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Tag: Prof. Chinua Achebe

  • ‘Things Fall Apart sold out in America’

    ‘Things Fall Apart sold out in America’

    Call him a ‘diehard fan of the  late Prof Chinua Achebe’, you may not be wrong. Emeritus Professor of African Literature Charles Larson,  a pioneer in African literature in the Western world, believes the late Achebe should have won the Nobel Prize for Literature.  Since 49 years ago when he taught his first African Writer class at the University of Colorado, Larson has become an inspiration to African writers across the world. His research and interactions with the writers led  to his innovative work, The Ordeal of the African Writer. In this  interview with Evelyn Osagie when he visited Nigeria, Larson recounts his travails as an African literature advocate, his first visit to the country few weeks ago and his encounter with the late Achebe’s books and more.

    If the late Chinua Achebe were alive, he would have been 84 last month. His book, Arrow of God, clocked 50 this year and the event was celebrated wide world. What is your opinion about the book and the writer?

    They say that 100,000 copies of Things Fall Apart are sold every year in the US. He has more readers in the US than he has in Nigeria – more copies are sold in the US than they are in Nigeria. I think it’s his most accomplished novel. Now, this may sound like there is an inconsistency here and some may ask such as: “How can Things Fall Apart said to be “the great African novel” and Arrow of God is Achebe’s major novel?” I am talking of a major novel in the sense that it is a more complex novel than anything he wrote. It’s still politically relevant, especially to Africa today where leaders have stayed in power forever because Ezeulu is a dictator who is constantly in conflict with even his own people and family – he doesn’t want to hear what they have to say, which is typical of African governments. It is a novel that deals with issues, such as negotiation, transparency, and above all, listening to the opposition or the other side. It is the novel that academics would teach because it has a detailed characterisation, the plot, the issues are more complex and the language is richer than his other novels.  And it probably leads to better discussions in class than Things Fall Apart because it is more subtle. But sadly I think it has been overlooked in favour of Things Fall Apart; and that is the essence of all those conferences across the world to try to make it more visible than it has been. It means one would also have to change the attitude of academics who teach. Although set in the past, it should be taught in schools looking at the situation today while examining its key issues.

    When did you first read Things Fall Apart and Arrow of God?

    I didn’t know anything about Nigeria before I visited the country in 1962, so, I got myself Achebe’s novels and read Things Fall Apart and No Longer at Ease  in the summer of 1962. After reading them, I thought I had read something extraordinarily different, rich, imaginative and original, unlike anything I had ever read before. I fell in love with African literature and decided I was going to go for my PhD in African Literature.

    And later, within months that Arrow of God was published in England in 1964, I bought it in CMS bookstore in Onitsha in the summer and read it the next day.

    Where were you working at the time?

    I was teaching as a Peace Corps volunteer at the Anglican Boys Secondary School, in the then Eastern Nigeria on the East of Onitsha about 12 miles away and about seven miles from Ogidi where the late Chinua Achebe grew up. I taught there for two years between 1962 and 1964. And I used to drive through there all the time to go to Onitsha to buy produce, go to the bank and the Post Office.

    When you were driving through Ogidi to Onitsha, did you connect the place to Achebe? 

    No. I was told that he had grown up there but I didn’t know which house was his family’s house. He told me much later that all the time that I went to Onitsha, I was always driving past his house.

    Aside 1962, what other time did you come back to the country?

    I have been to Nigeria about five times since I taught here for just short trips – and that is not so often and given the fact that that was 50 years ago. Reading Achebe’s books made me decide that this was such an exciting literature that I wanted to spend the rest of my life working with it; and that was why I kept coming back to Africa all the time. After that first visit to Nigeria, my interest in African literature grew. When I went back I didn’t just write about Nigerian Literature, I wrote about all other literatures across the continent. I became more interested in this aspect of literature and for about 40 years, I’ve worked to get the books of Africans in print in the US.

