ion in Nigeria, one that is in transition and not yet sure of its place or its relationship to the older generations. He and his contemporaries have been exposed to western education, Western ideas, and Western culture, and this has also separated them more from the traditional society of their ancestors. This is a common plight in emerging nations, where education is given a high priority for what it can do for economic development, yet where tensions erupt because this education conflicts with traditional learning and acculturation. Obi discovers that he cannot really escape from the ties of traditional society and that he is faced again and again with evidence of the conflict between the old ways and the new.
The tensions this clash creates pushes Obi into decisions he later regrets making as he succumbs to the corruption around him. The reader knows this from the beginning because most of the novel is told in flashback style, with Obi on trial for corrupt
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