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Tag: Chinua Achebe

  • Eulogies as Achebe’s burial rites begin

    Eulogies as Achebe’s burial rites begin

    Burial rites for the late literary giant, Prof. Chinua Achebe, commenced yesterday, with activities in Abuja, Umuahia (Abia State), and his home town Ogidi in Anambra State.

    The body of the author of the famous book Things Fall Apart, who died in Boston, United States, is expected in Nigeria tomorrow, according to the National Transition Committee (NTC) Chairman, Prof. Uzodinma Nwala.

    According to him, the writer’s remains, billed to arrive the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, tomorrow, will be received by a delegation of leaders, the diplomatic community and cultural groups’ representatives from across the world.

    There is a planned reception at the National Assembly in the late Achebe’s honour before the body is flown to the Akanu-Ibiam International Airport, Enugu.

    Southeast governors under the chairmanship of Governor Peter Obi of Anambra State, the Ohaneze leadership and traditional rulers are to received the body in the former Eastern Nigeria capital.

    The NTTC chair hinted that diverse activities, marking the late author’s transition have been planned for Enugu. He listed such event to include: an academic procession and a ceremony at the Enugu Campus of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka and Ohaneze’s Night of Mourning and Ikoro Salute.

    He said: “The body will leave for Anambra State on Wednesday, May 22. From where there would be other ceremonies marking his transition. We are working with the family to ensure everybody is carried along.”

    Prof Nwala debunked the insinuation in certain quarters that the late Achebe as an anarchist, especially after the publication of his last book – There was a Country. He described him as a patriotic Nigeria.

    He also debunked the claim that the late Achebe hated the Nigerian government, admitting that he only rejected the national honours conferred on him by government at a time when his home state of Anambra and the country were in a sorry state.

    The NTC chair said: ‘‘Achebe was never an anarchist; he was someone who loved his people and the country so much and there was no way he would have accepted the national honours at the time they were offered to him based on what was happening in Anambra and in Nigeria at that time.’’

    He described as mere rumour that the government has hijacked the burial programme of the literary giant, saying the Achebe family had actually appointed him to head the burial committee due to his longstanding relationship with them.

    Former Executive Vice Chairman, National Communication Commission (NCC), Ernest Ndukwe, who attended the commendation service in Abuja, said the late Achebe’s contributions to the development of literature would forever be remembered.

    Top dignitaries, at the service included former Governor Jim Nwobodo, Finance Minister, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Information Minister, Labaran Maku, among others.

    They eulogise the late author, saying he left an indelible mark in the sand of history given his achievements in the literary world.

    Okonjo-Iweala said the gap he left in the literary world may be difficult to fill, adding that the life and time of late Professor was fulfilling. She urged other writers to emulate his good deeds.

    “We are very proud to have him as a Nigerian. He has brought a lot of fame and dignity to this country. I am sure that his colleagues will agree that his departure has created a vacuum. He has encouraged many Nigerian writers and we hope that they will also come up to feel that gap. I don’t think anyone can easily step into his shoes.”

    Maku described Achebe as “the most important Nigerians in the last hundred years. He was a true pan-Africanist. He compared to great minds such as Shakespeare and Alexander Pushkin who have become enduring figures in world history.

    “We see his passing as only transitory in the physical form but idea, the emotion, the philosophy and the life he lived after his death will be far more important than we know him while he was alive. Through his literature, he has placed Africa on the map indelibly. He would be relevant in human civilisation for thousands of years to come. He was Afrocentric. He was not just a novelist but a defender of dignity of Africa. It is an embarrassment to the international community that he never got a Nobel. Many people said he didn’t get it because his literature was Afrocentric. We have come to pay him respect not just because he was a Nigerian but one of the greatest Africa that ever lived.”

    The Archbishop and Primate of the Church of Nigeria, Anglican Communion, Most Reverend Nicholas Okoh, who gave the sermon, described the late Prof. Achebe as God’s gift to the African continent, Nigeria and the Igboland in general.

    According to him, Achebe, through his literary works, had brought the African continent and the nation to global cultural reckoning.

    ‘‘Achebe was never an anarchist; he was someone who loved his people and the country so much, and there was no way he would have accepted the national honours at the time they were offered to him based on what was happening in Anambra and in Nigeria at that time.

    ‘‘The late Prof. Achebe used his intellect, which was given to him by God, to impact his generation and will continue to impact many generations to come and as a result, we should also use our God-given talents in our areas of calling to impact lives around us.’’

