Asagai is helpful and concerned about the welfare of others. He volunteers to assist in the move to Clybourne Park and offers much-needed consolation and good advice to Beneatha when she is at her lowest. He counsels Beneatha spiritually and emotionally, helping her to get back "on track" as she rails against her brother's foolishness in having lost the money.
Asagai's philosophy runs counter to the Western perception of success at any cost. He questions, for example, the satisfaction of receiving money through misfortune while calling it "success." He contrasts this view with his own that "making it" via insurance money gained through misfortune is not really "making it." Asagai's character gives Beneatha political focus and nourishes her idealism. Being a true African, Asagai is grounded in his "Africaness" while Beneatha is trying, almost too hard, to connect with an African past that she knows so little of. It is Beneatha and not Asagai who is constantly singing the praises of Africa.
The name of Hansberry's African character is taken from the word "assegai," which means a short-handled stabbing spear, famous in the successful ware of Shaka Zulu.
