📚 Need a custom study guide on any literary text? Get the best study guide money can buy from us at Literature PADI! Detailed, insightful, and crafted by literature experts to give you maximum value for your money.
[See Pricing & Details!]
Overview
The Healers by Ayi Kwei Armah is a historical fiction novel set in the Asante Empire and Cape Coast of Ghana during 1873–1874. The novel, which was first published in 1978, follows Densu, a young man falsely accused of murder, who finds refuge with Damfo, a healer seeking to restore both individuals and society.
Plot Summary of The Healers
In his desire to do justice to his tale, the narrator, the “story-teller,” of the events of The Healers, invokes the arts of eloquence from a long-revered tradition of African masters of narrative. Convinced of the urgency and importance of his tale, the narrator must remind himself, through the invocations, that discipline in storytelling is a paramount factor that he must not forget. The main task of the narrator is to show how the events of the twentieth year in the life of the protagonist, Densu, serve to illustrate aspects of the larger society. There is a focus on a specific historical time, during which critical changes occurred as a result of internal political and spiritual conflicts exacerbated by British colonial incursions into the Asante empire.
The Healers opens with the notation that a brutal murder has occurred and that the protagonist, Densu, is involved in this event. Murdered is Appia, the crown prince of Esuano, and also believed murdered is his missing mother, Araba Jesiwa. The action flashes back to the period just prior to the murder, the festival season of the chosen-year ceremonial games of competition in the town of Esuano. Densu and his age-group, young men passing into manhood, compete in several athletic and mental skills. In the past, these games were regarded as cooperative rituals of wholeness. Now, however, the festivals have a strong emphasis on individual competition, which Densu believes promotes fragmentation and division. Densu, who dislikes aimless and disruptive conflict, reluctantly competes, and his overall skills are superior. Appia is declared winner of the games, however, when Densu compassionately refuses to kill a tethered pigeon in the final shooting competition.
Two forces pull at Densu. One is his manipulative guardian, Ababio, who, out of self-interest spurred by greed for power, wants Densu to aspire to royal service and even to the local kingship. Ababio would hope to be de facto ruler, with Densu as a figurehead. The other force pulling at Densu is his own inclination to become a healer, to get far away from court fife and join Damfo’s community of simple-living healers in the eastern forest.
The action catches up with the present with Appia’s murder, and as a result of Ababio’s machinations, Densu becomes the prime murder suspect. Densu knows too much of Ababio’s desires, and Ababio has schemed to have Densu killed in a trial-by-ordeal: Densu must drink a poisonous potion as a test of his guilt or innocence.
After escaping from Ababio’s trap, Densu joins Damfo in the forest. Densu had gone to Damfo earlier, but Damfo sent the young man back to town to spend a year contemplating whether he was sincerely resolved to cast his lot with the ascetic healers. Now, events have propelled him rather quickly back to Damfo. In this period, the love of Densu and Ajoa blossoms.
Damfo has two key patients to restore to health. One is Araba Jesiwa, whose four limbs are broken, whose speech is lost, and whose mind has strayed—all as a result of having witnessed Appia’s murder and having been beaten herself. She has been a kind mentor to Densu and a longtime patient and friend of Damfo. After several months, her bones heal, but her speech is elusive. Damfo’s other patient is Asamoa Nkwanta, the Asante army chief general, who is in acute depression because his favorite nephew has been treacherously killed by a spiteful court rival. Asamoa Nkwanta’s leadership is needed because the Asante army is in disarray without him and because the English forces are threatening the Asante empire.
Damfo succeeds in getting Asamoa Nkwanta to recognize some of the flaws in Asante society. For example, the holding of slaves and the sacrificial slaying of slaves are Asante practices which are at core disrespectful of life. If Asamoa Nkwanta, with his respected influence, can be brought to enlightened awareness, then there is more of a chance for progressive changes, “healing” changes, to occur in the society.