    The mausoleum to serve as his final resting place has been built. It includes a mini-museum where all his works, including his most popular novel – Things Fall Apart – would be kept.

    Also scheduled for the shelve in the museum is There was a country, the late icon’s last work that generated controversies.

    Governor Peter Obi led some officials to inspect the mausoleum yesterday. He was also at St. Philip’s Anglican Church, Ogidi, where the funeral service will be held on May 24 and the late Achebe’s family compound.

    Besides, Obi restated his administration’s promise to accord the late Achebe a befitting burial.

    He said his administration would not relent in honoring people like the literary giant, both dead or alive, but who contributed positively to the advancement of the society.

    Obi, who expressed satisfaction with the level of preparations, called on people, especially Anambra people, to emulate people like Achebe rather than despicable characters who are let loose on the state.

    Anambra State Government thorough the Idemili North Local Government Area has continued its environmental cleanliness, repairs and painting of the adjoining roads and streets leading to Achebe’s compound at Ogidi.

    Transition Committee Chairman Raphael Asha Nnabuife said some workers and equipment had been deployed to repair, paint and clean up the adjoining roads.

    He added that both the rehabilitation and environmental clean-up are going on simultaneously.

    He also spoke of the council’s plan to give the personal house of the late Achebe a facelift.

    A day of tributes/colloquium was at the weekend held for the late literary icon at the Government College, Umuahia, Abia State.

    The event was to emphasise the role the college played in the life of the late Achebe, who was the Senior Prefect of the school in 1948.

    The event was organised by the World Igbo Leadership, Education and Cultural Council (WILECC) and World Igbo Youth Council (WIYC).

    It was a day Achebe’s works were reviewed and analysed.

    The Rector of Abia State Polytechnic, Aba, Dr Alwell Onukogu , who did the review and analysis, came with a retinue of lieutenant of staff and students as well as renowned author, Dr. Arthur Nwankwo, who chaired the occasion.

    Onukogu praised the literary ingenuity of the late Achebe, his brutal frankness, patriotism and sense of duty.

    Onukogu who was taught English by Achebe at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, traversed the whole crevices of literary field, social commentary, and human development.

    In his analysis of the works of Achebe, Onukogu lamented that Ndigbo , Nigeria, Africa and the entire world have lost a titan.

    Nwankwo went down memory lane to x-ray the dialetics of Achebe and his works.

    He lamented that the ideals Achebe stood for were no longer there.

    A retired lecturer, Dr Okey Emordi, enraptured the audience with the story of the great literary legend.

    He was not happy, however, with the derelict status of structures in the school. He urged the government of Abia State and old boys of the school to come to the rescue.

    Abia State Governor Chief Theodore Orji, represented by his deputy, Col. Emeka Ananabe (rtd), promised that the government would continue to do its best to restore the glory of the great college.

    He, however, urged the old boys of the school to redouble their effort to complement the government’s effort.

    Some of the dignitaries who were at the Colloquium included: Chief Charles Okereke, the publisher of Nigeria Masterweb; Uche Okwukwu , a Port-Harcourt lawyer; two-time Presidential candidate of the African Renaissance Party, Alhaji Yahaya Ndu, , Chief Don Ubani, the immediate commissioner of petroleum in Abia State among others.

    The son of the late Ikemba Nnewi, Debe Ojukwu and the PDP chairman in Abia State, Senator Emma Nwaka read a poem and delivered a paper respectively.

    There were performances by the school cadet and cultural troupes.

  • Achebe wasn’t my enemy, says Soyinka

    Achebe wasn’t my enemy, says Soyinka

    Nobel Laureate Professor Wole Soyinka, yesterday dismissed the supposedly sour relationship between him and the late world acclaimed novelist, Professor Chinua Achebe, saying the talk of an unhealthy rivalry between them was cooked up.

     

    He blamed ‘camp followers’ for the misrepresentation of the issue between him and the late Achebe although he admitted that “it would be stupid to claim that relationship” between them “was all constantly harmonious.”

     

    Soyinka, in an interview with Sahara Reporters ahead of Achebe’s burial, later this week, also spoke on Achebe’s place in African literature, his controversial memoirs on the Nigerian Civil War, There was a country and alleged genocide during the war.

     

    On the relationship between him and Achebe, he said: “At this stage in our lives, the surviving have a duty to smash the mouths of liars to begin with, then move to explain to those who have genuinely misread, who have failed to place incidents in their true perspective, or who simply forget that life is sometimes strange – rich but strange, and inundated with flux.