    I had a lot to do with seeing that universities in the US and in the West started teaching African literature. This led to my teaching African literature for 47 years in American University, Washington DC, US;I retired in 2011. In fact, I was the first to teach African Literature in the US. I was the only person who taught The African Writer, African-American literature and Third World literature, for years. And some people believe it is the first course ever taught on African Literature anywhere in the world.

    And what year was that?

    That was in 1965. There were no courses taught at that time.

    What was the experience like in those early days of teaching African literature in the US?

    It was really hard at the beginning because they were resisting all those changes. They didn’t want African writers, Latin American writers and Asian writers taught in American schools. But realising there was something very important here that needed to be written about, I was just excited about reading Achebe and others who were beginning to publish; and wrote my thesis in African Literature. It was also hard because the people who were teaching hadn’t read the writers, so they said: “Who’s going to monitor what you are teaching?” The thesis was probably the first in the US in African Literature ever written on African writers. Several places that I was interested in didn’t want me to do that. They said the literature was not significant enough. But I was determined until finally, I found a school that would let me do it. I found some departments – not English Department – that recognised the value of this – the African Studies Programme at the University of Colorado. They taught courses in African History, African Anthropology, African Sociology, African Music, but they didn’t have a course on African Literature. So, they hired me when they learned that I was teaching that. They were growing all of these areas. I was using Achebe’s novels, three Ngugi’s novels, three of Ayikwei Armah’s, three of Camara Laye’s that were in print at the time; and those are the ones I can remember now. And after a while, the English Departments realised that they should be teaching this stuff in the English Department instead of all the other departments. So that was the fight; it took about 10 years to get that worked out.

    You had the same thing here then. When I taught in Nigeria for those two years – I taught seniors for the schools’ certificate examination – there were no African writers on the syllabus, but Thomas Hardy and Victorian poets and so on. You may have inherited that from the British, but you didn’t change when you had independence. It took several years before Achebe’s Things Fall Apart was put on the schools’ certificate examination and, then, it was only that novel. It took a long time before your own schools’ system started teaching African Literature.

    Was that what inspired your book, The Ordeal of the African Writer?

    A school of thought holds that Achebe is the father of African Literature, what is your take on it?

    Absolutely! That was what I was saying in so many words. And this is because of two things. He wrote a truly African novel and changed people’s attitude about Africa – he changed Africans’ attitudes about their past. That is major. But the second thing is the African Writers Series – he picked all those titles to be published. You could call him a “Midwife of African Literature”. He birthed all those books and there wouldn’t have been many of those writers in print and many would never have been published if Achebe hadn’t edited that series.

    Achebe is the father of African Literature. But Soyinka is a major intellect from Africa. He is much more theoretical and wrote those wonderful plays and wonderful poems but later in life. he tended to write theoretical things about Africa. And many of those statements he made got Africans upset just as Achebe’s book, There was a Country.

    Some critics say Achebe’s books, although critical of Nigerian politics, were more ethnic-driven than Nigerian-driven?

    Well, some were, like the last book he published, There was A Country, was very controversial because he had sort of held that information in the whole time, waiting to come out. And I respect that opinion. But if there was any writer critical of what is going on in this country, it is Soyinka. And remember Soyinka was in prison for two years, censored and exiled at some point. And they are not the only ones -African writers all over the continent have passed through lots of difficult situations, even Ngugi was in prison for two years, because they criticised the powers in their countries.  Black writers often didn’t get published and if they did get publish, their books were censored and got burnt.

    Could this be the reason some literary critics are advocating art for art sake?

