Purple Hibiscus, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, is set Nigeria, in a period of great civil and religious unrest.

Kambili, on the other hand, is an allegorical embodiment of the peaceful, nonviolent demonstrators that opposed the many human rights violations of the authoritarian leadership of Nigeria. Adichie draws this parallel by contrasting Eugene’s newspaper with the silence of the Achike children. The Standard denounces the atrocities committed by the rulers of Nigeria, despite their strict censor-ship pratices and bribes. However, the Jaja and Kambili can do nothing about the horrible punishments that their father inflicts upon them. Kambili even remarks in the beginning of the book that the years before the familial revolt against Papa that “Jaja…and I spoke more with our spirits than with our lips.” (16). The irony is that Papa fosters the same sense of censorship that he abhors in his own paper. Indeed, Ade Coker even muses on “what the Standard would be if we were all [that] quiet.” (57). However, throughout the novel the readers can see how Kambili becomes more and more outspoken and with this small little detail of her personality, acts as a dissident against her father’s heavy hand.

Finally, at the end of the novel, Mama’s dissent against Papa’s oppressive behavior comes to the fore with his murder. It was no mere killing though; the modus operandi of the deed was poison. This mirrors the death of the despotic military dictator that was ruling for most of the book. Big Oga, as General Obacha was known, died under suspicious circumstances very suddenly in 1998. In addition, the announcement that Papa was dead was unnatural, that he was poisoned, was given in a short paragraph. This quick blurb at the end of the chapter has a dispassionate tone; it gets the facts across, but gives no indication of how Mama or Kambili feel about the murder coming to light. General Obacha’s death was also not widely reported. In fact, the details of what really happened are still shrouded in mystery almost 15 years later. In any case, his death served to begin the long, slow process of reformation and forward political movement for Nigeria, just as Papa’s death allowed the fractured psyches of the remainder of the Achike family to heal.

The various members of the Achike family are allegorical representations of the various demographics in Nigeria. Their family life, their struggles and conflicts and divisions, is microcosm of the geopolitical climate of Nigeria in the mid-90’s. Consequently, most, if not all of the characterization that the Adichie subtly inserted into the novel is actually her commentary on the politics of various ideologies in Nigeria at the time.