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Chapter 6: “Sorry, No Coloureds”
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Second Class Citizen, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Class, Gender, and Race
Culture vs. Individual Freedom
Motherhood and Art
Family and Love
Economics vs. Aspiration in Education
Summary
Analysis
In the 1940s, while Nigeria was still a colony of the UK, many educated Nigerians predicted the end of British colonialism. Some Nigerian men then immigrated to the UK to get an education so that they could become cultural elites and political leaders in Nigeria after independence. Though some succeeded in their ambitions, many did not. Of those who didn’t, some came to the UK, got sucked into pub life, and married lower-class white women—perhaps as a consolation prize for failing to realize their dreams and ending up “second-class citizen[s].”
Nigeria was a colony of the UK until 1960. Due to English people’s political power in Nigeria, an English education became a status symbol and a practical stepping-stone to “elite” status for indigenous Nigerians during colonialism—a phenomenon that continued after Nigeria became independent in 1960. When the narrator speculates that Nigerian men who failed to obtain elite degrees in the UK married white women as a consolation prize, it implies that while Blackness automatically makes someone a “second-class citizen” in the midcentury UK, proximity to whiteness through marriage can raise a Black person’s class status somewhat.
Themes
One such Nigerian man who immigrated to the UK in the 1940s and stayed is Mr. Noble. Adah meets him in the 1960s and hears many stories about him, but the basic outline of his life seems to be this: he came to the UK to study but quickly ran out of funds, so he got a menial job as an elevator attendant. He started drinking and acting out “African tricks” for his white coworkers. Once they asked him to take off his trousers so they could see whether African people had tails; when he did it, they nicknamed him “Noble” for his loyalty to his friends.
This passage illustrates the dehumanizing nature of English racism in the mid-20th century: Mr. Noble’s coworkers believe that Black people might have tails and make invasive, demeaning requests of him (such as the request that he take his trousers off at work). In this context, the nickname “Noble” is clearly ironic, since “Noble” can mean “aristocratic” or “upper-class” while Mr. Noble’s coworkers clearly treated him as a second-class citizen.
Themes
One day—so Adah hears—Mr. Noble’s coworkers dared him to operate the elevator by hand, which led to his arm being crushed beneath the elevator and permanently disabled. He received “compensation” from his employers and decided to buy a house. Unfortunately, the three-floor house came with two elderly, female, rent-controlled tenants in the top two floors. Meanwhile, Mr. Noble’s wife Sue—whom he met in a pub—kept having children. Soon the family had far too little room in their own house while making very little in rent money. Mr. Noble decided to tell the tenants that his dead mother was a witch who would kill them. They still refused to move—but then, in the terrible winter of 1962–1963, they died in quick succession in the drafty house.
Mr. Noble’s dangerous accident illustrates how being treated as a “second-class citizen” by one’s coworkers can be physically as well as psychologically damaging. Though the races and national origins of Mr. Noble’s rent-controlled payments are not stated, their immediate dismissal of his claims about witchcraft implies that they come from a cultural background in which people do not take claims about witchcraft seriously—Mr. Noble has misjudged his audience in attempting to threaten them that way.
Themes
When Mr. Noble subsequently bragged that his dead mother had killed his previous tenants, other Nigerians became unwilling to move into his now vacant rooms. Eventually, Janet suggests to Adah that she go talk to Mr. Noble. Adah knows his reputation and doesn’t want to, but eventually, she realizes she must. She decides to convince Francis when he wants to have sex with her—she often has hard conversations with him then, when he won’t just run away. Only after he agrees to visit the Nobles with her the next morning do they have sex.
Other Nigerian immigrants don’t want to rent from Mr. Noble because (the narrator implies) they believe his threats of witchcraft may be true. Thus, Mr. Noble’s story not only failed to scare away his first, non-Nigerian tenants. It also scared away the Nigerian tenants he actually wanted—illustrating how important it is to know the cultural assumptions of one’s audience when trying to manipulate them. Adah must use sex to get Francis to address important questions about their household, indicating Francis’s lustfulness and immaturity.
Themes
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The next day, Adah and Francis walk to Mr. Noble’s house, which is small and shabby compared to the neighboring houses. Francis has to knock hard on the front door to be heard over the Beatles playing inside. Mr. Noble—a bald, ancient-looking man—opens the door. Adah is repulsed by his appearance, especially his keen, deep-set eyes behind his thick glasses. When he ushers them inside, a loud female voice yells to “Papa,” asking who has come. Mr. Noble, Adah, and Francis walk into the living room, which is full of dirty laundry, children’s toys, and an enormous TV. There they find Mr. Noble’s wife Sue, a big, attractive redhead.
Mr. Noble’s house has a dilapidated exterior, emphasizing economic discrimination against Nigerian immigrants in the UK: he was only able to buy the worst house on the street. His house’s messy interior, meanwhile, may suggest that his wife Sue either rejects sexist cultural norms about housewives needing to clean or simply embraces the mess.
Themes
Sue greets Adah and Francis effusively. After Sue takes Adah’s coat, Adah realizes that her pregnancy is showing. Worried that Mr. Noble won’t rent to them if he sees it, she sucks in her stomach. Sue knowingly suggests that Adah sit on the bed, which is soft. Then she asks Adah whether her children like fish and chips. Mr. Noble claims all children do. When Sue asks whether he ate them as a child, he claims his mother breastfed him till he was 12 and he only wore clothes after joining the military. Adah, horrified, asks why Mr. Noble doesn’t just claim his “father had tails.” Mr. Noble dismisses Adah’s naivete, while Francis smiles at Sue’s laughter. Adah thinks that at least the Nobles will give them the room, because Mr. Noble is “too old” for his wife.
Previously in her search for housing, Adah has had to worry about housing discrimination. Now she worries about discrimination due to her pregnancy. These dual worries emphasize that in the UK, Adah must contend with both racism and sexism in her struggle to make a good life for herself and her family. Mr. Noble’s fantastical—and racist—tales about his “primitive” life in Africa are clearly meant to entertain his white wife rather than to be taken seriously. When Adah asks why Mr. Noble doesn’t just say that his “father had tails,” she is asking a rhetorical question to criticize Mr. Noble for reinforcing racist myths about Black African people. Her speculation that she and Francis will get the room because Mr. Noble is “too old” for Sue implies that Sue will push to give them the rooms in order to begin an affair with Francis, who is closer to her own age.
Themes
