Download our SSCE Study Guide Bundle
The characters in The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born are the Man, Oyo, Joseph Koomson, Teacher, Oyo’s mother, and Estella Koomson. We shall look into these major characters in the novel.
The Man
He is the unnamed protagonist and the allegorical “everyman” of the novel. He is a modest traffic control clerk at the Railway & Harbour Administration Block who is trapped in a deeply corrupt society. He routinely refuses to play the “national game” of bribery, such as when he rejects a bribe from Amankwa, a wealthy timber contractor.
The man is alienated and ostracised because of his honesty. He is made to feel like a “criminal” or a coward simply because he refuses to steal. He bears the silent reproach of his family, who desperately want him to take a “bold, corrupt leap” to provide them with the luxurious “gleam” enjoyed by the new elite. His agonising moral isolation is best captured by his wife’s comparison of him to the chichidodo.
He is portrayed as a man with a cynical clarity. This is clearly illustrated when a military coup overthrows the government. He refuses to celebrate because he considers it as a “change of embezzlers”. Ironically, this upright man is instrumental in the escape of the corrupt Minister Koomson from the coup plotters.
Oyo
Oyo is the man’s wife. She initially embodies the intense societal pressure to conform to materialism and corruption. She is overwhelmed by the poverty of her daily life, which is why she fiercely desires the “gleam” of the post-colonial elite. She yearns for imported European drinks, wigs, and long shiny cars.
She bitterly resents her husband’s refusal to use his position to acquire wealth. She openly mocks him as a chichidodo. She eagerly agrees to use her name as a legal front for Minister Koomson’s corrupt fishing boat scheme.
Physically, Oyo bears a long, ugly scar on her flabby belly from a difficult childbirth, a visceral symbol of her suffering and the man’s agonising inability to provide for her.
However, Oyo undergoes a character shift at the climax of the novel. When the military coup reduces the once-arrogant Koomson to a shivering, foul-smelling fugitive hiding in her bedroom, her illusions about the “gleam” are shattered. She expresses gratitude for her husband’s integrity and is happy he never became like Koomson.
Joseph Koomson
His Excellency Joseph Koomson is the Minister Plenipotentiary and Hero of Socialist Labour. He is the face of the absolute greed, hypocrisy, and betrayal of the new African political elite. He is a former classmate of the protagonist and a rough dock worker. Koomson has transformed into a fat, perfumed politician with “the ancestral softness of chiefs who have sold their people”.
He lives exactly like the departed white colonial masters. He drives a fleet of cars and bypasses his own government’s socialist laws to secretly purchase a twelve-thousand-pound fishing boat using the protagonist’s impoverished family as a front.
Koomson’s character arc perfectly illustrates the novel’s theme which entails the inevitable reduction of corrupt power to pure excrement. With the sudden military coup, Koomson is reduced to his foulest biological functions. He hides in the man’s dark bedroom, emitting the overpowering stench of his own fear, flatulence, and breath that smells of “rotten menstrual blood”.
To save his own life, the once-haughty Minister is forced to dive headfirst into the filth of a public latrine’s shithole and bribe a night watchman to escape the country.
Get the Full Analysis in PDF
Enjoying this breakdown? What you’re reading is just part of the full experience. The premium PDF edition brings everything together in one seamless, distraction-free document that has the background, setting, plot summary, chapter-to-chapter summary, narrative devices, characters, and themes. If you’re studying seriously, this is the version you’ll want.
Teacher
Teacher is the protagonist’s closest friend. He is the philosophical voice of post-colonial disillusionment in the novel. He is a cynical intellectual who has chosen a life of complete isolation to escape the crushing, materialistic demands of his family and society.
Unlike the protagonist, who endures the painful reproach of his dependents, Teacher has completely cut himself off from the “call of the loved ones”, aware that their desires would force him to sacrifice his moral integrity.
However, Teacher does not see his isolation as a victory. He freely admits to the man that he is a “coward”. He even describes himself as a “ghost” and one of the “walking dead” who has simply given up all hope.
He possesses a sharp clarity about the rapid decay of the newly independent nation. At one time, he uses the myth of Plato’s cave to explain why corrupt society aggressively hates and mocks honest men who try to bring them the light of truth.
Oyo’s Mother
Oyo’s mother is the primary embodiment of the relentless societal pressure that pushes honest men towards corruption. She is entirely consumed by the desire for wealth and the “gleam” of the new political elite. She harbours resentment towards the protagonist for his poverty and his refusal to play the “national game” of bribery. She constantly uses indirect, bullet-like words to humiliate him. A vivid example of her cruelty is when she weaponises her pity for her grandson’s cut foot to loudly lament that the boy is a “complete orphan” with no one to buy him shoes, knowing her son-in-law is listening.
She practically worships the corrupt Minister Koomson. She fawns over him during his visit in hopes that he will make her rich through the illegal fishing boat scheme. When the protagonist exposes the staggering cost of the boat and shatters her illusion of sudden wealth, she is left totally deflated and confused, though she continues to stubbornly praise the corrupt men who “know how to take good care of their own”.
Estella Koomson
Estella is Minister Koomson’s haughty, superficial wife. She is the poster girl for the sheer arrogance and alienating opulence of the new African elite. She lives a life completely detached from the struggles of the Ghanaian masses, surrounded by imported luxury goods, chauffeurs, and expensive wigs.
Estella openly despises anything local. During her visit to the protagonist’s impoverished home, she arrogantly complains that local beer “does not agree with my constitution” and whines about the lack of European imported drinks.
She is entirely blind to the poverty and desperation of others. When her husband reveals that the fishing boat costs twelve thousand pounds and will take twelve years to pay off, Estella carelessly and selfishly remarks, “What matters is that there will be plenty of fish to eat”.
She embodies the tragic irony of the new black leaders who merely stepped into the shoes of the colonial masters, desiring only to emulate whiteness and consume the wealth of the nation.
Related:
- Plot Summary and Setting of The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born by Ayi Kwei Armah
- Themes in The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born by Ayi Kwei Armah
- Narrative Devices in The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born by Ayi Kwei Armah
Receive Literary Updates through our Social Media Channels:
- WhatsApp: Literature PADI or Literature-in-English with LP
- Telegram: Literature PADI
- YouTube: @literaturepadi
- Facebook: Literature PADI
