Chinua Achebe In His Own Words
On the Value & Functions of Literature
and Storytelling,
Works by
Chinua Achebe, Interviews with
Chinua Achebe
URL of this page:
http://web.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/achebe2.htm
ON
THE VALUE &
FUNCTIONS
OF LITERATURE AND STORY TELLING
Note: Interpretative
summaries is this section are Cora Agatucci's
"...only
the story...can continue beyond the war and the warrior.
It is the story that outlives the sound of war-drums and the
exploits of brave fighters.
It is the story...that saves our progeny from blundering like
blind beggars
into the spikes of the cactus fence.
The story is our escort; without it, we are blind.
Does the blind man own his escort? No, neither do we the story;
rather it is the story that owns us and directs us.
--Chinua Achebe, Anthills
of the Savannah (1987)
From "What Has Literature Got to Do
with It," collected in Hopes
and Impediments (1988):
"Literature, whether handed down by word or mouth
or in print, gives us a second handle on reality." Achebe
believes that literature has social and political importance. It
is much more than a creative ornament. It provides a necessary
critical perspective on everyday experience, educates us on the
meaning of our actions and offers us greater control over our
social and personal lives. According to Achebe, literature works
by "enabling us to encounter in the safe, manageable
dimensions of make-believe the very same threats to integrity
that may assail the psyche in real life; and at the same time
providing through the self-discovery which it imparts a veritable
weapon for coping with these threats whether they are found
within our problematic and incoherent selves or in the world
around us."
From "The Novelist as Teacher,"
collected in Morning
Yet on Creation Day (1975) & Hopes
and Impediments (1988):
Achebe represents a particular reality: a modern Africa whose
rich variety of ethnic and cultural identities is complicated by
the impact of European colonialism. Read by Western audiences,
works like Things Fall Apart are intended to challenge
stereotypes of Africans as primitive savages, and present the
complexities of African societies, with their alternative sets of
traditions, ideals, values, and behaviors. Achebe is even more
dismayed, however, to see Africans themselves internalizing these
stereotypes and turn away from their cultures to emulate
supposedly superior white European civilizations. So Achebe
describes a dual mission to educate both African and European
readers, to reinstate a sense of pride in African cultures and "to
help my society regain belief in itself and put away the
complexes of years of denigration and self-abasement."
(As Paul Brians explains, the "most
striking feature [of Things Fall Apart] is to create a
complex and sympathetic portrait of a traditional village
culture in Africa. Achebe is trying not only to inform the
outside world about Ibo cultural traditions, but to remind
his own people of their past and to assert that it had
contained much of value. All too many Africans in his time
were ready to accept the European judgment that Africa had no
history or culture worth considering.
"He also fiercely resents the
stereotype of Africa as an undifferentiated 'primitive' land,
the "heart of darkness," as Conrad calls it.
Throughout the novel he shows how African cultures vary among
themselves and how they change over time. Look for instances
of these variations as you read.
"As a young boy the ‘African
literature’ he was taught consisted entirely of works by
Europeans about Africa, such as Conrad's Heart of Darkness
and Joyce Cary's Mister Johnson, which portrays a
comic African who slavishly adores his white colonist boss,
to the point of gladly being shot to death by him. Achebe has
said that it was his indignation at this latter novel that
inspired the writing of Things Fall Apart. Try to see
in what ways his novel answers Cary's. He also wrote a famous
attack ["An Image of Africa" ] on the racism of Heart of Darkness which
continues to the subject of heated debate."
See also
"Achebe's Fiction and Contemporary
Nigerian Politics" by
George P. Landow (Prof. of English and Art History, Brown
Univ), based on Contemporary Authors] - Achebe
"states his mission in his essay 'The Novelist as
Teacher': 'Here is an adequate revolution for me to
espouse -- to help my society regain belief in itself and to
put away the complexes of the years of denigration and
self-abasement. And it is essentially a question of
education, in the best sense of that word. Here, I think, my
aims and the deepest aspirations of society meet.'"
From "The African Writer and the
English Language" (1964),
collected in Morning
Yet on Creation Day (1975):
Achebe’s goals cannot be realized by a simple return to a
pre-colonial African age. He believes African society has been
irrevocably changed by the colonial era. Achebe chooses to write
in English and use Western forms of literary expression, unlike
other African writers who reject the colonizers’ languages
(e.g., English, French) and other vestiges of colonial influence.