    I don’t like art for art sake or for beauty. I think it is fine for poetry. The novel and drama by nature are about the realities of life; and usually it’s about the things that are not working in life; personal, family and state tragedies. Let me say this, any writer who is worth his salt and has true value is by nature political, not just in Africa, but in Asia, Latin America and the United States. The great writers have been critical and political in one sense or another. Maybe African writers have been more critical and political than others because they’ve been fighting terrible government for so long that they have been super critical of that. Now in the West, in the US, there have been plenty of people who have criticised various American presidents, government. We supposedly have a democracy and capitalism but it’s… I won’t even get into that. Plenty of writers are just as critical but the advantage is they don’t get censored or put in jail or go into exile. Art should be critical of what is happening in a culture because it is the criticism of the culture that is going to provoke change, particularly in countries that do not have freedom of the press, the writers write critical things knowing that they may end up in prison and some of them have been killed, like the late Ken Saro-Wiwa, who was a fabulous writer. Sozaboy was a magnificent novel, and Abacha killed him. It is really sad because I thought he was brilliant.

    What is your position of Achebe not getting the Nobel Prize till his death?

    Oh, that is a real can of worms. The committee that makes those decisions is very  obscure – nobody quite knows how those decisions are made. But what is known is that one person on the committee of about one dozen of people doesn’t like the writer that one person can prevent the award from being given to somebody. And probably something like that happened to Achebe. We know it happened to Graham Green who should have got it. And it was notorious that one person, whom they even identified at one time, didn’t like Green’s works – so that’s all it took. Of course, Achebe should have had that award. Soyinka had and he deserved it. But Achebe should have had it also. I am just speculating that there might have been one person who didn’t like his work.

  • ‘Achebe died an angry man’

    ‘Achebe died an angry man’

    The enduring legacies of the late literary Iroko Prof Chinua Achebe were dug up again as HEBN Publishers Plc and other dignitaries celebrated his life and times in his alma mater, University of Ibadan (UI). Evelyn Osagie reports.

    The enchanting rhythm of the mystical flute (Oja) rent the air. Its captivating tunes ushered guests into the University of Ibadan (UI) Conference Centre.

    Its rhythm carried with it silent screams of the enduring legacies of the late literary icon, Prof Chinualumogu Achebe, hailed as the Great Iroko of Literature in some quarters. It was not another funeral but a ceremony Celebrating the Life and Times of Chinua Achebe organised by HEBN Published Plc.

    The rhythm of the Oja, pregnant with meaning, depicted the ambiance of a rustic Igbo community. Its biting melody played by culture advocate Mike Osuji captured the cultural essence of the late sage. The tunes not only prepared guests for the rich literary feast but literarily transposed them to the setting of the epic Things Fall Apart.

    As expected, there were reminiscences; there were readings and poetic renditions cultural and dramatic performances from poets like Ikeogu Oke and Ebika Anthony, among other literary festivities.

    And even though some of the reminiscences were a recast of what has been said a million times over, it was an epoch-making event that brought together his classmates, colleagues, friends and fans in his alma mater that included: the Olubadan of Ibadanland, HRM Oba Odulana Odugade I (CFR), who was represented by Prof Femi Lana; the Oyo State Governor, Senator Abiola Ajimobi, who was represented by the Commissioner for Information, Pastor Taiwo Otegbeye; veteran writer and Achebe’s classmate, Mabel Segun; Prof Niyi Osundare (New Orleans), Prof Osofisan; the chairman; East African Educational Publishers Ltd, Kenya(formerly Heinemann East Africa), Dr Henry Chakava; Chairman/Chief Executive, HEBN Publishers Plc, Mr Ayo Ojeniyi and Prof Chima Anyadike (Ife).

    Holding the prestigious record of being the publisher of the Things Fall Apart and many of Achebe’s earliest works, HEBN said the event was meant to honour one of its own. Aside from publishing his works and having the late author as a former director, Achebe was also the first General Editor of the Heinemann African Writers Series. Hence, HEBN described the event as “a fitting tribute to one of the world’s greatest writers of our time”.

    HEBN CEO, Mr Ojeniyi, described him as a man of “honour”, “literary guru” and “hero”, saying “he has left us but his landmark endures even for posterity to acknowledge.” He added that: “Achebe is many things to many people but to us at Heinemann, Nigeria, we lost our author, a friend our director and colleague.”

