Civil Peace

“Civil Peace” is a 1971 short story by Chinua Achebe, one of Africa’s most prominent authors and often considered the father of the modern African novel. The story explores the period that followed the Nigerian Civil War, also known as the Biafran War (1967-1970). The Igbo people of southeast Nigeria wanted freedom from the Hausa people and proclaimed independence forming the Republic of Biafra. Achebe investigates the period through the lens of his character Jonathan Iwegbu, whose motto “Nothing puzzles God” (82) guides him through the corruption and violence of postwar Nigeria.

First published in 1971 in the Nigerian journal Okike, the story was republished in Achebe’s collection Girls at War and Other Stories (Anchor Books, 1991), on which this guide is based.

“Civil Peace” is told from a third-person perspective, interweaving the Igbo dialect and standard English to capture a country in the process of cultural change. The story begins after the war has ended. The protagonist, Jonathan Iwegbu, survived the war with what the narrator calls “five inestimable blessings”: his life and those of his wife and three of his four children (82).

As an additional blessing, he also kept his bicycle. When a man appearing to be a military officer claimed he needed the bicycle for “urgent military action,” Jonathan scrutinized his clothing and mannerisms, noting that his “lack of grip and firmness in his manner” gave him away as an imposter (82). To avoid conflict, Jonathan paid the man two pounds and kept his bike. To protect the bike, Jonathan buried it in a makeshift graveyard alongside his son. He digs it up a year later, greases it with palm oil, and restores it, exclaiming, “Nothing puzzles God” (82). Jonathan uses the bike as a taxi to earn money, charging families and camp officials six Biafran pounds for a ride to the nearest paved road.

When Jonathan returns to his home in Enugu, he discovers another miracle—his house is still standing amidst the rubble of other structures. Jonathan again exclaims, “Indeed, nothing puzzles God!” (83). He scavenges for material to rebuild his home and finds a carpenter to install a door and window shutters. Jonathan moves his family into their old home, and others come out of the “forest holes” and begin rebuilding (83).

The family works to rebuild their lives. The children pick mangoes and sell them to soldiers’ wives for a few cents, and his wife, Maria, prepares and sells Akara balls (fried balls of ground beans). Jonathan invests their earnings in palm wine, which he waters down and sells to soldiers and others who can afford to pay. Hoping to return to his job as a coal miner, Jonathan visits his old workplace only to find his former coworkers unemployed and suffering. He counts his blessings and focuses on his palm wine bar.

Jonathan turns in Biafran money to the Treasury and receives 20 pounds of official currency in return. He repeats his refrain, “But nothing puzzles God” (84). The narrator says “it was like Christmas” for Jonathan and the others who received the money, which they called “egg-rasher” because they couldn’t pronounce the official term “ex-gratia” (84). While Jonathan knows he is lucky, he is also aware of the desperation and “near-madness” of many others trying to survive (85). He protects his money by holding it in his left pocket to keep a free hand available if needed and lowers his gaze to avoid eye contact.

That night, he is awakened by a loud knock at his door. Jonathan asks who is knocking, and a man replies, “‘Na tief-man and him people” (85), meaning: I am a thief with my accomplices. Terrified, Jonathan and his family scream for help: “Police-o! Thieves-o! Neighbours-o! Police-o! We are lost! We are dead! Neighbours, are you asleep? Wake up! Police-o!” (86). The thief says, “trouble done finish” now that the war is over. Now there is “Civil Peace” (87).

Jonathan tells the thief that he is a poor man who lost everything in the war. The thief tells him they will leave for 100 pounds, otherwise, they will enter, rummage through the house, menace the family, and forcefully get the money. Automatic weapons fire rings through the air, and his wife and the children cry. Jonathan, addressing the thieves as “friends,” tells them that he does not have 100 pounds.

He then says that if they come inside and find 100 pounds, they can have it and shoot him, his wife, and his children. He swears to God that the only money he has is the “egg-rasher” of 20 pounds. To the dismay of the other thieves, the leader tells Jonathan that if he hands over the money through the window, they will be spared. Jonathan gives him the 20 pounds.

The next day, the family resume their work. Jonathan tells his neighbors who come to commiserate that what happened was “nothing” compared to the things that happened during the war. He exclaims let the “egg-rasher perish in the flames!” (88). He repeats his aphoristic belief: “Nothing puzzles God” (88).