     

    “My first comment is that outsiders to literary life should be more humble and modest. They should begin by accepting that they were strangers to the ferment of the earlier sixties and seventies. It would be stupid to claim that it was all constantly harmonious, but outsiders should at least learn some humility and learn to deal with facts. Where, in any corner of the globe, do you find perfect models of creative harmony, completely devoid of friction?

     

    “We all have our individual artistic temperaments as well as partisanships in creative directions. And we have strong opinions on the merits of the products of our occupation. But – “rivalry for domination,” to quote you – healthy or unhealthy? Now that is something that has been cooked up, ironically, by camp followers, the most recent of which is an ignoble character who was so desperate to prove the existence of such a thing that he even tried to rope JP’s wife into it, citing her as source for something I never uttered in my entire existence.”

     

    He dismissed those who speak of such as “empty, notoriety-hungry hangers-on and upstarts” who are in search of relevance. He said for him J.P. Clark, the late Achebe and other writers, “I believe we were all too busy and self-centred – that is, focused on our individual creative grooves – to think ‘dominance’!

     

    “Writers are human. I shudder to think how I must sometimes appear to others. JP (John Pepper Clark) remains as irrepressible, contumacious and irascible as he was during that creative ferment of the early sixties. Christopher was ebullient. Chinua mostly hid himself away in Lagos, intervening robustly in MBARI affairs with deceptive disinclination. Perception of Chinua, JP and I as ‘personal enemies’?

     

    “The word “enemy” is strong and wrong. The Civil War split up a close-knit literary coterie, of which “the quartet” formed a self-conscious core. That war engendered a number of misapprehensions. Choices were made, some regrettable, and even thus admitted by those who made them.”

     

    Reacting to widely held insinuations that the award of the Nobel Prize for Literature to him in 1986 led to a bitter chasm between the duo he said, “Well then, this prospect that “my 1986 Nobel Prize in literature poisoned my personal relationship with a supposedly resentful Achebe” – I think I shouldn’t dodge that either. Even if that was true – which I do not accept – it surely has dissipated over time.

     

    “Nigerians need to be purged of a certain kind of arrogance of expectations, of demand, of self-attribution, of a spurious sense and assertion of entitlement. It goes beyond art and literature. It covers all aspects of interaction with others. Wherever you witness a case of ‘It’s MINE, and no other’s’, ‘it’s OURS, not theirs’, at various levels of vicarious ownership, such aggressive voices, ninety percent of the time, are bound to be Nigerians. This is a syndrome I have had cause to confront defensively with hundreds of Africans and non-Africans. It is what plagues Nigeria at the moment – it’s MY/OUR turn to rule, and if I/WE cannot, we shall lay waste the terrain. Truth is, predictably, part of the collateral damage on that terrain.

     

    “Yes, these are the ones who, to co-opt your phrasing, “diminished (and still diminish) Chinua’s image”. In the main, they are, ironically, his assiduous – but basically opportunistic – hagiographers – especially of a clannish, cabalistic temperament. Chinua – we have to be frank here – also did not help matters. He did make one rather unfortunate statement that brought down the hornet’s nest on his head, something like: “The fact that Wole Soyinka was awarded the Nobel Prize does not make him the Asiwaju (Leader) of African literature”. I forget now what provoked that statement. Certainly it could not be traced to any such pretensions on my part. I only recollect that it was in the heat of some controversy – on a national issue, I think.”

     

    He, however, agreed that disagreement among writers and artists was nothing new. According to Soyinka, disagreements among, “musicians, scientists, even architects and scientific innovators etc. are notorious. They are usually short-lived – though some have been known to last a life-time. This particular episode was at least 20 years ago. Unfortunately some of Chinua’s cohorts decided that they had a mission to prosecute a matter regarding which they lacked any vestige of understanding or competence or indeed any real interest. It is, however, a life crutch for them and they cannot let go.”

     

    On Achebe and the Nobel controversy he called on those fanning the embers to end it now asking, “What they are doing now – and I urge them to end it shame-facedly – is to confine Chinua’s achievement space into a bunker over which hangs an unlit lamp labelled “Nobel”. Is this what the literary enterprise is about? Was it the Nobel that spurred a young writer, stung by Eurocentric portrayal of African reality, to put pen to paper and produce Things Fall Apart? This conduct is gross disservice to Chinua Achebe and disrespectful of the life-engrossing occupation known as literature. How did creative valuation descend to such banality? Do these people know what they’re doing – they are inscribing Chinua’s epitaph in the negative mode of thwarted expectations. I find that disgusting.