    In death, the late Achebe’s legacies spoke from the grave to challenge the living and re-direct their steps to a patriotic path, it was said. Aside his writings, his legacies as a patriotic Nigerian, who cared so much for the state of the nation, are noteworthy, according to guests.

    Chief Aigboje Higo, who chaired the event, was pessimistic about the state of Nigeria. He began with a rhetoric question that re-echoed a major preoccupation of the late author’s last book, There Was A Country, by saying: “Is there anybody in this room who does not know what is wrong with Nigeria or what should be done to make Nigeria right?”

    Higo said political office holders should lead by example, urging them to do away with corrupt practices that take the nation backward. While praising the Southwest governors, saying: “They seem to know what is wrong with Nigeria”, Higo said they should reduce their salaries by three-quarters, observing that if done, “there can begin to be hope”.

    Beyond reminiscing on his sage’s life and times, Prof Osundare urged the audience to emulate the late Achebe’s legacies and works. Although fulfilled, the poet said, Achebe died an angry man. And Achebe’s anger, according to him, was directed at the way the nation is being governed. He urged all, particularly the leaders, to create a conducive environment for its citizenry. “Achebe died a fulfilled man and he died an angry person. It is not only by reading his work but by learning from them that we can honour his memory. Let us make sure that we create a country that everyone can live in,” he said.

    Achebe, according Prof Anyadike, became an elder rather too early who touched many lives with his wise sayings, adding that this is be seen in the depth of his works. “Achebe used the tradition strategies such as proverbs, anecdotes etc. as elders do in African tradition societies in his literary career to intervene on serious social issues confronting the society at large. That same understanding and self beliefs, which formed the basis of his cultural nationalism, came to the fore and began to produce in him the qualities he would develop in his characters, notably Okonkwo, Ezeulu and Beatrice. Achebe was, therefore, able to formulate, even in those early years the themes that informed his literary and political career.

    “Above all, he showed with his own life, that leadership by example is not only possible but indispensible in any effort that would release and manage the productive energies either being misused or laying on facts in Nigeria and Africa today.”

    Describing Achebe as “our beacon of light to the world”, Ven Prof Obaro Ikime said the late author’s patriotism and commitment to Nigeria is worthy of emulation.

    Segun recounted her earliest days with the writer, noting that people, especially publishers, should pay more attention to giving writers their due remunerations while alive.

    The presence of pupils from schools across the state, including the UI Staff School and Ummul-Qura High School made the hall was full. However, the absence of students and lecturers, which was as a result of the strike, was also felt. This, the National President, Association of Nigerian Author (ANA), who represented the Vice-Chancellor, said showed that all was not yet well with the nation, saying measures should taken to change.

    Other attendees were veteran broadcaster and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Broadcasting Corporation of Oyo State (BCOS), Mr Yanju Adegbite; Tony Marinho; Dr Bunmi Babalola, Prof Adedeji Awoye and Chairman/ Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Booksellers Ltd, Mr Kolade Mosuro, among others.

     

  • ‘My greatest regret is not meeting Achebe alive’

    ‘My greatest regret is not meeting Achebe alive’

    United States Consul General in Nigeria Jeffrey Hawkins is a committed promoter of the arts. He may not be an arts expert but he is a lover of arts. Hawkins believes it is a good thing to invest in the arts. His only regret he says is not meeting the late literary icon, Prof Chinua Achebe. He shares how US partners Nigeria through the arts in this chat with Evelyn Osagie.

    When you walk into a room and you see artworks adorning the walls, what impression does it give you?

    Obviously, it says so much about the person. And there are all kinds of art. I mean if you go into an office and there is a corporate art that can say, “We are sleek or we are sophisticated”. And if you go into a room and you find an artwork, it says a lot about the individual(s) too. We have some friends who collect Nigerian art and in fact their houses are filled with them. And it says a lot about them that they appreciate the aesthetics and that Nigerian culture means a lot to them. That is the idea we are trying to promote here: Nigerian culture, particularly Nigerian culture with an American element means a lot to us.

