AFRICAN PROSE ISIDORE OKPEWHO: The Last Duty Discuss the horrors of war in the novel.

Answer Details

Isidore Okpewho's The Last Duty is set against the background of the Nigerian Civil War, and the horrors of war run through the entire novel. Rather than describing battlefields, Okpewho shows how war corrupts a small community, Urukpe, and destroys the lives of ordinary people caught in its grip.

False accusation and unjust detention

• Oshevire is imprisoned on a trumped-up charge of aiding the enemy, simply because he belongs to a minority group. War creates an atmosphere of suspicion in which innocence offers no protection.
• His long detention, without fair trial, shows how war suspends justice and the rule of law.

Exploitation and moral collapse

• With Oshevire gone, his wife Aku is left defenceless. Toje exploits her vulnerability, using the chaos of war to prey on a helpless woman. War dissolves ordinary moral restraints.
• Personal greed and rivalry masquerade as patriotism; Toje's true motive in destroying Oshevire is business jealousy, not loyalty to the state.

Ethnic hatred and division

• The conflict inflames ethnic suspicion between the majority community and the minority Igabo people. Neighbours turn on neighbours, and belonging to the "wrong" group becomes dangerous.
• This mirrors the wider tragedy of the civil war, where communal identity became a matter of life and death.

Suffering of the innocent

• Aku and her young son endure poverty, fear, isolation and shame. The child's confusion and hunger dramatise how war victimises the most helpless.
• The breakdown of the family and the destructive violence at the end show the human cost of the conflict.

Physical and psychological damage

• Characters bear scars of body and mind. Toje's impotence, Oshevire's imprisonment and the general climate of fear reveal how war maims people inwardly as well as outwardly.

Conclusion. Okpewho presents war not as heroic combat but as a corrupting force that ruins innocent lives, unleashes greed and ethnic hatred, and destroys families. Through the fate of Oshevire, Aku and their community, the novel becomes a powerful condemnation of the horrors and futility of war.