From the back cover:
'However famous a man is outside, if he is not respected inside his own home, he is like a bid with beautiful feathers, wonderful on the outside but ordinary within.' So runs the Ibo proverb which provides the theme for Cyprian Ekwensi's novel. Wilson Iyari, the leader of the Nigerian movement for African and Malagasy Solidarity, commands the respect of the masses. with the leadres of African thought, his name has significance. But inside his home he has no authority. He is disregarded, then deserted by his own wife. While he pursues his desire for African and Malagasy solidarity, his home life is crumbling and he cannot concentrate on running his business: the Independence Pharmacy. Wilson does not come to terms with himself until he discovers that the unity is a complex of the judicious and proper, the overlooked and forgotten, the tolerated and rejected."