     

    “It is high time these illiterates were openly instructed that Achebe and Soyinka inhabit different literary planets, each in its own orbit. If you really seek to encounter – and dialogue with – Chinua Achebe in his rightful orbit, then move out of the Nigerian entrapment. Chinua is entitled to better than being escorted to his grave with that monotonous, hypocritical aria of deprivation’s lament, orchestrated by those who, as we say in my part of the world, “dye their mourning weeds a deeper indigo than those of the bereaved”. He deserves his peace. Me too! And right now, not posthumously.”

     

    On Achebe’s place in world literature and his description as father of African literature, Soyinka said: “Chinua’s place in the canon of world literature? Wherever the art of the story-teller is celebrated, definitely assured.

     

    “Chinua himself repudiated such a tag (father of African literature)- he did study literature after all, bagged a degree in the subject. So, it is a tag of either literary ignorance or “momentary exuberance” – ala [Nadine] Gordimer – to which we are all sometimes prone.”

     

    On There Was a Country, Achebe’s last work, Soyinka said it is a book he wished the deceased “had never written-that is, not in the way it was. There are statements in that work that I wish he had never made.”

     

    On allegations of genocide during the war against the Federal Government, Soyinka said: “The reading of most Igbo over what happened before the Civil War was indeed accurate – yes, there was only one word for it – genocide. Once the war began, however, atrocities were committed by both sides, and the records are clear on that. The Igbo got the worst of it, however. That fact is indisputable. The Asaba massacre is well documented, name by victim name, and General Gowon visited personally to apologise to the leaders. The Igbo must remember, however, that they were not militarily prepared for that war. I told Ojukwu this, point blank, when I visited Biafra. Sam Aluko also revealed that he did. A number of leaders outside Biafra warned the leadership of this plain fact. Bluff is no substitute for bullets.”

  • Ohaneze seeks posthumous award for Achebe

    Ndigbo apex cultural group, Ohaneze Ndi-Igbo, yesterday urged President Goodluck Jonathan to honour the late literary icon, Chinua Achebe, with a posthumous award for projecting the image of Nigeria to the world.

    The Anambra president of the group, Elder Chris Eluemuno, who made the call in an interview with newsmen in Awka reechoed that the late literary icon left many legacies on the sand of time.

    He said: “Achebe has written more novels and has written more globally accepted novel than any Nigerian.

    “He has received more international awards than any writer in Africa apart from the Nobel laurel.

    “He never pretended that he never liked the white man in his style of writing.

    He was truly a Nigerian, he was truly African and that is why he deserves a national honour.”

    Eluemuno said that Ohaneze Ndigbo would support the Federal Government and the South East State governments in giving the late professor a befitting burial.

    According to him, many traditional activities have also been lined up to project him as a true Igbo man.

    He disclosed that the national body of the group had plans to immortalise the late icon.

  • Now, the ghost of Chinua Achebe

    Now, the ghost of Chinua Achebe

    It is the post-colonial condition, stupid. For the past one week, Africa, Nigeria and the Igbo people have been mourning the exit of one of their most illustrious sons ever. Chinua Achebe has joined the galaxy of illustrious and distinguished patriots haunting the nation from inner and outer space. These distinguished avatars, men and women alike, will not rest in peace until Nigeria gets it right, or until the old colonial Ajele returns to disband the costly charade and chicanery.

    For a man who had a supreme and acute sense of beginnings, the great author also had a magnificent sense of an ending. It was a grand departure, exquisitely and exactingly timed to provoke maximum anguish and anxiety. When Achebe released his controversial war memoirs titled There Was A Country, snooper had a premonition that this was the old man’s parting shot at his crass compatriots.

    It was a grand Philippic and Parthian all rolled into one, dripping with fire, venom and thunder. Achebe has repudiated the nation as it is for the nation as it was or as it ought to be. It was an epic rejection of form and content. Achebe, the former Biafran oligarch, almost came close to declaring himself a former Nigerian.

    But if there was a country, there is also a country, despite its grave imperfections. There is no point in dwelling on the more unfortunate aspects of Achebe’s war memoirs. It was an angry and robust putdown, a savage indictment if you like. The adversarial posture ought to serve as a warning and timely reminder to intellectual and political elites who push and proxy their people into needless bloodbath. There are war criminals and there are war criminals.

