Anikwenwa Character Analysis in The Thing Around Your Neck

In "The Headstrong Historian," Anikwenwa is Obierika and Nwamgba's son. He learns English at a Catholic mission school and though he hates it at first, he comes to fully embrace British culture and the teachings of the Catholic church. He then refuses to eat Nwamgba's food or attend tribal rituals because they're not Christian.

Anikwenwa Quotes in The Thing Around Your Neck

The The Thing Around Your Neck quotes below are all either spoken by Anikwenwa or refer to Anikwenwa. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

Women, Marriage, and Gender Roles Theme Icon

). Note: all page numbers and citation info for the quotes below refer to the Anchor Books edition of The Thing Around Your Neck published in 2009.

She wanted Azuka to learn the ways of these foreigners, since people ruled over others not because they were better people but because they had better guns...

Related Characters: , ,

Page Number and Citation: 204

Explanation and Analysis:

Anikwenwa Character Timeline in The Thing Around Your Neck

The timeline below shows where the character Anikwenwa appears in The Thing Around Your Neck. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

Nwamgba and Obierika name their son Anikwenwa. He's a happy child, but Nwamgba fears that Okafo and Okoye will try to hurt... (full context)

...Nwamgba that white men set up a courthouse in Onicha and suggests that Nwamgba send Anikwenwa to school. Nwamgba thinks she never will, but changes her mind when Okafo and Okoye... (full context)

Nwamgba pulls Anikwenwa out of school at the Anglican mission when she learns that lessons are taught in... (full context)

Nwamgba begins to notice that Anikwenwa soon adopts strange habits. He refuses to eat "heathen food" and tells his mother that... (full context)

Anikwenwa soon goes to Lagos to teach. He returns and talks about "winning souls," and Nwamgba... (full context)

...as is customary because she's a Christian. The women at the stream beat her, and Anikwenwa threatens to lock up the women. Nwamgba is ashamed of her son and thinks he... (full context)

When Grace leaves for school, Nwamgba knows she's going to die soon. Anikwenwa wants to baptize her so she can have a Christian funeral, but Nwamgba refuses. She... (full context)

...until a teacher tells her that Nwamgba's poetry isn't actually poetry. Grace begins to despise Anikwenwa and tries to avoid him. She listens to stories of white men razing villages but... (full context)

...curriculum. Grace realizes that education brings dignity, and begins to rethink her own education and Anikwenwa's teachings. Grace travels to Europe and writes a book called Pacifying with Bullets: A Reclaimed... (full context)