    We held an art salon recently in my house involving some young Nigerian artists and had a visiting American artist and founder of the Mbari Institute for Contemporary African Art Mimi Wolford under the U.S Department of State’s Travelling Speaker programme. She is from a well-established tradition of artists: her parents, Richard Wolford and Jean Kennedy having graduated from the Cleveland School of Art were involved in the world of art from an early age. We’ve done a number of such exhibitions like this in the past.

    How potent is art in shaping the society?

    There is so much that you can say; it is like the cliché that “a picture is worth a thousand words”. Art can provide a conscience to the society; art can provide excitement, upliftment and education. Art is very powerful things that can help right the ills and wrong that are in society. Art can also say very powerful things about higher aspirations, even the spiritual. So, it is huge. Most importantly, as a diplomat, my job is building bridges; and I don’t think there is any better way to build bridges between people and cultures than promoting the arts. Aside exhibitions, we also had folks back to the United States and people like Mimi for all sorts of events. For example, we also had a Nigeria-American artist and professor from Chicago come out; and she worked at UNILAG and had a couple of shows of her artworks. They also show our country’s support for growth of the arts sector, as part of capacity building, job creation, skill acquisition and confidence building in the youth of Nigeria. The goal is to foster the development of the arts in the community. They not only serve as platform where future artists can get publicity but also present tremendous opportunity for ignorant Americans as myself to gain more comprehensive understanding and greater appreciation of the Nigerian arts and culture. It was really wonderful having the artists showcase their talents. We also intend to recognise artists and applaud them for their creativity and their courage in portraying their sentiments and their views and aesthetic. And in a wider sense, we are celebrating the tie of cultures between Nigeria and United States.

    What inspired the building of bridges through the arts?

    The genesis was when I met an artist recently at an art show who has just come back from the United States and was talking about the influence that the experience had on him, artistically. And so we were very interested in replicating it on a wider scale and that led to Mimi’s visit who has a lot of history with arts and Nigeria and bridging that cultural gap.

    So, what is your scorecard like in your attempt at bridging cultural gap particularly through the promotion of the arts?

    The arts is a hard thing to quantify but there are other ways of quantifying: we also have a lot of exchange-type programmes: for example, the number of exchange educational programmes that we’ve have such as the Fulbright, which is one of the premier educational programmes. And there is something like 7000 Nigerian students studying in the United States – there are more Nigerians studying in the US than from any other African country. And when you talk about work, there is a huge number of Nigerian-Americans and Nigerian citizens living and working in the US. And when you talk about the arts: one of Nigeria’s great novelists, the late Prof Chinua Achebe, was teaching in the US. And these are all some kind of scorecard. And we are very happy to do what we can to encourage them from our side.

    Did you meet Achebe when he was alive?

    You know, it is my greatest regret that I did not – something I really wanted very badly to, and because I was in Nigeria and he was in America, it is regrettable that it didn’t happen and I am really sorry about that.

    Would we see more of the promotion of young talents?

    Absolutely! Actually, we did an event recently where we did have a poet come up and recite Nigerian poetry.

    Some say art lovers and promoters are mostly of the elite class, what say you?

    There unpopular art and other forms of art. And those who collect art because they love it; others collect art as an investment. There are some who collect art because they recognise something before anyone does. That is where you really want to be. And you can choose what group you really want to be in; and you don’t have to belong to the elite to appreciate art.

    Which group do you belong to?

    I am certainly part of the “Wannabes”. There was an art auction recently that my wife and I bid on four pieces and we didn’t get a single one. This goes to show how popular Nigerian art is. We have to wait until next time and bid a little higher.

    On the popularity of the Nigerian art: is it internationally acclaimed and perhaps highly priced?

    I’m certainly not an art expert. But my general sense is that in the US and other art markets, I think West African art, particularly Nigerian art is very hot right now. And I think people are really interested in it. And although the price is not as high as others, it is a good place to get in because the prices look like they are about to go up.

    What kind of art lover are you?