    For a person like snooper who grew up in a political household where the late Zik was adored, and where the great man once sat in the early fifties speaking perfect and flawless Yoruba, it was a moment of excruciating agony. In the end, it is clear that Chinua Achebe was haunted by a transcendental homelessness in which exile became a type of home and home became a place of exiles, strange otherworldly characters and their putrid posturing. The home of the homeless is homelessness. We might as well add hopelessness.

    The post-colonial condition is particularly hard and harsh on the great and gifted writers. It turns them into political hermits and mental recluses. In its worst manifestation, it turns them into psychological wreckages, leading to permanent exile or internal self-deportation without parole or the possibility of exit mercy visa. This is because as artists—and adult enfant terrible—- they are at the frontiers of the psychic unease and the great psycho-social dramas of their society. It is a situation that does not lend itself to equivocations or evasion of the truth as they see it. They do not come to praise Caesar but to bury him.

    Whenever Achebe’s name and memory are recalled, what will come to mind is his adamantine personal and professional integrity. It was an implacable integrity, remorseless and unyielding in its obsessions and towering moral rage and revulsion. Ultimately, it was a disruptive integrity, as disruptive of the status quo in pre and post-Biafran Nigeria as it was of delicate nation-building in a crippled country..

    We cannot grudge such a great man his choices. There were a few great German writers and philosophers who did not deem it fit to explain to their compatriots what they were doing with NAZISM. They went to their grave in stony silence. Knut Hamsun, the Norwegian literary avatar, simply froze in arctic dumbness.

    Neither did Ezra Pound deem it fit to divulge the reason behind his Anglo-American baiting. They were all Hitler’s willing literary executioners. Had he been apprehended during the civil war, Chinua Achebe would have maintained the same impassive silence if not an outburst of angry contempt.

    There is a sense in which it can be argued that Chinua Achebe took his integrity from the cultural matrix of his Igbo people. Given what many see as the faithlessness and opportunistic chicanery of the dominant faction of contemporary Igbo elite in post-Biafran Nigeria, this might sound like a cruel joke. But there is no doubt that before colonial Nigeria, the Igbo society was arguably the most radical and revolutionary.

    It was, and is, a society in which everybody is a monarch and a monad. The energies released by this fiercely republican ethos would have served as a durable building block for a novel and thoroughly revolutionary society in which man was the measure of all things. It takes considerable personal integrity and some strength of character to sustain this streak of volcanic independence.

    But in a larger conglomeration of mutually contradictory nationalities, it can lead to a more severe ethical disorientation, particularly if it comes into conflict and collision with empire builders who rely more on communal strength rather than the valour of the exceptional individual. It is better to bond and bind together in an iron colonial cage where everybody is clawing at everybody to death. Even the solitary lion is vulnerable to a pack of adamant wolves.

    Significantly, Arrow of God opens on a blood-splattered canvas. The normal thing is for gods to kill off humans, like flies to wanton boys, to echo Shakespeare. But here we find humans killing off gods when they could no longer pass muster and after they have outlived their usefulness. Viewing this revolutionary anthropomorphism with unease and considerable apprehension, Wole Soyinka described the novel as a “dogged secularization of the profoundly mystical.”

    But it is obvious that Soyinka was viewing things from the cultural matrix of his Yoruba people, a people with a thousand virile gods who cannot and must not be disturbed in their lordly repose. After the Fulani jihadists overran their old empire, the Yoruba acquiesced in the formation of a new Oyo to replace the old Oyo.

    They knew in their heart that the old empire was gone, but they also knew that they needed a new mystical rallying point to preserve the sacred notions of the nationality. If the new hegemon punches above his real weight, the maverick and royalty devouring Ibadan Army was there to put him in his real place. This was the brilliant political motif of an endangered people that Obafemi Awolowo brought to bear on the formation of the Egbe Omo Oduduwa..

    The question to ask is whether people and nations need a dash and good dosage of mystery or a splash of political sorcery to preserve their sacred self-notion and to serve as a rallying symbol of unity. The British know that their royal rulers are of German extraction, but they have held on to this noble fable to serve as the ultimate national symbol and talisman. The only special request the Japanese demanded from their American conquerors was to allow them to retain their royalty.

    Until the Nigerian political elite sit down to understand and appreciate the strengths and constraints of the diverse cultures that make up the nation and then find the way and will to turn these into resources of redemptive nation building, it will continue to be a dialogue of the deaf in a dying nation. The various pre-independent colonial conferences could not have done this. They were merely pre-tournament briefings before the gladiators were unleashed on themselves in a duel unto death. What a Homeric mayhem it has been!

