WAEC Literature in English 2025 Theory — Question 6

Model answer

The novel's themes of racial discrimination, conflict and violence find explanation in the fight between Ras the Exhorter (later Ras the Destroyer) and Tod Clifton, a pivotal and deeply symbolic encounter that encapsulates the fractured nature of Black identity, competing ideologies within the Black community, the allure and dangers of radicalism, and the tragic consequences of disillusionment. Ras represents a radical, back-to-Africa, nationalistic ideology advocating racial purity and a unified Black front against white oppression, believing in violence and provocative speeches and viewing integrationist groups like the Brotherhood as tools of white manipulation. Tod Clifton, a former Brotherhood leader, has become increasingly disillusioned with the organisation's true motives; Ras confronts and publicly shames Clifton as a race traitor for his association with the white-led organisation. The fight underscores the schism within the Black community over the best path to liberation, foreshadows Clifton's descent into despair and rejection of both extremes, and is a crucial moment for the narrator's own evolving understanding of invisibility and power, demonstrating that even within the struggle for racial uplift there are internal battles as damaging as external oppression.