For example, Ngugi
wa Thiong'o (Kenya) chooses now to write and
create only in his native Gikuyu language to build up an
indigenous literature and "orature" (oral and
performance arts). Achebe says he chooses to write in "African
English" to express "a
new voice coming out of Africa, speaking of African experience in
a world-wide language. So my answer to the question, Can an
African ever learn English well enough to be able to use it
effectively in creative writing? is certainly yes. If on the
other hand you ask: Can he ever learn to use it like a native
speaker? I should say, I hope not. . . . The African writer
should aim to use English in a way that brings out his message
best without altering the language to the extent that its value
as a medium of international exchange will be lost. He should aim
at fashioning out an English which is at once universal and able
to carry his peculiar experience."
Like many other "postcolonial" writers from India,
Africa, and other formerly colonized nations of the world, Achebe
attempts to construct an image of Africa in a language that
respects the national traditions of his native land while
recognizing the demands of a cosmopolitan, international audience
to whom Things Fall Apart is, in part, addressed. Achebe
aims to reclaim his heritage and at the same time indicate
directions for constructive change. He writes at a time when
countries are adapting to a global economy and responding to
pressures for reform and international cooperation, yet Achebe is
keenly aware of the dangers of reactionary forms of nationalism
and the desire for absolute power that, in Nigeria and elsewhere,
have blocked reform and given dictators unrestrained rule.
For Achebe, the transition to a new kind of postcolonial world
should not abandon the old; and the repository of the old, the
vital means to bring the old to meet the new, is the story.
"The story is our escort," a character is
Achebe’s novel Anthills of the Savannah
says; "without it, we are blind . . . ." The
story embodies a tradition that can adapt to the new; the problem
Achebe confronts is that of preserving national and cultural
identity in the face of the inevitable blending of different
cultures, yet preserving that identity in a way that does not
reject--and can benefit.
References to the novel are from the edition
used in Hum 211: Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart.
[1958.] Expanded edition with notes. London: Heinemann, 1996. See
the "Suggestions for Further Reading," pp. lvi-lviii,
in this edition.
Some of the above questions have been adapted
or quoted from the Study Guide and Notes on Things Fall Apart (1996;
http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~brians/anglophone/achebe.html) of Paul Brians, Department of English, Washington
State University, Pullman 99164-5020 [brians@wsu.edu].
"The
world is big. Some people are unable to comprehend that simple
fact.
They want the world on their own terms, its peoples just like
them and their friends,
its places like the manicured little patch on which they live.
But this is a foolish and blind wish.
Diversity is not an abnormality but the very reality of our
planet.
The human world manifests the same reality and will not seek our
permission
to celebrate itself in the magnificence of its endless varieties.
Civility is a sensible attribute in this kind of world we have;
narrowness of heart and mind is not."
--Chinua
Achebe, Bates College
Commencement Address 27 May 1996
Top
Works by Chinua Achebe
"Africa Is People" [Speech by Chinua Achebe, given at the
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris, France, 1989].
Massachusetts Review 40.3 (Autumn 1999): 309 (12pp). Full text
available from EBSCOHost Academic Search Elite, Article No.
2469051.
"Africa's Tarnished Name." In Another Africa.
Photographs by Robert Lyons, Essay and Poems by Chinua Achebe. New York:
Anchor-Doubleday, 1998. 105-117.
"The African Writer and the Biafran Cause." Kroniek
van Afrika 8 (1968): 65-70; Conch 1.1 (1969): 8-14. Rpt. in
Achebe, Morning Yet on Creation Day
78-84.
"The African Writer and the English Language." Moderna
Sprak 58 (1964): 438-446; Transition 18 (1965): 27-30. Rpt. in
Achebe, Morning Yet on Creation Day
55-62.
"Agostinho Neto." In Another Africa.
Photographs by Robert Lyons, Essay and Poems by Chinua Achebe. New York:
Anchor-Doubleday, 1998. 36-37.
Anthills of the Savannah. 1987. New York : Doubleday, 1989. [COCC
Library: PR9387.9.A]
Arrow of God.
1964. New York : Anchor Books, 1989. [COCC Library:
PR9387.9.A3 A88 1989]
"The Black Writer's Burden." Presence
africaine 59 (1966): 135-140.
Beware Soul Brother and Other
Poems. London: Heinemann, 1972. Rpt. as Christmas
in Biafra and Other Poems. New York:
Anchor-Doubleday, 1973. During the civil
war in Nigeria, Chinua Achebe found poetry a means of expressing
his distress, though few of the poems speak only indirectly of
the war. See essay on The Biafran War, by Minna Song.
"Butterfly." In Another Africa.