    On a personal note, snooper has very warm and fond memories of Chinua Achebe. He was the first person to publish an academic paper by the columnist. This was in Okike, way back in 1981. He was the very epitome of kindness and courtesy There was a touching correspondence which continued even after snooper relocated to the University of Sheffield in Britain. Thereafter, the post-colonial condition intervened. May the soul of the great man rest in peace.

  • Chinua Achebe: A sage of decolonisation

    Chinua Achebe: A sage of decolonisation

    When the Ugandan poet, Okot p’Bitek died in 1982, we seized the opportunity of the gathering writers in Ile-Ife, where he had spent a sabbatical year a few years before, to organise a little programme in his memory. Against the background music provided by Jimi Solanke, I read a poem titled “He Avenged our Lives”. As I went back to my seat, I overheard Chinua Achebe’s soft voice saying that Okot would not have liked the sadness my poem evoked. Now, as I try to memorialise the great life Achebe lived, I find myself wondering what emotion he would be comfortable with.

    Chinualumogu (let my chi fight for me) Achebe often referred to the saying of Igbo people that when a thing stands, another stands beside it. A conception of human existence in terms of struggle which also makes the Yoruba to once in a while name a child Ijalaiye (life is war!) leads some Igbo to see the human world as controlled by heroes and villains. Heroes, in this view of the world, are unfortunately always in short supply but if a society is lucky, a few great ones can galvanise the people to keep the villains in check so that progress can be made in different spheres of life. I see one Achebe standing tall as a hero in this world because, being in agreement most of the time with each other, he let his chi direct his fights against racism and colonialism. Victories from such fights humbled him and came as a result of profound and visionary writings in novels and essays that in uncluttered crystal clear prose have been ranked among the best in the world. I also see another Achebe standing beside the first one – too angry, impatient and bitter about the conduct of the war against self abasement and corrupt leadership in his homeland, that he could not wait for agreement with his chi as he moved into battles. This aspect of the postcolonial hybrid directed the Achebe vision to pass through a tragic lens for the most part, keeping out the comic spirit, great conviviality and necessary self mockery. As with all great heroes, this sometimes constituted a tragic flaw of hubris or overbearing pride when these kinds of battles inspired some writing or in certain pronouncements concerning the resourceful and dynamic Igbo people. This is the aspect that made things weigh too heavily with him.

    Achebe’s grandfather and his generation in black Africa woke up one morning to a “strange dawn”. As Cheikh Hamidou Kane described it in his Ambiguous Adventure, a novel which Achebe liked a great deal, “The morning of the Occident in black Africa was spangled over with smiles, with cannon shots, with shining glass beads. Those who had no history were encountering those who carried the world on their shoulders. It was a morning of accouchement: the known world was enriching itself by a birth that took place in mire and blood…

    “Those who had shown fight and those who had surrendered… – they all found themselves, when the day came, checked by census, divided up, classified, labeled, conscripted, administrated. For the newcomers did not know only how to fight… If they knew how to kill with effectiveness, they also knew how to cure, with the same art… On the black continent it began to be understood that their true power lay not in the cannons of the first morning, but rather in what followed the cannons.”

    That was how the church and the school trained Achebe in his early years at Government College Umuahia to see himself not as an African in the books he read. In his own words, “I took sides with the white men against the savages. The white man was good and reasonable and smart and courageous. The savages arrayed against him were sinister and stupid, never anything higher than cunning. I hated their guts.” When at the University College Ibadan (now University of Ibadan) he came to the life changing realisation that “these writers have pulled a fast one on me” and that he was not one of those on Marlowe’s boat steaming up the Congo in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, but “one of those unattractive beings jumping up and down on the riverbank, making horrid faces,” the young Achebe and his chi picked up the pen to do battle when it was “morning yet on creation day.” The war against colonisation must be fought and it must be driven by native cultural ideals even if fought with weapons manufactured in Europe. And so came Things Fall Apart, Arrow of God, No Longer at Ease. As the day wore on and the battles raged, Achebe realised more and more how much many natives have become their own enemies. And so, A Man of the People and Anthills of the Savannah followed. He saw hope in the horizon but was well aware of the impediments. A near fatal car crash, which tried to turn exile into home, did not deter him. But he got angrier and more impatient about the troubles with Nigeria, his home country. As midnight approached, he reflected sadly on how in his mind, there was a country which Okonkwo, Obierika, Ezeulu, Ikem, Beatrice and their counterparts in the world, had loved so much in their different ways.

