Rhetorical Analysis

Joseph Harrington

ENGL-1010-Sp20-Plus

Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani, as pointed out by Pulitzer Center, is the “first contemporary African writer to
launch a global career while fully domiciled in her home country”.[1] Born in Enugu, Nigeria, her own
website admits that she had dreamed of becoming a CIA or KGB agent as a youth. Ultimately she
attended the University of Ibadan, the first University of Nigeria, studying Psychology. [2] At the time of
writing ‘In Nigeria, You’re Either Somebody or Nobody’, Nigeria had been suffering from widespread
poverty, human health complications not in least due to lead poisoning, a relatively recent
criminalization of same-sex relationships, as well as an on-going war with religious extremist group
‘Boko Haram’. [3]

‘In Nigeria, You’re Either Somebody or Nobody’ is the perspective of what would be an aristocratic
member of this troubled society. Nwaubani describes a class of society known to her childhood as
‘Househelps’. Growing up a more fortunate child, the author’s family employed the impoverished
members of their society to help with house chores and domestic service. These ‘househelps’, often
teenagers, would live with the family and be reimbursed with an education or monetary payments to
their families. Nwaubani spends the article informing outsiders of the unfortunate behavior of
househelps, and how the treatment they received may relate to the current state of Nigeria as a whole.
Her article is intended to attract the attention of those outside of Nigeria, who find themselves
concerned with the state of human rights in the world. While the use of Ethos helps to establish this
credibility, it is not enough to offset the author’s incorrect application of tone and narrative.

It would be difficult for Nwaubani to have a true perspective on househelps in Nigeria without either
herself being one, or her employing one. Luckily for the article, she had grown up in Nigeria as a wealthy
child, and is able to utilize Ethos to help in the next third of the article to describe the trouble
househelps could sometimes be. “Throughout my childhood, ‘househelps’ — usually teenagers from
poor families — came to live with my family, sometimes up to three or four of them at a time.” Later on
in the article, she is able to extend this experience by describing her more recent change in approach
towards househelps, and how they are unable to understand being treated as an equal. Househelps
themselves do not seem to be any less than live in maids and butlers, thus it is not to argue continued
employment of them is cause for concern. However, it is the attempts at anecdotal evidence that go
awry and seem to reveal more pity than empathy.

Establishing credibility through the use of Ethos is not, however, what this article does to misplace its
intention. It is the narratives themselves, and tone used to put forth these narratives that perform this
task dutifully. Of around one-thousand words, around five hundred in the article are spent using
narratives to describe the househelps. Of these stories, the most interesting of these helped to
substantiate the belief that househelps were ‘scroundrels’. While the paragraph begins suggesting the
perceived necessity to test perspective househelps for disease, it then beings the story with the line “.
The last thing to do when one was leaving was to search him for stolen items.”, going on to detail the
story of a friend’s househelp that nearly escaped with all he house’s pairs of children’s underwear, only
thwarted by the suspecting eye of that friend’s mother. The tone in the beginning of this paragraph
establishes other’s prejudicial nature of the househelps, then relates that prejudice to a story in which
this behavior served to benefit the family in some way.

It is the tone that carries throughout the article, that ultimately drags on its ability to convince the
reader that Nwaubani is experiencing much more than momentary pity. Perhaps this is due to a lacking
word choice. A prime example is given when the author professes their decision ‘some years ago’- thus a
fairly recent resolution- to make an effort to treat the househelps as people. Or rather ‘somebodies’,
which her and her current family are. Thus, she has recently entertained the idea that the househelps
could be treated as equals. Though in the same paragraph, she detracts from this idea, citing their initial
confusion regarding this new experience; Ending this passage with “Thus, the vicious cycle of oppression
goes on and on”, signaling the continuation of this mistreatment.

Returning to an earlier point in the article, we see more instances of this tone. Nwaubani ‘honestly
cannot blame’ her father in his treatment of the househelps. In addition to their melancholic singing
that inconveniently remind one of death, the househelps “all gave off a feral scent, which never failed to
tell the tale each time they abandoned the wooden stools set aside for them and relaxed on our sofas
while we were out”. It is this tone that hides any true empathy our author may have in service to the
househelps. And while the article may be wholeheartedly intended to bring worry forward as the
reader’s forefront emotion, one is left to question the intentions of Nwaubani. This is a distracting trait
of the article that keeps it from reaching its audience successfully.

‘In Nigeria, You’re Either Somebody or Nobody’, is a very interesting article. As a born-and-bred, white
American, I chose to read this article to gain a further understanding for parts of the world I may never
experience. It is fascinating that a country, which is not incorrectly perceived as being troubled and
drastically impoverished, also contains within it a group of aristocrats. It is absolutely commendable that
those of wealth are willing to acknowledge the ugly side of their wealth, and perhaps work to resolve
these problems. I also could not bring myself to argue that the concept of ‘househelp’ was an immoral
one. This was a form of employment, and not servitude. And it was this employment that could be the
one thing keeping a given family financially afloat, or ensuring the bright future of an otherwise
misfortuned soul.

That being said, Nwaubani’s article feels not unlike an aristocrat describing a troubled class of society.
While pity is certainly there, the understanding is missing. Much of the article is spent venting
frustrations and substantiating a distaste for this ‘lesser’ class. It may take a reader multiple tries to find
that a link is established between this treatment of househelps and the state of Nigeria, as much focus is
placed on painting househelps in a sorry light. A revision of word choice would help the article
immensely. Or, as might be the case, a spoken version so that one could discern the intention of the
article through vocal intonation.

SOURCES

1. Pulitzer Center; February 11, 2019; “Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani”

https://pulitzercenter.org/people/adaobi-tricia-nwaubani
2. AdaobiTricia.com; (Date not given); “About”; https://www.adaobitricia.com/about.php
3. University of Ibadan; (Month/Day not given) 2020; “History” https://www.ui.edu.ng/History