    I do not make any claims to be a good one but I am a musician; I play the guitar. And as a matter of fact, my wife and I had a little deal that I am going to lose weight and she is going to take piano lessons.

    Where would you regard your favourite places in Nigeria?

    Osogbo is actually one of my favourite places in Nigeria.

  • A night of toasts to Achebe

    A night of toasts to Achebe

    There was music. There were recollections, tributes and a lot of champagne. Writers, literary enthusiasts, book lovers and fans raised their glasses in honour of the late literary legend, Prof Chinua Achebe, in Lagos. Evelyn Osagie reports.

    Some young men were riding from Onitsha to Ogidi when an interesting comic drama took place.

    As the vehicle got close to Ogidi, the hometown of the late literary legend Prof Chinua Achebe, the travellers came across a crowd who were there for the legend’s funeral and, then an argument ensued.

    “What is happening?” one asked. “It’s like someone died,” said another.

    “Who died: is he a film actor?” asked a third. “It is the Nollywood actor Pete Edochie,” someone who thought he knew, answered with confidence by this time the journey had come to an end for the critic and poet Uzor Maxim Uzoatu who had arrived at his destination.

    Uzoatu relived this comic moment last Thursday among dignitaries consisting of writers, literary enthusiasts, book lovers and others from within and outside Nigeria in Lagos. The event, tagged: Toast to an Extraordinary Life – Chinua Achebe, meant to honour the writer post-humously, started with highlife music by music maestro like Osita Osadebe and the likes playing at the background.

    Some shook their head in sober reflection. Others, like Uzoatu, with glasses of Moet & Chandon Champagne in hand, recalled fond memories and personal experience with the legend and his works with much zest at the Gallery of the Old Prison Ground now Freedom Park, Lagos.

    Once again, his life, times, works, politics, romance, humour, achievements and contributions particularly in the development of African literature, among others came on the spotlight. Some called him a “subtle revolutionary”. To others, he was “pen freedom fighter”, “honest story teller”, “eagle on the iroko”, “mentor”, father and so on.

    Even though it was the day was also the birthday of Nobel laureate and revolutionary Nelson Mandela, guests chose to celebrate the late literary legend Prof Chinua Achebe. The event, which was organised by Moet & Chandon Champagne, curated by award-winning journalist and writer, Tolu Ogunlesi.

    Uzoatu recounted his experiences with the late author while he was alive, observing that Onitsha-Ogidi the incident was a pointer to the faceless nature of writers compared to screen personalities. He added that it also showed the humility of the author who despite his achievements refused to throw them at people’s faces.

    According to him, from the beginning Achebe took his art seriously. Achebe’s life, he said, was a challenge for contemporary writers. “Achebe was such a humble person who took our proverbs and idioms that are commonplace and elevated them. He believes that we all have a right to tell our stories and should be allowed to tell our stories. It is a lesson to us, writers – don’t be a dancer of fortune that would only take you to appoint,” he said.

    In attendance were Forbes Africa, Business Development Manager, Patrick Omitoki; former Editor of The Guardian on Sunday, Jahman Anikulapo; Managing Director of Mirror, Steve Ayorinde, award-winning authors such as Igoni Barreti, Eghosa Imasuen and Ake Literary Festival Director, Lola Shoneyin, Kemi Adetiba, Ebi Atawodi, Segun Adefila, Temi Dollface, Ayeni Adekunle, Chris Ihidero,Ann Ogunsulire, Brand Manager, Moet Hennessy champage, among others.

    Imasuen said he first encountered Chinua Achebe in his parents’ library. “Arrow of God is my favourite because it is ridiculously funny. In fact most of his works are. After reading his works, I wondered how someone could be an honest storyteller and that was when I said this is what I was going to do with my life,” he said before reading chapter one of A Man of the People.