Photographs by Robert Lyons, Essay and Poems by Chinua Achebe. New York:
Anchor-Doubleday, 1998. 64-65.
"Chi in Igbo Cosmology." In Achebe,
Morning
Yet on Creation Day 93-103.
"Colonialist Criticism." In Achebe, Morning
Yet on Creation Day. Rpt. in Achebe, Hopes
and Impediments: Selected Essays, 68-90.
The Drum. 1977.
Nairobi, Kenya: Heinemann, 1988.
The Flute. 1977.
Nairobi, Kenya: Heinemann, 1990.
"Flying." In Another Africa.
Photographs by Robert Lyons, Essay and Poems by Chinua Achebe. New York:
Anchor-Doubleday, 1998. 88-89.
Foreward. African Prose I: Traditional Oral Texts.
Ed. W. H. Whiteley. London: Clarendon, 1964. vii-xi.
Girls at War and Other Stories. London:
Heinemann, 1972.
Home and Exile. W.E.B. Du Bois Institute
Series. New York: Oxford, 2000. [Based on three lectures Achebe gave at
Harvard Univ. in 1998.]
Hopes
and Impediments:
Selected Essays. 1988. New
York : Anchor-Doubleday, 1990. [COCC Library: PR9387.9.A3 H6
1990]
"An Image of Africa." Massachusetts
Review 18 (1977): 782-794.
"An
Image of Africa:
Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness." In Achebe, Hopes
and Impediments: Selected Essays, 1-20. Rpt. Heart of Darkness: An
Authoritative Text, Backgrounds and Sources, Essays in Criticism.
3rd ed. Ed. Robert Kimbrough. New York: W. W. Norton, 1988.
251-262.
"Knowing Robs Us." In Another Africa.
Photographs by Robert Lyons, Essay and Poems by Chinua Achebe. New York:
Anchor-Doubleday, 1998. 22-23.
"Language and the Destiny of Man." In Achebe, Morning
Yet on Creation Day 30-37.
A Man of the People.
London: Heinemann, 1966.
Morning Yet on Creation Day: Essays. London: Heinemann,
1975. [Currently out of print, but five of its important essays are
reprinted in Hopes and Impediments:
“The Novelist as Teacher” (1965), “Language and
the Destiny of Man” (1972) “Named for Victoria, Queen of England” (1973),
“Thoughts on the African Novel” (1973), and “Colonialist Criticism”
(1974).
]
"A Mother in a Refuge Camp." In Another Africa.
Photographs by Robert Lyons, Essay and Poems by Chinua Achebe. New York:
Anchor-Doubleday, 1998. 12-13.
"Named for Victoria, Queen of England." New Letters
40.1 (1973): 15-22. Rpt. in Achebe, Morning
Yet on Creation Day 65-70; and in Achebe, Hopes and Impediments
20-26.
"The Nigeria Chief and the Census." In Another
Africa. Photographs by Robert Lyons, Essay and Poems by Chinua
Achebe. New York: Anchor-Doubleday, 1998. 76-77.
No Longer at Ease.
1960. London & Portsmouth, N.H. : Heinemann Educational,
1987. [COCC Library: PR6051.C5 N6 1987]
"The Novelist as Teacher." New
Statesman 29 Jan. 1965: 161-162. Rpt. in Achebe, Morning
Yet on Creation Day 42-45; and in Achebe, Hopes and Impediments
27-31.
"The Role of the Writer in a New
Nation." African Writers on African Writing.
Ed. G. D. Killam. Evanston: Northwestern Univ. Press, 1973.
The Sacrificial Egg and Other Short
Stories. Onitsha: Etudo Ltd., 1962.
"The Song of Ourselves." New Statesman
& Society, 9 Feb 1990: 30(3pp). Infotrac 2000 Expanded Academic ASAP Article A8549267
"Teaching Things Fall Apart." In Approaches
to Teaching Achebe's Things Fall Apart. Ed. Bernth Lindfors. Approaches
to Teaching World Literature Series: 37. New York: Modern
Language Association, 1991. 20-24.
Things Fall Apart. London: Heinemann,
1958. New York: Astor-Honor, 1959. New York : Fawcett Crest-Ballantine, 1959. [COCC
Library: PR6051.C5 T5 1959] African Writers Series.
London: Heinemann Educational, 1962. London & Portsmouth, N.H. : Heinemann, 1986. [COCC
Library: PR6051.C5 T5 1986]
Expanded edition with notes. London: Heinemann, 1996. [Edition
used in Hum 211] See also Things
Fall Apart Study Guide.