    Now that he has left them to continue the struggle in their different ways, the freedom which Achebe sought for all men may not be in sight in a world where slavery and colonisation have put on more attractive clothes in form of outsourcing, brain drain, visa lottery and globalisation, presenting in their wake, more meaningful gifts to the “natives”. But thanks to their work, Achebe’s grandchildren, more than his grandparents, have a great legacy with which to evaluate those gifts as they struggle to find their own place in the world.

    •Anyadike is an associate professor of Literature in English at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife.

  • Achebe: Adieu, agent of change

    Achebe: Adieu, agent of change

    The news of the death of the foremost African folklorist, Prof. Chinua Achebe as shattering as it marks the nunc dimitis of pioneer African writing. This indeed shows what stealth death can do even to those whose lives and works have become institutions. The death of Achebe underscores the immortality of all living creatures even as their good works will live on.

    Described by President Nelson Mandela as the “writer in whose company the prison walls fell down”,Achebe  and writing sought   to and did liberate souls and people who were captives man’s inhumanity to fellow men Achebe, the acclaimed asiwaju of Nigerian writing began writing at a time African literature was not in contention and had helped shape the African personality.

    He told his story, the society’s story and parodied the hitherto African and the evolving pre – and post – independent Africa, aside from predicting, with great precision, the destination of the emergent African states who have toed the wrong political lines.

    His book, A Man Of The People, was very prophetic and depicted the early rut in the system which culminated in Nigeria’s first Military coup.

    Just as his all – time best seller, Things Fall Apart exposed the primordial Igbo society, his essay, “The Trouble With Nigeria”, has remained the political reference book of any politician who trains his eyes on effecting social change. His apt diagnosis of the Nigerian social malaise and very succinct prescription for good governance sounds like a text of the lips off Che Guevera. He was a quiet revolutionary.

    Never losing hope in the ability of his Country Nigeria to rise and shine, he had beamed the klieg lights on all those things that had bedeviled social change and growth, and cautioned against resurgence. These he laid bare in his recent work, “There Was A Country”.

    This detailed narrative of the Biafara debacle should be patriotically read with a view to gleaning all the lessons Achebe wanted Nigerians to learn in order to coexist as a people, more so as those threats at national stability are everywhere.

    By his death, we have lost a gem, an archive of historical developments and an agent of change. Adieu.

    The Hon Barr. Nwabueze Ugwu

    Ikpemalueziokwu of greater Awgu land.

     

  • Ambassador, Nigerians in Pakistan mourn Achebe’s death

    Nigerian Ambassador to Pakistan, Daudu Danladi has expressed deep shock over the death of literary giant, Chinua Achebe

    Danladi said the death of internationally known Nigerian novelist is a national loss to the country and Africa.

    According to him, Achebe was the father of modern African Literature and he would always remain a source of inspiration and pride for all the Nigerians worldwide.

    He added that Achebe’s world famous novel “Things Fall Apart” gave literary birth to modern Africa which aptly brings to limelight the collision between British colonial rule and traditional Igbo culture in southeastern Nigeria, the hometown of Chinua Achebe.

    Former President, Nigerian Community in Pakistan (NCP), Isaac Omomolesho, on behalf of Nigerians in Pakistan, also mourned Achebe’s death and paid rich tribute to his literary achievements.

    He noted that Achebe was a moral and literary model for countless Africans and left profound influence on such American writers as Morrison, Ha Jin and Junot Diaz.

     

