The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born (Armah)
Short Summary
Ghana, 1960s. A railway clerk struggled to maintain his integrity in a society consumed by corruption and materialism.
His refusal to accept bribes and participate in corrupt practices earned him contempt from his family and society.
His wife's friend Koomson, now a corrupt government minister, offered to make them rich through a fishing boat scheme. When the man refused to participate, his wife bitterly compared him to a peculiar bird.
The chichidodo is a bird. The chichidodo hates excrement with all its soul. But the chichidodo only feeds on maggots, and you know the maggots grow best inside the lavatory.
Despite his principles, the man watched as others around him prospered through corruption. Then a military coup overthrew the government. Koomson, now hunted by soldiers, sought refuge in the man's house. The man helped his former classmate escape through the latrine and guided him to a fishing boat that took him to safety in Ivory Coast.
After swimming back to shore, the man encountered a mad woman searching for something in the sand. Walking home, he passed a police checkpoint where he witnessed a driver bribing officers - the same corruption continuing under the new regime. He saw a bus with the words 'The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born' painted on it, decorated with a single flower, and reflected on the unchanging nature of society and his own lonely path of integrity.
Detailed Chapter-by-Chapter Summary
Chapter titles are editorial additions.
Chapter 1. The Man's Morning Routine
In a Ghanaian railway office, a man worked the early morning shift, monitoring train movements on a large control board. The office environment was permeated with decay - from the rotting wood of the banister to the stench of the public toilets. Each morning, he observed the various characters who populated the railway station: the night cleaners, the early travelers, and his fellow workers arriving for their shifts.
During one such morning, a timber contractor approached him with a bribe, attempting to secure preferential treatment for his logs. The man refused the money, leading to the contractor's angry departure. This incident highlighted the pervasive corruption that surrounded him, while his resistance to it marked him as an outsider in his own society.
How was it possible for a man to control himself, when the admiration of the world, the pride of his family and his own secret happiness, at least for the moment, all demanded that he lose control of himself?
Chapter 2. Teacher and Social Commentary
Seeking solace and understanding, the man regularly visited his friend Teacher, who lived alone in a small room. During these visits, they discussed the state of their nation and the corruption that had taken root since independence. Teacher, though living in self-imposed isolation, provided philosophical insights into their society's decay.
Life has not changed. Only some people have been growing, becoming different, that is all. After a youth spent fighting the white man, why should not the president discover as he grows older that his real desire has been to be like the white governor
Through their conversations, memories of the independence movement emerged. They recalled Sister Maanan, who had introduced them to marijuana and revolutionary ideas, and Kofi Billy, whose tragic suicide symbolized the despair of their generation. These reminiscences revealed how hope had transformed into disillusionment as their leaders adopted the same corrupt practices they had once fought against.
Chapter 3. Family Tensions
At home, the man faced constant pressure from his wife Oyo and her mother, who resented his unwillingness to participate in corruption. They compared him unfavorably to his former classmate Koomson, now a wealthy government minister. The family's financial struggles and their modest living conditions became a source of ongoing tension.
Oyo's mother frequently criticized her son-in-law's principles, calling him the chichidodo - a bird that hates excrement but feeds on maggots that grow in it. This metaphor highlighted the family's view that his moral stance was hypocritical and self-defeating in a corrupt society.
Chapter 4. Koomson's Visit
Minister Koomson and his wife Estella visited the man's home, their expensive clothes and perfumes contrasting sharply with the modest surroundings. During the visit, they discussed a fishing boat scheme that would use the man's family's name to circumvent regulations against government officials owning businesses.
The net had been made in the special Ghanaian way that allowed the really big corrupt people to pass through it. A net to catch only the small, dispensable fellows, trying in their anguished blindness
The contrast between Koomson's opulent lifestyle and his humble origins as a railway worker highlighted the transformation of the revolutionary leaders into a new privileged class. The man's resistance to participating in the boat scheme created further tension with his family, who saw it as their chance to escape poverty.
Chapter 5. The Coup and Escape
The political situation suddenly changed when a military coup overthrew the government. Koomson, now a fugitive, sought refuge in the man's house. The once-powerful minister arrived terrified and reeking of fear, his physical decay symbolizing the rot of the entire political system. Despite his previous resentment, the man agreed to help Koomson escape.
The gleam would always be there to tell him what he could have become. Now it was only a reminder of what he had not become. But in the end there was nothing he could do about that either.
In a grotesque sequence, they escaped through the latrine hole behind the man's house, their physical journey through excrement reflecting the moral filth of the society. The man helped Koomson reach the fishing harbor, where a boat waited to take him to safety in Ivory Coast.
After helping Koomson escape, the man jumped into the sea and swam back to shore. Walking home in the dawn light, he encountered a mad woman searching through the sand - it was Maanan, now completely lost to insanity. Her deterioration symbolized the destruction of the revolutionary dreams that had once inspired their generation.
The novel concluded with the man seeing a bus with an inscription: 'The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born,' accompanied by a single flower. This image suggested both the persistence of hope and the recognition that true change remained a future possibility, not yet realized in their society.
The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born. In the center of the oval was a single flower, solitary, unexplainable, and very beautiful.