Discuss the role played by security personnel in Unexpected Joy at Dawn.
Security personnel refers to a group of individuals trained to ensure the security of lives and properties, and the maintenance of law and order in a country. They are usually sanctioned by the government to perform this role. Government security agencies include the police, the military, and immigration officers. Security personnel play a very important role in the two countries, Ghana and Nigeria, in which Alex Agyei-Agyiri’s Unexpected Joy at Dawn is set.
To start with, the security personnel perform their primary role which is the maintenance of law and order in the novel. Nii’s neigbourhood, for example, is said to be a hub of criminal elements. Nii hints at clashes between these elements and the police. In Nigeria as well, we witness the concerted efforts of soldiers and immigration officers to drive away illegal immigrants from the country. In other instances, the author portrays the effort to fight indiscipline in Nigeria and corruption in Ghana using security personnel. Besides, in Ghana, the security personnel also burst illegal miners from time to time. It is on one of such operations that the evasive Tally O meets his tragic end.
Similarly, it is out of trust of the police to perform its duties that Mama Orojo reports the man who swindled her on her flight to Accra to Ghanaian police. It is at the police station that the evasive swindler, who is identified later as I-Put-It-To-You and Tally O, is established as being on the police’s wanted list. In the same vein, it is a constable from the station that takes Mama Orojo to Joe’s office so she can purchase real gold. This action contributes to the plot development of the novel. Her meeting with Joe bears many fruits: a launch of her gold business; getting to know more about Nii from Joe; and a love relationship with Joe that blossoms into a marriage.
Having mentioned the good roles security personnel play in the novel, it is important to note that not everything is good about them. The novelist clearly depicts them as oppressive and exploitative. In Ghana, soldiers beat civilians with reckless abandon. Old Mama Akosua is a victim of such rampage: she is trampled upon during a commotion caused by rampaging soldiers in the market. The night Nii defies Linda’s seduction also makes this point about the oppressive relationship between soldiers and civilians. Nii strips himself naked, after coming out of Linda’s apartment during a curfew, so he can be mistaken for a mad man since the soldiers clearly won’t punish a mad man like they brutally beat the sane civilians for walking around during the curfew.
There is the exploitative side of the security personnel too and this primarily applies to Nigeria. Nii’s experience with Immigration Officer Paleo points out the exploitative disposition of security personnel. Paleo and other officers in his patrol team arrest illegal Ghanaian illegal immigrants, which Nii is part of. Paleo, however, takes them to a farm settlement in Illere where they are used for cheap labour, instead of taking them to the authorities for recourse to proper actions.
In conclusion, as we have mentioned in the foregoing paragraphs, security personnel play a significant role in Unexpected Joy at Dawn. Alex Agyei-Agyiri examines both the positive and the negative sides of government security institutions: from performing their primary assignments in the maintenance of law and order in their extant societies, to going as low as oppressing and exploiting the very people they have sworn to protect.
Further Reading:
- Q & A: Examine the friendship between Mama Orojo and Ibuk in “Unexpected Joy at Dawn”
- The Symbolic Use of Kantamanto Market and Korle Lagoon in UNEXPECTED JOY AT DAWN
- Q & A: Comment on the Relationship Between Nii Tackie and Massa
- Is Alex Agyei-Agyiri’s “Unexpected Joy at Dawn” a Difficult Text to Read?
- Q & A: How far is it correct to say that there are two protagonists in Unexpected Joy at Dawn?
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