their literary work to address societal problems. The fourth chapter

continues with the analysis and discussion of one of the primary texts; Peter Abraham's Tell

Freedom. This chapter examines some selected characters with existentialist features around

their social circumstances as well as the evaluation of existentialism and humanism.

The fifth chapter, which is the last chapter, gives a comprehensive summary of the work so far as

well as the conclusion and recommendation of the research work.

5.2 Conclusion: Mission to Kala versus Tell Freedom

This research work shows the abilities of Beti and Abraham to see and conceptualize the world

through their portrayal of character and exploring of existentialist terms in their novels under

study. The moment of struggle, crisis and anguish faced by the characters in the novel, reveal the

portrayal of these existential features.

Though the research uses two different texts to examine the concept of existentialism, there are

areas of similarities. This is because both narratives contain elements of absurdity and Sartrean

existentialism. This form of existentialism provided by Jean-Paul Sartre shows that the universe

is an irrational and meaningless sphere full of suffering and nothingness. Human existence is

absurd and life has no sense, no purpose, and no explanation. It shows that death is the final end

of every man. These attributes of Sartrean existentialism is clearly found in both texts under

study.

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Again, both texts are growing up novels about two people who are Africans and have challenges

in life. Both have families and communities, there are disruptions in their lives, and their

societies finally losses them. The ways the two stories end are also similar.

Also, there are differences in both narrations. While Mission to Kala examines deeply the

concept of nihilism as an extension of existentialism, Tell Freedom considers existentialism and

humanism in relation to the text. Mission to Kala is set in West Africa, while Tell Freedom is set

in South Africa. In Beti’s novel, the antagonist is Medza’s father while in Abraham’s novel, the

antagonist is the South African regime and the apartheid system. In this case, there is colonial

influence because of the Dutch known as Afrikans. The families in this novel are dispersed. The

protagonist, Lee gets to know his father and sister when they are pointed out to him. They moved

from place to place, they are almost homeless.

Finally, we can say that both works, despite their different central messages, and use of

existential implications have contributed richly to the world of literature.

The primary interest of this research is the existential reading and interpretation of Mongo Beti’s

Mission to Kala and Peter Abraham’s works portraying clearly the features of existentialism.

David E. Cooper has summarized the main ideas of existentialist thoughts. He says:

Existence is a constant striving, a perpetual choice, it is marked by a radical freedom and

responsibility, and it is always prey to a sense of Angst which reveals that, for the most part, it is

lived in authentically and in bad faith. And because the character of a human life is never given,

existence is without formulation, hence, it is abandoned or absurd even (Cooper 67).

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5.3 Recommendation

This research has undoubtedly contributed to the literature of existentialism and by extension

knowledge as little has been written from the existentialist perspective using these literary works.

I recommend therefore that further research should be carried out to examine the problems of

irrational decision making and a state of hopelessness faced by man, and its effect in the society.

Since existentialism is broad with several perspectives and principles, which have not been

exhaustively treated in this research, further studies should be carried out on this aspect.

Researchers should go further to explore and detail the existential and different ontological

aspects of being. Though, this has been examined to some extend in this work, further research

should be carried out to deepen the understanding of human existence, through the portrayal of

the experiences of characters in the works of art. This will help to widen the knowledge of

individuals towards life. Finally, I will say that more attention be given to literary work, as no

work is written in vacuum but to teach and improve the society and expand societal knowledge

on the issues of life.

Work Cited

Cooper, David. Existentialism. Oxford: Willey Blackwell, 1999.

https://www.clifffnotes.come/literature/n/no-exit/critical-essays/sartrean-existence

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