Saving Mr. Ugwu
Saving Mr. Ugwu is a novel written by Lin Anderson in 2012. The novel tells us about Mr. Ugwu’s life, his job and his family. The story takes place in the African country, Nigeria. The novel presents us to concerns such as individual rights between ethnicities, and contains themes such as imperialism, racial division and human rights.
Mr. Ugwu is from Lagos and is from the igbo race, which is one of the more occurring tribes in Nigeria. Mr. Ugwu and his family have been through some hectic changes recently, because of Mr. Ugwu’s job. They have been forced to move into the bush against their will. He keeps telling himself that “The company has been good to him” He does that to remind himself that although the changes, he has to be thankful that he has a job, that he has an income and the fact that him and his family can live an exclusive life not many from his tribe can. Mr. Ugwu seems to be a man who always has worked hard for his money, but it also seems that he is a man who is privileged in many ways.
Mr. Ugwu has a gardener that takes care of his wife’s flowers, and a houseboy that does several tasks in the house such as cooking him breakfast. “The kitchen boy has made him hot sweet tea and sliced bread” …”His master’s breakfast” – This quote says a lot about how the social structure is in Nigeria, there is a clear hierarchy which makes it irrelevant whether you are a Hausa, or an Igbo. However his wife still tries to remind him several times in an attempt to convince him, that he is worth more than what the white people think of him. “You are a well-qualified accountant, she reminded him.”
One of the main problems throughout the text seems to be the fact that the white people, that Mr. Ugwu is working for, are taking him, and in general the black people and their labour, for granted. The white people are the powerful ones, which take care of