In the Shadow of War by famous second-generation African postcolonial writer, Ben Okri. The story deals with the huge price that humankind pays for war and how humanitarian values are of paramount importance in societies. By employing the perspective of a young Omovo, Ben Okri effectively blurs the line between wrong and right, moral and immoral to portray how war and the violence it infiltrates in society are seldom analyzed in blacks and whites. The story reflects Okri’s personal experiences during the Nigerian Civil War and embodies the African subject’s postcolonial experience. 

In the Shadow of War | Summary 

The story opens with three soldiers arriving in an unnamed village in Nigeria and proceeding to the local bar to drink some palm wine. The focus then shifts to a young boy, Omovo, and his father in their home where the the son looks out the window to watch a woman in a black veil who has been passing by their house every day while the radio broadcasts the news of bombings and air raids in the country. Just after that it it announces that there will be an eclipse that day. Disgusted, Omovo’s father asks him to switch the radio off and asks him to not stay out for long because bad things happen during eclipses. He gives Omovo his ten kobo allowance and departs. 

Once he leaves, Omovo turns the radio on again and looks for the woman by the windowsill. The children in the village said things like her feet didn’t touch the ground and she had no shadow and threw things at her, but the woman remained unflinching. 

After a description of the intense heat in which the villagers worked, Omovo while returning home, is summoned by the three soldiers who ask him his name, to which he says “Heclipse”. The soldiers laugh and offer him money, which he refuses. They ask him to look out for the veiled woman and let them know if should he see her because she is a spy for their enemies. Omovo also notices their guns. 

Omovo, back home, falls asleep due to the heat. When he wakes up, however, the woman has already passed and the soldiers are following her. They take a different path soon and follow the woman to a rough camp. Soon however, the soldiers catch up with her; Omovo notices strange things– an animal skeleton under a tree, a foul, pungent smell from the river, canoes looking like dead animals, food floating in the water, etc. After the soldiers have passed, he hears the woman’s loud scream. The soldiers ask her where the others are and she remains silent, after which they ask him if she wants to die. Her bald and disfigured head is revealed when one of the soldiers removes her veil and throws it to the ground. The soldier then pushes her on the ground, his chest bare. 

Omovo then notices that the things floating in the river are actually the corpses of “grown men”. The woman spits on the soldier’s face and then begins to howl “dementedly”. One of the soldiers holds her at gunpoint; just then, Omovo hears a wild flapping of wings above him and runs through the forest screaming, but trips over a tree root and loses consciousness. When he awakes, everything is dark around him and he fears he has gone blind. Screaming, he runs outside where his father is drinking palm wine and laughing with the three soldiers. He rushes to tell his father about the soldiers, but his father says that he should thank the soldiers for bringing him home. The story ends with Omovo being taken to bed by his father, who smiles “apologetically” at the soldiers for his son’s behavior. 

In the Shadow of War | Analysis 

Based on Okri’s personal experiences in the Nigerian Civil War, In the Shadow of War follows a child’s perspective, effectively blurring the line between what is real and what is imagined to construct a new perspective on morality to elucidate how the line between moral and immoral is blurred when war is concerned. Omovo, seemingly seven or eight years old has seen the woman many times but does not tell the soldiers of her whereabouts; his experience in the forest and the things he sees illustrate to a critical reader that perhaps albeit a spy, the woman also belongs to a community of people who have suffered. 

The story follows a realistic narrative, but throughout the story, many instances further posit the hallucinatory visions that a war can cause. One must note that Ben Okri forms the second generation of post-modern, post-colonial African writers and his writing embodies the living experience of postcolonialism; and the social and cultural intricacies that it entails. By giving the story a child’s perspective, Okri effectively removes any possibility of taking sides, for a child political affiliations seldom matter. This is elucidated through the instance where, in a hurry, Omovo forgets to look at the veiled woman’s feet- if they truly do not touch the ground, because this antagonization ceases to matter. In addition, it gives the child Omovo an unreliable perspective because he, on more than one occasion, lies. Therefore, the nugget of truth- or the black-and-white siding of the story as to who is right and who is wrong- blurs, effectively making all characters grey. Okri’s message is simple- war is destructive and benefits no one, regardless of one’s political affiliations. 

In the Shadow of War | Character Sketch

Omovo

Omovo is the principal character through whose perspective a reader experiences the story. His perspective is a fresh attempt to understand war not as a result of political alliances but as a failure of the peaceful cohabitation of humankind. His persistent dishonesty and curiosity blur the lines between what is real and what is moral in the story. The horrors he experiences make the reader sympathize with those afflicted in a war, regardless of which side they are on. 

Omovo’s Father

Appearing only in the beginning and end of the story, Omovo’s father believes the war to be evil, but at the same time, shields Omovo from the reality that it is. His “shabby coat” suggests that he is not too well off. 

The Veiled Woman

The veiled woman has been portrayed as a largely mysterious character with quite a few legends associated with her, according to the children of the village. The soldiers believe she is a spy for the Biafrans and she meets her death at their hands. One can read her character as the most humanlike in the story who understands humanitarian values irrespective of political affiliations. She carries baskets of food to malnourished children and is undaunted in the face of calamity. Her head and face are disfigured, suggesting that she has possibly been subjected to violence before. 

The Three Soldiers 

Contrary to popular representation, the soldiers are not hardworking or chivalrous men but rather, foolish and violent. They spend their days drinking wine and inflict violence gruesomely on the veiled woman, killing her. They do not stand for any humanitarian values, bribing children to find the whereabouts of the woman. 

In the Shadow of War | Literary Devices 

1. Foreshadowing: Okri effectively employs the use of foreshadowing as a literary technique when the radio broadcaster announces that there is to be an eclipse. Omovo asks what an eclipse is and his father responds that the whole world “goes dark” and bad things happen. This creates an atmosphere of tension where a reader anticipates some impending doom. 
2. Perspective: The story follows the perspective of a young Omovo, even though it has been written from a third-person point of view. The third-person narrator is not omniscient because, through Omovo, the experience of war becomes very different as he navigates truth and morality in the face of calamity. The reader also joins Omovo in his journey of deciphering what war can do to people because the young child is without sides. 
3. Simile: Okri briefly uses a simile to describe the intense heat in Nigeria when he says “The villagers stumbled about their various tasks as if they were sleep-walking”. 

 In conclusion, Ben Okri attempts to draw the reader’s attention to the unimportance of political alliances during an event as devastating as war; it is merely a period of violence when authority figures seldom exercise their powers for the good of the people. Omovo’s perspective offers a fresh narration of what is moral and immoral and how the line between the two is completely blurred in the face of such an event. Okri’s message is simple- like Omovo, one must see for themselves what the war truly is, death and destruction, which benefits no one.