  • Chinua Achebe: End of an era

    Chinua Achebe: End of an era

    PRESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan has described the late renowned author Prof Chinua Achebe as “Nigeria’s globally acclaimed writer, scholar, tutor, cultural icon, nationalist and artist of the very first rank.” According to a statement, Jonathan said while Achebe would be greatly missed, he would live on in the minds of present and future generations through his great works. He added that Achebe’s “frank, truthful and fearless interventions in national affairs will be greatly missed at home … because while others may have disagreed with his views, most Nigerians never doubted his immense patriotism and sincere commitment to the building of a greater, more united and prosperous nation that all Africans and the entire black race could be proud of.” Achebe’s publishers, Penguin Books’ Twitter feed said: “Chinua Achebe: a brilliant writer, and a giant of African literature. Former South African president, Nelson Mandela said he ‘brought Africa to the rest of the world’. RIP.” Leon Botstein, president of Bard College, paid tribute to Achebe as “a brilliant novelist, story-teller, and eloquent voice from the opposite side of Joseph Conrad, with respect to the relationship of the West to Africa.” He also highlighted Achebe’s “extraordinary generosity of time and spirit” during more than 20 years as a member of the Bard College community, adding that he will be deeply missed. “For many, he was considered the father of African literature, and for many of his students, he introduced them to an extraordinary literary tradition,” Botstein said. “His importance to literature, and to those he taught and knew personally, will never be forgotten.” The late Achebe’s schoolmate, contemporary and fellow author, Eze Prof Chukwuemeka Ike, Ikelionwu XI, has described the death of Achebe as devastating. He recalled that he grew up together with the late Achebe from secondary school days till the university. He said: “We grew up together from Government College, Umuahia till the university years when there were no Nigerian novels. “His exemplary works will remain relevant in Nigerian and world literature. In fact, he was a pioneer in terms of quality literature output. That encouraged many Nigerians to follow his footsteps.” Ace writer, Odia Ofeimun, who was ANA General Secretary under Achebe said even in death Achebe stories are eternal landmarks that would span many generations. He said: “As a writer, it is painful that he dies when we are learning to argue and debate with him. Even when he was in his twenties, he was taken as a wise old man. He did not get the kind of tackle that challenged many in his age grade. The happy thing is that he wrote stories that will last. He will be remembered for as long as stories are told.” Ace playwright and former ANA President Prof Femi Osofisan, said the news came as a shock. “It is still a shock even though, he was old enough. Achebe was one of the truly great minds of his generation, who could be both grandly right and grandiosely wrong! That’s perhaps why he has ended amidst a burning controversy, for such is always the paradox of genius. Only the small stars die without a noise. I am convinced that Achebe will continue to speak to us, perhaps even louder now, from the grave,” he said. The news came as pang to members of ANA. The ANA National General Secretary, Baba Muhammad Dzukogi, who spoke on behalf of the president said: “It is with deep sense of loss and emptiness that I received the shocking news of Achebe’s departure. Having crafted so much about death and heroism, Pa Achebe has now been overwhelmed by the powerful force too – the terminus of every man. Like the characters of his creations who had to bear great pains of the dead ones in his great works, we, his little children of his irregular country are now left fatherless, forever. If that death; that sweeping phenomenon that just took away Achebe is that powerful enough, let it take away the eternal verse of his creations. Once this done, the rest of us shall surrender to it earnestly; otherwise, Achebe lives on, forever. And we do too. Shame on the Swedish Academy for their eyelessness! And shame to Nigeria’s Federal Government for their unconcerned attitude to Nigerian writers. Executive Secretary, National Institute for Cultural Orientation (NICO), Dr. Barclay Ayakoroma said: “The death of Chinua Achebe is a very big blow, but we are consoled by the fact that he had put Nigeria on the global literary map. He will continue to be a reference point in many years to come.”

  • Chinua Achebe in Pictures (1930 – 2013)

    Chinua Achebe in Pictures (1930 – 2013)

  • Achebe will be missed – Jonathan

    Achebe will be missed – Jonathan

    President Goodluck Jonathan has expressed sadness at the death of the renowned writer, Prof. Chinua Achebe, who passed away on Thursday night in United States.

    The president in a statement signed by his media aide, Dr. Reuben Abati, said the country will miss the deceased frank, truthful and fearless interventions in national affairs.

    The statement reads:

    “President Goodluck Jonathan has received with immense sadness, news of the passing away of Nigeria’s globally acclaimed writer, scholar, tutor, cultural icon, nationalist and artist of the very first rank, Prof. Chinua Achebe.

    “President Jonathan joined Prof. Achebe’s family, his friends, colleagues, past and present students, admirers and all who have learnt indelible lessons of human existence from his award winning works of literature in mourning the legendary author.

    “As he mourns however, the president is consoled by the knowledge that Prof. Achebe will live forever in the hearts and minds of present and future generations through his great works which brought him enduring international fame and countless honours.

    “The president believes that Prof. Achebe’s frank, truthful and fearless interventions in national affairs will be greatly missed at home in Nigeria because while others may have disagreed with his views, most Nigerians never doubted his immense patriotism and sincere commitment to the building of a greater, more united and prosperous nation that all Africans and the entire black race could be proud of.

    “He recalled that with maturity and global stature, Prof. Achebe fearlessly spoke the truth as he saw it and became, as he advanced in age, a much revered national icon and conscience of the nation who will be eternally honoured for his contributions to national discourse as well as the immense fame and glory he brought to his fatherland.

    “On behalf of himself, his family, the Federal Government and all Nigerians, President Jonathan extends heartfelt condolences to Prof. Achebe’s family.”