1) Describe the villagers - what do they believe in?
- What happens to Alee and how does the story end?
2) Characterise Nedam, why is he killed?
3) Characterise the narrator, and describe the role the narrator has been given.
4) Comment on the title.
5) What is the main conflict in the story? Please consider the theme order vs. chaos.
6) Could you please google Ken Saro Wiwa? Is there any information about him which we can use to understand the story in an altered way?
1: The villagers are uneducated Africans living in a small town. They believe in witchcraft and bad luck, omens and such. Alee is a young man, who dies while he is away in another town where he is working for the army. The story ends with the villagers burning a man named Nedam.
ReplyDelete2: Nedam is born with two teeth which, to the villagers, is a sign of him being wicked. He won’t go to school and he becomes very envious of his friends. He is said to be full of mystery and evil and disappears into the forest for days, but no one knows what he does in there. The villagers are superstitious and think that it is Nedams fault when Alee dies. They saw Alee as a future for their town, a man who would bring wealth and education to their lives. And Nedam killed that. That is why they lock him in a hut and set it on fire.
3: The narrator is communicating to us how Nedam really is. He is not evil or magical, he is just unusual. He wants to make money and tries to farm oil palms in peace and away from the judging eyes of the villagers. We don’t get to know the name or gender of the narrator, but he/she seems to be a missionary, I think he/she works at the school.
4: The title is “the bonfire” and I think it is because Nedam is burned alive, like witches used to be. In Africa there is a very strong belief in witchcraft and all things supernatural. If something happens it is always the unusual peoples fault. If someone was born with their butt first or maybe if someone walks funny, they are scapegoat of the village. People even kill children if they think they are unlucky!
5: The main conflict in the story is that Nedam is not like anybody else. He does not fit in to the order of things in the village and that frightens the superstitious villagers. They have a box everybody should fit into and if they don’t; something is wrong. It brings chaos to their world. But for us, people in the western world, their order is chaos. Burning people alive to bring order back is not logical to us –anymore. We understand why people walk funny or that it is not unlucky to be born with teeth though it is unusual.
6: I think Ken Saro-Wiwa uses Nedam as a symbol of himself. He does not want to conform; he does his own thing and get prosecuted and struck down for trying to make a better life, not only for himself, but for all of the Nigerians. The society is trying to hold him down and keep to traditions.
- Stine
You understood this text very well - especially the chaos vs order theme is evident to understand here. You write anymore - what does it say about the people that they burn people alive? Do you think this could happen today - in Africa?
DeleteExactly, Ken Saro Wiwa was killed by the Nigerian government (last to be shot together with nine other journalists) around the time this short story was published. His punishment was fighting for justice.
Is there perhaps a relevant perspective to what has been going on in African countries - the Arab Spring - the past years?
There's definitely a relation to what is happening in the Middle Eastern countries today. The people are trying to break free of the very oppressing traditions but the guys in charge (governments or dictators) will not allow this and kill them in various ways.
DeleteI have seen a few documentaries on superstition in Africa, and they still terrorize people if they are different -some of them even cut little children to bits with machetes if they are "unlucky"!
The villagers are superstitious and naive. They believed that all the deaths that have happened in their town were attributable to a culprit, Nedam. Alee, who did not live in Dukana anymore, died in some faraway town. 3 painful weeks later, his corpse was brought back to Dukana. Everyone attended the burial as well as Nedam. After a short while, the youths of Dukana seized Nedam and threw him in a heap into the house. They then set the house ablaze because they believed it was all Nedam's doings.
ReplyDelete-Anna Olsen
Yes, they are superstitious and naive and what does the writer intend to say with this, do you think?
DeleteI think that the writer probably wants to tell us how traditions creates a huge impact of the minds of some people. If they are drowned to it alot more, it would come to the point where they could hurt other people.
Delete-Anna Olsen
Well. you do follow the norms of society as we, as human beings, are afraid of sticking out. You follow the mass and even though you hurt others, it is difficutl to see how wrong it is. Authority is also something to consider here - people blindly follow their leaders thus it takes a long time for them to understand just how wrong things are.
Delete6. Ken Saro Wiwa and Nadem have alot in common. For example, their deaths. They were both accused of something and murdered for it. Ken Saro Wiwa somewhat describes Nedam as himself. Though he was non-violent to other people and was just trying do to something good for everyone, other people still doesn't get him/gave him a chance.
ReplyDelete-Anna Olsen
Yes, and how crazy does it not seem when we - Westerners- read this? Is there a reason for writing it this way in terms of message from Wiwa?
Delete1
ReplyDeleteThe villagers are uneducated and naives superstitious Africans who are living in a small town. They believe for example in witchcraft and bad luck.
Alee is a young man, who works for the army in another town. While he is away he dies and Nedam is blamed for it. Therefore ends the story with the villagers burning Nedam and his hut.
2
Nedam is an outsider in a village where people that are very superstitious and therefore think from the day he was born that he was wicked because he was born with two teeth. Nedam wouldn’t go to school and he becomes very envious of his friends because he is frustrated over the fact that he doesn’t fit in. He is sad because people believes he is full of mystery and evil so he disappears into the forest for days, but no one knows what he does all that time. And because he disappears for days and no one knows what he is doing in the forest he seems even more mystery’s to the villagers.