"Thoughts on the African Novel." In
Achebe, Morning Yet on Creation
Day 49-54.
The Trouble with Nigeria.
Enugu: Fourth Dimension, 1983; London: Heinemann, 1985. "The trouble
with Nigeria is simply and squarely a failure of
leadership," Achebe concludes.
"Viewpoint." Times Literary
Supplement 1 Feb. 1980: 113. Rpt. as "Impediments to Dialogue
between North and South" in Achebe, Hopes and Impediments
14-19.
"A Wake for Okigbo." In Another Africa.
Photographs by Robert Lyons, Essay and Poems by Chinua Achebe. New York:
Anchor-Doubleday, 1998. 48-49.
"The Writer and His Community." In
Achebe, Hopes and Impediments
32-41.
Top
Interviews with Chinua Achebe
Achebe, Chinua. "Africa Is People." Massachusetts
Review 40.3 (Autumn 1999): 309 (12pp). EBSCOHost
Academic Search Elite: Article No. 2469051.
Abstract: "Presents
the text of the speech delivered by African novelist Chinua Achebe
at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris, France in
1989 which deals with the African economy."
Bacon, Katie. "An African Voice" [Interview
with Chinua Achebe.] Interviews: Atlantic Unbound 2 Aug.
2000. The Atlantic Online, 2000. http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/interviews/ba2000-08-02.htm
(accessed 8 Mar 2001).
Baker, Rob, and Ellen Draper. "'If one thing
stands, another will stand beside it': An Interview with Chinua
Achebe." [The Oral Tradition issue.] Parabola
17.3(Fall 1992): 19(9pp). Infotrac 2000 Expanded Academic ASAP Article A12603141
Abstract: "Nigerian
novelist Chinua Achebe discusses the importance of storytelling
and the oral tradition in the education of children. Achebe tells
a story of Tortoise, the trickster in Igbo tradition, and
describes aspects of the traditional Igbo world view. Gender
roles among the Igbo and the role of the griots, professional
storytellers, are also discussed."
Brooks, Jerome. "The Art of Fiction." [Interview
with Chinua Achebe.] The Paris Review
35.133(Winter 1994): 142(25pp). Infotrac 2000 Expanded Academic ASAP Article
A16837922
Abstract: "Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe explains in an interview
that his interest in stories about life and adventure on other
lands prompted him to choose a career in writing. He claims that
his realization of the need to record both the good and bad
aspects of life encouraged him to become a writer. His broad
range of interests include varied fields of knowledge such as
english, science, history and religion. He believes in the
coexistence of art and humanity, and criticizes ethnic practices
that do not conform to moral and social norms."
Also try online: "The Art of
Fiction": Interview with Chinua Achebe (Jerome
Brooks) The Paris Review, Issue
133 (1994) : http://www.parisreview.com/pages/issues/133.html
- Conference: "Home and Exile: Achebe at 70" in Celebration of
Chinua Achebe's 70th Birthday, 3-4 Nov. 2000, Bard College: incl.
author's works, awards, prizes, lectures, honorary doctorates; speakers:
Nuruddin Farah, Nadine Gordimer, Ali Mazrui, Toni Morrison, Ngugi wa
Thiong'o, and Wole Soyinka. http://www.bard.edu/news_events/archive/achebe/
..."Let Us Now Praise Famous Men: A Tribute to V.C.
Ike at 70," by Chinua Achebe, 4 May 2001 Bard
College, New York (Rpt. USAfricaOnline, Houston, TX): http://www.usafricaonline.com/achebeonike.html
..."Literary Giant Chinua Achebe Returns 'Home' from U.S., to Love and
Adulation of Community," by Chido Nwangwu on Achebe's return to
Ogidi, Anambra State, Nigeria. (Rpt. USAfricaOnline, Houston, TX): http://www.usafricaonline.com/chidoachebe.html
Coeyman, Marjorie. "Going Home Was a Sad Awakening."
Christian Science Monitor 6 Jan. 2000: 17. Full text available
from EBSCOHost Academic Search Elite, Article No. 2649262.
Abstract: "Focuses on the author Chinua Achebe and his relationship
to his homeland of Nigeria following a visit to the country during the summer of
2000."
Ezenwo-Ohaeto. Chinua Achebe: A Biography. Indiana
Univ. Press, 1997.
