How Should a Man Act: A Juridical and Ethical Evaluation of Elechi Amadi’s The Great Ponds & The Concubine

Abstract

Elechi Amadi’s trilogy, The Concubine, The Great Ponds, and The Slave portrays a powerful delivery of potent juridical and ethical manifestations of the ingrained ethical experiences into which the people were immersed. We are concerned with The Concubine and The Great Ponds, both of which we want to demonstrate that they primarily tell us how a man should live, the juridical, ethical and justness of our actions, what it is to live communal life in a traditional cultural setting in which these novels were written. We want to espouse these ideals and examine how far juridical and ethical considerations in both works agree with ideals in jurisprudence and juridical understandings of human behaviour generally. In doing this, we will undertake a critical examination of the moral, socio-political and psychological assumptions of the community of persons so represented, and track these to how they align with how the present crop of Nigerians would benefit from the overt and covert values espoused therein. We review the basis for the lifestyles that the people cherished and how it seeks to promote their wellbeing and common interest. Our conclusion will throw light how these two iconic books seek to identify customary rules of law and how these serve as rules for deciding morality and ethical standards of the society so represented and whether the same can be said with validity for our today.