One critical obstacle to unity is the royalty. Some lesser and rival kings, eager for money and gin, collaborate with the English interests. The Asante royal family itself betrays Asamoa Nkwanta rather than risk a diminution of its influence should the Asante general defeat the English and thus become even more popular among the people. The royalty, jealous wielder of power, is not ready for generous healing. The Asante king has sent word to General Garnet Wolseley that the king’s quarrel is not with white men, only with black men, but the English forces do not relent. They sack the city of Kumase, and the royal family is forced to flee.
Densu has a new trial, under English jurisdiction, and he is proven innocent when Araba Jesiwa, regaining her speech, testifies and implicates Ababio, now king of Esuano, in the murder of her son, Appia. Ababio, who shamelessly cast his lot with the English, is bound over to be tried by them for murder.
The final scene of the novel expresses an ironic development. General Wolseley is returning to England in triumph after his incursion into Kumase. By their imperial machination, however, the English have unwittingly effected a “gathering of the tribes” of black people. The English have brought blacks from various parts of Africa and the West Indies, albeit in the service of colonial conquest, to Cape Coast, and the novel closes with these curiously gathered people participating in a communal dance. Present colonial conquest has not doused the healing impulse seeking unity.
Characterisation in The Healers
Summary:
Densu, the protagonist, is a twenty-year-old young man who has to choose between aspiring to a local kingship and joining the ascetic healers.
Damfo is the leader of a community of healers and a mentor to Densu.
Ababio, initially Densu’s guardian, is a corrupt local court official and later a local king.
Araba Jesiwa is the mother of the murdered crown prince and a friend to Densu.
Ajoa is Densu’s beloved and the daughter of Damfo.
Asamoa Nkwanta is an Asante general.
Sir Garnet Wolseley is a British general.
Captain Glover is a vain British military freebooter.
Densu observes his society and has uneasy feelings about its aims and his place within it. He is on the threshold of setting his course in life, and he finds no comfort in the direction his manipulative guardian, Ababio, would have him take. Ababio would have Densu, with his talents and resourcefulness, court power by serving Ababio and the white men. In Densu’s view, Ababio is a betrayer and a predatory user of the people. Densu, orphaned when an infant, consistently is able to refuse the promises of power which his wily guardian dangles before him. Densu chooses to pursue the path of inspiration and of healing, rather than that of manipulation. Densu wants to be true to his convictions, and the work of the healers genuinely intrigues and attracts him. To be drawn into the governing system as it is then constituted would be tantamount to enlisting in the forces of manipulation and exploitation. To join Damfo and the healers would offer the opportunity to promote unity of body, of mind, and of society.
Densu’s strength of conviction, along with Damfo’s gentle support, sustains him throughout trying perils and crises of spirit. Near the end of the novel, Densu is offered the kingship of Esuano, but he refuses it. He is free in mind and enlightened; he believes his energies will be better spent in working at the dream of black unity rather than serving as an instrument of a shortsighted status quo.
Damfo, the healer, is a man with a farsighted agenda. He is able to heal the physical and psychological impairments of individuals. He can lead individuals to see the truth of themselves in their predicaments. His great goal, however, is again to bring together black people in unity. The achievement of this goal may take centuries, but the more the people accept the truth of kinship, the greater the possibility of the goal being attained. “Ebibirman,” the unified community of black people, of wholeness, is the aim of the healers.
Asamoa Nkwanta’s illness presents a special challenge for Damfo. The Asante general is in deep depression because his favorite nephew has fallen victim to a shameful societal practice that the general has never opposed. At a king’s death, some slaves and other unfortunates are stalked and killed at night in order that the murdered victims might serve the dead king as slaves in the underworld. One of the princes, out of a private hatred, takes such an opportunity to murder Asamoa Nkwanta’s nephew.
Damfo’s dilemma is that he sees the royals as corrupt exploiters, and Asamoa Nkwanta serves the royal family; thus, will the healing of Asamoa Nkwanta abet royal manipulation? The dilemma is resolved in part by Damfo’s leading Asamoa Nkwanta to question some of the corrupt practices of the society and to admit that the present regime is exploitative of the people. Healed in mind and in attitude, Asamoa Nkwanta is equipped to exercise keen judgment in the service of his people. After he reunites and readies the army to repel the English invasion, however, he is betrayed by the royal family and rivals when, rather than see him emerge as a strong influential victor, the king attempts to negotiate a truce with the English.