    While reading from Achebe’s work entitled: John Conrad: Africa Writes Back, literary critic and Director of CORA, Toyin Akinosho, took guests into how Achebe was launched into the international literary clime with Things Fall Apart, the long, awkward and hectic continental voyage his Things Fall Apart manuscript underwent before it was published, his effort at mentoring generation of writers the younger than his like Ngugi Wa’Thiongu, among others. Akinosho’s reading left behind a disturbing question of which the compere, award-winning author, Ogunlesi’s later voiced, asking: “What if his manuscript had got lost between London and Nigeria?”

    From the pages Akinosho read, guests saw the trouble that writers in the generation without internet, GSM and limited number of publishing houses went through to get their manuscripts published; and appreciated their determination and dedication to their passion.

    Aside from being a night of reflections, tributes and reading, it was one of symbolism mixed with strings of metaphors. To ignite the imaginative essence of guest, Ogunlesi’s recollected of a quote by Madiba in which he (Madiba) described Achebe as: “A writer in whose company the prison walls fell down”.

    Speaking of “prison” at a former “Prison Colonial Ground” now “Freedom Park”, he added fire to imaginations and left unanswered questions in the minds of guests over the “freedom of the African” and “identity crisis” in the face of globalisation and teeming problems such as bad leadership, corruption, poverty and racism with regards to the case of Zennaputa and Puta in the United States.

    Over 50 years of its independence Africa is yet to be free, guests enthused. “Unfortunately, many are constantly being harassed despite of the wealth that abounds in the continent and in the country,” it was said. Madiba and Achebe were described as revolutionaries and “true Africa’s sons” whose lives should be emulated by Nigerians, particularly the political class.

    Guests also likened Achebe to the Afrobeat maestro and activist Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, saying both men has some things in common. They described them “as revolutionaries who fought injustice with their arts”. “While Fela fought with his music, Achebe fought with words and his pen,” poet and social critic Ralph Tathagatha. According to him, one was subtle while the other was aggressive with his activism.

    In the same vein, they lamented that the vicious circle in the leadership, noting it is unfortunate that the issues which their art and lives advocated against are still very much around and unaddressed.

    During the author’s latter years, the late author was confined to the wheelchair due an accident caused by the pothole-infested roads. In death, Achebe still challenges our nationhood at 53, according to the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), Lagos branch, Marxist exponent Dagga Tolar. “Our roads are burial grounds. Many are constantly becoming silent victims. His accident caused by bad roads still raises the fundamental questions of nationhood that should be addressed,” he said.

    Reinstating Tolar ‘s words, Anikulapo observed that Achebe missed the opportunity of being celebrated as a hero because of the way younger writers painted him by narrowing him to a level that he did not have any meaning in some part of the country, making reference to the debate that bedevilled his last publication.

    According to the organisers, the event is meant to celebrate the author’s “sterling contribution to the development of African literature especially the genre of prose”.

  • Fresh insights into Achebe’s world

    Fresh insights into Achebe’s world

    The ongoing furious controversy generated by Prof. Chinua Achebe’s new book, ‘There Was A Country: A Personal History of Biafra’, may have a number of unintended positive effects. For one, it will promote wide readership of the book in a country where reading is not necessarily a favourite national pastime. On the very day that the book arrived in Nigeria, for instance, I was at my favourite book shop to get a copy but it had already sold out! Again, it should encourage the younger generation especially to read other books on the civil war to get different perspectives and thus enrich their knowledge of the country’s history. Achebe’s effort further reinforces the importance of history in a nation’s evolution for the simple reason that without a collective memory, a people stand the danger of perishing. For the past must always inform the present and serve as a guide to the future. There is also the likelihood that others will be inspired by Achebe’s book to write their own account of the civil war and other salient aspects of Nigeria’s history either to disprove or support the novelist’s position. This will further enrich the country’s intellectual heritage.

