This is one of the many critiques that Armah makes of Ghanaian society, barely out of the colonial experience when the novel was written. Grinning and bearing, politicians apparently support socialism, committing themselves to unrestrained capitalism on the sly. The deal reveals to be nothing really profitable, but it shows the backbone of the ruling class of the country. The host, with a mixture of cheekiness and cynicism, asks her what kind of a constitution is it that she has. At this point Armah introduces some humour “to leaven the grimmer aspects” (as the Yorkshire Post writes in a blurb in the back cover): Koomson’s spoilt wife, for instance, used to imported spirits, says that beer does not get along with her constitution. Oyo does everything possible to honour the guest: she wants the best food, uses the best plates and glasses in the house and, lacking the wig so fashionable among rich Ghanaians, straightens her hair quite painfully. Koomson wants to go into business with him, so he is invited to dinner with his wife Estelle. The daily routine is upset by the encounter with Koomson, a former classmate of him who has inexplicably become a Minister. Because of his upright conduct – he cannot stand corruption and does not break the law in any way – he is despised by his colleagues and family, starting from his wife Oyo and his mother-in-law, who thinks he hasn’t got the means to support his own children.
The protagonist of the novel is a man who has a thoroughly normal life: a boring but steady job in the railway service, a family of his own and a modest house.
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