Ababio is the epitome of a fully corrupt manipulator. He early and consistently puts his greed before all other interests. He wants to acquire and wield power, and although he becomes king of Esuano through his treachery, he remains a slave to his aspiration for power. Blatantly he admits that he will serve as a lackey to the whites, because then his own power will be secure, he believes. It is the white man, however, who administers his final condemnation.
From a distance, the figure of the British general, Sir Garnet Wolseley, an actual historical personage, casts a long shadow over the scheme of events of the novel. What is shown more directly is the process and results of Wolseley’s campaign. The English forces—whites, Africans from other parts, and black West Indians—relentlessly move against the Asante, who are weakened by internal dissension and lack of concerted resolve. Wolseley’s mechanically authoritative administration of the campaign is contrasted with a closer portrait of Captain Glover, a vain freebooting officer who exacts exaggerated deference from his black charges. The Africans are able to manipulate him by pretending to cater to his vanity. Wolseley’s military action succeeds and in spite of the looting and theft by white soldiers in Kumase, Wolseley’s imagined honor accompanies him back to England.
Themes in The Healers
Summary: The Healers explores themes of healing, betrayal, colonialism, and internal divisions. The novel critiques corruption while emphasising the need for unity and enlightened leadership.
Healing has the lofty and worthy aim of achieving black unity, which would allow a healthy society and all of its members to flourish in an environment of mutual respect and fulfillment. Damfo assumes the realization of such a development to be far in the future, but he recognizes that seeds of its attainment must be sown persistently and nurtured by each generation.
Early in the novel, Densu recognizes two groups in the world around him: inspirers and manipulators. He sees many manipulators (Ababio is a blatant one), and he dislikes them; he sees few inspirers (Damfo is a refreshing one), and these he loves. The methods of the manipulators—force, fraud, deceit— grow increasingly abhorrent to Densu. The inspirers, through the use of their healing and creative efforts, offer him a welcome alternative. The health of the present and future of black people is something Densu can advance by serving as a healer.
There is considerable disunity in the times. Disunity within the individual is illustrated in the cases of Araba Jesiwa and Asamoa Nkwanta, both of whom are healed. Also apparent is large-scale group disunity of the people who are scattered in mind as well as geographically. Rulers, for whom the welfare of the society should be paramount, become lost and destructive in their jealous greed for power. There is danger from within the society when loss of mutual regard occurs and when foreign oppressors are able to take advantage of and further promote disunity among blacks.
Critical Context
Ayi Kwei Armah subtitles The Healers “an historical novel,” and he chooses as his framework a specific and vital event—the 1873-1874 Second Asante War when the British penetrated to the heart of the Asante empire. This event is portrayed in an expansive fashion from an Afrocentric view. The novel examines intricate elements of Asante society, in full-dimensional detail. In Two Thousand Seasons (1973), which covers a long stretch of a thousand years, Armah cannot present as consistently colourful details as he can in The Healers, which treats a brief period of high intensity.
Around the documented events and personages (for example, the war itself, and General Wolseley, and the Asante king, Kofi Karikari), the author utilizes his active skills to present a vision which humanizes the action. The dynamic potential of the Asante is noted, but also exposed are weaknesses which negate the potential. Still, in spite of disruptive shortcomings, hope is not extinguished; the dream of the healers, of the awakening and unification of the people, remains alive.
Related:
Join Our Social Media Channels:
- WhatsApp: Literature PADI
- Telegram: Literature PADI
- YouTube: @literaturepadi
- Facebook: Literature PADI
We also have two WhatsApp chatrooms with a little above 1,300 like-minded members. You can join any of them for further literary discussions:
Ensure you join one at a time to allow others to be part of our wonderful community.
