The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born

The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born, published in 1968, is a debut novel by Ayi Kwei Armah, one of the most noteworthy writers of postcolonial Ghana. Armah was born in Takoradi, Ghana, in 1939. He was educated at schools in Ghana and private institutions in America, including Harvard University. He has also worked as a translator, scriptwriter, and a university lecturer.

The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born focuses on life in post-independence Ghana and takes place between Passion Week in 1965 and February 25, 1966 (the day after the overthrow of Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s first president). It tells the story of an unnamed man, referred to as simply “the man,” who struggles to reconcile himself to life in a new political order. Much of the book’s central action focuses on the man’s attempts to resist corruption. Large segments of the book are composed of long internal dialogues wherein the man reflects on the materialism, moral decay, and disillusionment of a newly independent Ghanaian society. The man also reflects on the recent colonial past and the traumatic legacy of war and violence.

Plot Summary

Working as a railway clerk, the unnamed protagonist refuses a bribe at work.