The first comprehensive account of this major writer's life to
date, placing Achebe's life and work in the context of African
history. Ezenwa-Ohaeto, a poet and writer and former student of
Achebe, spent 15 years researching and writing this comprehensive
summary of Achebe's life: See Africa News Online's "Chinua Achebe's Biography Published" (28 Nov. 1997):
http://www.africanews.org/west/nigeria/stories/19971128_feat1.html
- Feldman, Gayle. "Chinua Achebe: Views of Home from
Afar." [Interview.] Publishers Weekly 3
July 2000. Rpt. PublishersWeekly.com
http://www.publishersweekly.com/articles/20000703_87787.asp
"Africa now... Yes, there's disappointment, pain, sorrow. But I say to
myself, when was it in the last 500 years that Africa has not been in great
pain and sorrow and disappointment? The answer is, very rarely.
"There's an Igbo proverb that says of a particular kind of rodent we
have--the grass cutter, which when chewing through the grass makes a lot of
noise--even if there's only one of them left, you'll hear this sound. That's a
rather grim kind of hope, but the alternative is to give up and kill yourself.
I don't like that option.
"You celebrate whatever achievement you can. Somebody asked me
recently how I could talk about African literature as a celebration in view of
Africa's problems. I said that I'm simply basing my attitude on something very
old in my culture. We had celebrations where there were carvings of the white
district officer, of the earth goddess, of the gods of thunder and of
smallpox. If you don't bring terrifying characters into your celebration,
they'll be out there plotting something else. You bring them in and keep an
eye on them."
--Chinua Achebe, qtd. "Chinua
Achebe: Views of Home from Afar"
Jeyifo, Biodun. "The Author's Art." [Interview
with Chinua Achebe] World Press Review Jan
1985: 58(2pp). Infotrac 2000 Expanded Academic
ASAP Article A3583118.
Lindfors, Bernth, ed. Conversations
With Chinua Achebe. Literary Conversations
Series. Jackson: Univ. Press of Mississippi, 1997.
Morell, Karen L., ed. In
Person: Achebe, Awoonor, Soyinka. Seattle:
University of Washington African Studies Program, 1975.
Moyers, Bill. "Chinua
Achebe." Bill Moyers: A World of Ideas.
Ed. Betty Sue Flowers. New York: Doubleday, 1989. 333-44.
Chinua Achebe [videorecording].
Bill Moyers: A World of Ideas. Prod. & dir. Gail
Pellett ; Public Affairs Television, Inc. Princeton, NJ : Films for the
Humanities [distributor], 1994. [COCC Humanities Dept. holding &
ORBIS PR9387.9.A3 Z513 1994] Abstract: Originally broadcast on
PBS, September, 1988, as a segment of A World of Ideas.
"Bill Moyers interviews Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe
who discusses the West's often inaccurate portrayal of Africa and how it is
the African storyteller's obligation to be the collective memory of the
African people."
"The Next Nigeria." New Republic 22 March 1999:
9. Full text available from EBSCOHost Academic Search Elite,
Article No. 1610344. Abstract: "Examines the significance of
the election of Nigerian President Matthew Olusegun Obasanjo in March, 1999.
Obasanjo's plans in 1979 for Nigeria to be one of the leading nations of the
world; Response from Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe
to Obasanjo's plans; Nigeria's poor conditions; Role of Nigeria in African
stability and economic progress; Need for Nigeria to build democratic
institutions and combat corruption; Role of the United States."
Ogbaa, Kalu. "An Interview with
Chinua Achebe." Research in African
Literatures 12.1 (1981).
Onishi, Norimitsu. "Nigerian Writer Returns
after 9-Year Absence." New York Times 25 August 1999:
A5. EBSCOHost Academic Search Elite, Article No. 2236511.
Abstract: "Reports on the return of Chinua Achebe, author of the
novel `Things Fall Apart,' to Nigeria in 1999 after a nine-year exile. Reason
for leaving Nigeria; Implications of his arrival; Background on his novel."
Rowell,
Charles H. "An Interview with Chinua Achebe." Callaloo
13.1 (1990). Achebe discusses the African storyteller as
griot in this interview: "the role of the writer, the modern
writer, is closer to that of the griot, the historian and poet,
than any other practitioner of the arts" (18).
Samway, Patrick H. "An Interview with Chinua
Achebe." America, 22 June 1991:
684(3pp). Infotrac 2000 Expanded Academic ASAP
Article A10991109
Serumaga, Robert.
"Interview [with Chinua Achebe]." African
Writers Talking: A Collection of Interviews.
Eds. Dennis Duerden and Cosmo Pieterse. London: Heinemann, 1972.
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