Saro-Wiwa's "Night Ride"
Like Achebe's Anthills of the Savannah and Saro-Wiwa's own "The Stars Below," "Night Ride" presents an almost despairing portrait of Nigerian corruption so complete that it seems to prevent any sort of external aid. Note how Saro-Wiwa introduces the gospel parable of the good samaritan.
Someone's about to profiteer from the sufferings of the poor. These are gifts from Norway carried in second-hand vehicles, reconditioned and donated by the people of Great Britain. For Africans dying of hunger and malnutrition. . . .How could you stop people from stealing food and medicines meant for the public? How could you stop them from taking bribes? . . . A man was going from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among a band of robbers. And they beat him . . . If he did not hold himself, he would keel over. And no one would mourn him. Absolutely no one.["Night Ride," A Forest of Flowers, 114, 115-16; second ellipsis in original]
How does this passage relate to the narrator's later discussion of the problems of modernization, and how does the parable position the narrator?.
