“May the path never close”

Abstract

Resistance to postcolonial oppressive ideologies assumes significance within Chinua Achebe’s Anthills of the Savannah (1987), portraying predicaments of a post-independence fictional African state of Kangan. Drawing on the Deleuze-Guattarian “ontology of becoming”, “rhizome”, “nomad thought”, distinction of “striated” and “smooth” spaces, their account of the “State Apparatus” and the “war machine”, and “assemblage”, the study demonstrates how Achebe entertains possibilities of convergence with their philosophy. It displays how the Kangan people, while engaging in “ontology of becoming”, strive to deterritorialise themselves from Sam’s State that attempts to define their subjectivity. Concurrently, Sam’s State implements varieties of schemes to re-subjugate its subjects under its territorial authority. The study concludes how the war machine’s menacing force eventually destabilises the whole “State Apparatus”.