    However, there is much more to this book than the civil war controversy. It offers several refreshing insights into the mind and the world of one of our most pre-eminent men of letters. This book confirms what Professor Biodun Jeyifo wrote of Achebe in his seminal book, Things Fall Apart; Things Fall Together. According to Jeyifo, Achebe “absolutely never fails at writing with the greatest clarity, the greatest ease and urbanity while reflecting on the most confounding of topics and experiences”. There are glimpses of sheer brilliance and profundity, remarkable gems of thought scattered throughout the book. Even though Achebe may not necessarily exhibit the artistic range and versatility of his equally illustrious compatriot, Wole Soyinka, it is significant as the mathematician and Marxist thinker, Edwin Madunagu, recently noted that his novels in particular chronicle with incomparable insight Nigeria’s evolution from the pre-colonial era (Things Fall Apart and Arrow of God) through the colonial experience (No Longer At Ease) to the decay and degeneration of the post colonial era (A Man of the People and Anthills of the Savannah). I certainly learnt as much about power and politics from Achebe’s writings as I did from my excellent teachers at the Department of Political Science in Ibadan.

    It is interesting that having finished from Government College, Umuahia, with flying colours obtaining five distinctions and one credit, Achebe was actually admitted to the then Government College, Ibadan, to study medicine on scholarship. After a year he, however, requested to change from the Faculty of Medicine to that of Arts. He was later reluctantly permitted to study English, History and Theology but lost his scholarship, which he won on the basis of his sterling performance in Physics and Chemistry. Despite his academic brilliance, Achebe was fascinated by African belief systems especially as epitomised in Igbo culture and philosophy. In his words “Afterward I returned to Nekede for the remainder of the school year. Nekede was a treasure trove of Igbo culture. Our ancient traditions continued to fascinate me, and I sought an alternative education outside the classroom, from the local villagers”. We can thus appreciate the evolution of the mind that has produced some of the most accomplished literary works of our time.

    One sees in Achebe’s intellectual development an uneasy tension between his Christian heritage and his fascination with African religious beliefs and practices. His father was a catechist and teacher who helped to establish St. Phillips Church, Ogidi. However, his great-uncle, Udoh Osinyi, believed in traditional Igbo religion and “held one of the highest titles in Igboland – ozo”. According to Achebe, “Those two – my father and his uncle – formed the dialectic that I inherited. Udoh stood fast in what he knew, but he also left room for my father to seek other answers. The answer my father found in the Christian faith solved many problems, but by no means all”. Achebe expresses admiration for what he perceives as the liberalism and tolerance of traditional African religion compared to the absolutism of Christianity. In his words, “I often had periods of oscillating faith as I grew older, periods of doubt, when I quietly pondered, and deeply questioned, the absolutist teachings or the interpretations of religion. I struggled with the certitude of Christianity – “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life”- not its accuracy, because as a writer one understands that there should be such latitude, but the desolation, the acerbity of its meaning, the lack of options for the outsider, the other”. While he acknowledges his indebtedness to Christian missionaries for his western education, Achebe nonetheless muses: “Does it matter, I ask myself, that centuries before European Christians sailed down to us in ships to deliver the Gospel and save us from darkness, other European Christians, also sailing in ships, delivered us to the transatlantic slave trade and unleashed darkness in our world?”. Surely Christian thinkers will find it difficult to agree with what they will consider a rather provocative reading of history.

    One of the most remarkable stories in this book occurs around 1936 when Achebe was a student at St Phillips Central School, Ogidi. Listen to the master story teller himself: “On a hot and humid day during the wet season our geography teacher decided to move our entire class outside to the cool shade of a large mango tree. After setting up the blackboard he proceeded to give the class a lesson on the geography of Great Britain. The village “mad-man” came by, and after standing and listening to the teacher’s lesson for a while, walked up to him, snatched the chalk from his hand, wiped the blackboard, and proceeded to give an extended lesson on Ogidi, my hometown. Amazingly, the teacher let all this take place without incident. Looking back, it is instructive, in my estimation, that it was a so-called mad-man whose “clarity of perspective” first identified the incongruity of our situation: that the pupils would benefit not only from a colonial education but also by instruction about their own history and civilization”. Can you beat that? Dear reader, please go beyond the civil war controversy. Get this book and drink from Achebe’s well of wisdom.