The villagers are superstitious and think that it is Nedams fault when Alee dies. They saw Alee as a future for their town, a man who would bring wealth and education to their lives. And Nedam killed that hope when he killed him as they think he did whit some of his evil. That is why they lock him in a hut and set it on fire so he burned alive.
3
We don’t get a name or a gender of the narrator, but the narrators role is to communicate who the real Nedam is and how he is. That he isn’t evil or have any sort of witchcraft, but that he just is unusual compared to them. He doesn’t do something weird when he disappear he simply just tries to farm oil palms in peace and make some money away from the judging eyes from the villagers.
4
The title is “the bonfire” and I think it is because Nedam is burned alive when his hut were set on fire, as people uses to burn witches alive on a bonfire. In Africa there is a very strong belief in witchcraft and other supernatural things. It is always the unusual people who get blamed if something happens. If someone was born in a funny way or have any sort of disorder or handicap, they are scapegoat of the village. This superstitious madness makes even people to kill children if they think they are an outsider there has some sort of witchcraft.
5
The main conflict must be that Nedam isn’t like everybody else. He does not fit into the “box” that symbolize that you are normal, so something must be wrong. The villagers are frighten of Nedam and superstitious. That Nedam isn’t like everybody else leads to chaos in the villagers’ well known order.
6
I think Nedam symbolize Ken Saro-Wiwa. They have a lot in common because both are having problems to fit into and get accepted in the society they live in. Another thing they have in common is their deaths in the way that they both were accused for something and murdered because of it.
Rebecca Christensen
Very good answers. Just want to comment on the title in which Bonfire stands for celebration, obviously it is rather ironic that the title would have a positive connotation so what could be the reason for that?
DeleteAlso, you have a very good point with comparing Nadeem and Wiwa, but why illustrate it with Nedam´s character?
1. Describe the villagers - what do they believe in?
ReplyDelete- What happens to Alee and how do the story end?
The villagers are a primitive people living in their own town called Dukana which is filled with superstition about magic spells, wickedness and so. They envy anyone having better conditions than themselves.
Alee dies from diabetes, but the town believes it was because he once lived in Dukana and therefore was wicked or cursed. The story ends with Nedam being burned alive inside his own farm, because he is different and does not believe in the same things as the rest of the town and better off than them. This makes the people of the town blame him, and therefore he is burned in his farm.
2. Characterize Nedam, why is he killed?
Nedam is an outsider, he was born with two teeth and the rest of the people thinks him wicked therefore. He is a quiet guy who keeps to himself and he believes that his oil palm farm will produce money for him at sometime. He does not like the people of Dukana and does not go fishing like the men of the town.
3. Characterize the narrator, and describe the role the narrator has been given.
The narrator has no name or gender, which keeps him neutral in the story and therefore more reliable for the reader. His role is to tell Nedams story or show his life and why he does not fit into the towns believes.
4. Comment on the title.
The title is something nice, a bonfire vs. something awful. As reader you figure a bonfire is pleasant and nice, it can keep you warm but in this story, the more you read the more you come to think on what it also is, fire, hot, inferno which is the meaning of this title.
5. What is the main conflict in the story? Please consider the theme order vs. chaos.
It is that Nedam is an outsider. He simply does not fit into the town and their “order” because he was born different, acts differently and keeps to himself. People are always scared of the unknown which is Nedam.
6. Could you please Google Ken Saro Wiwa? Is there any information about him which we can use to understand the story in an altered way?
Nedam is a symbol Ken Saros way of life. Works for what he thinks is right and getting punished for it with the toll of the highest price.
- Karsten Kristensen
Good answers. Bonfire refers to celebration which we can relate to the themes chaoes vs. order. By burning Nedam they establish order and for them this is a celebration, how crazy it must seem to us, I believe this is what Wiwa wants to communicate. The governements in many African countries want the people to be superstituous and ignorant because that will keep them in check, that will keep the order.
DeleteThanks. Those are some spooky governments!
Delete1)The villagers are small farmers how only have one or two pieces of land and they only provide for them self. They believe in the wise priest, witch. Pre´empt the eviel, other words they are superstitions.
ReplyDeleteAlee was one of the few young men who got a education and came away from the town. He had success and some people don’t like that, so he gets killed. By his burial Nedam was there to he said his meaning and was hunted to a house where the inhabitance put on fire to the house and he gets killed.
2) Nedam is a young man he is thin as a rake and ugly. He grow up in Dukana did not want to go to school. There were a lot of rumors about him because he was different so he is an easy target. he takes care of himself and was not a part of the community. Nedam get killed because he says he´s meaning.
-Morten
1. The villagers are called the Dukana. They are very superstitious and believe too much in rumours and secrets. For some reason, every time someone has success with money or fame, that someone ends up being dead. None of the villages has any kind of an education, and no experience of how to earn money, so they get easily jealous and envy those with success.
ReplyDeleteFor some reason, they dislike Nedam because he is different and did not attend to school like other people. He lives by himself on a little farm that he made. In the end of the story, a young man named Alee, had gained success but gets murdered. The villages accuse Nedam for killing him, He gets locked up in his own house and burned to the ground.
2. Nedam is skinny and ugly man who grew up in Dukana. He never went to school and did not want to study. He either wanted to go fishing like the other men in Dukana. Nedam was more interested in farming on his own and watching nature grow around him. He wanted to grow food crops for himself and cash crops for selling.
He was a very quiet man who just took care of himself, as the villagers misunderstood to be very weird, and were feared by him because he was different.