Why Chinua Achebe, the Eagle on the Iroko, is Africa's writer of the century
http://www.USAfricaonline.com
Africa's most acclaimed and fluent writer of the English Language, the most translated writer of Black heritage in the world, broadcaster extraordinaire, social conscience of millions, cultural
custodian and elevator, chronicler and essayist, goodwill ambassador and man of
progressive rock-ribbed principles, the
Eagle on the Iroko, Ugo n'abo Professor Chinua Achebe, has recently been selected by a distinguished jury of scholars and critics (from 13 countries of African life and literature) as the writer of the Best book (Things Fall Apart, 1958) written in the twentieth century regarding Africa.
Reasonably, Achebe's message has been neither dimmed nor dulled by time and clime. He's our pathfinder, the intellectual godfather of millions of Africans and lovers of the fine art of good writing. Achebe's cultural contexts are, at once, pan-African, globalist and local; hence, his literary contextualizations soar beyond the confines of Umuofia and any Igbo or Nigerian setting of his creative imagination or historical recall. His globalist underpinnings and outlook are truly reflective of the true essence of his Igbo world-view, his Igbo upbringing and disposition. Igbos and Jews share (with a few other other cultures) this pan-global disposition to issues of art, life, commerce, juridical pursuits, and quest to be republicanist in terms of the vitality of the individual/self. In Achebe's works, the centrality of Chi (God) attains an additional clarity in the Igbo cosmology... it is a world which prefers a quasi-capitalistic business attitude while taking due cognizance of the usefulness of the whole, the community. I've studied, lived and tried to better understand, essentially, the rigor and towering moral certainties which Achebe have employed in most of his works and his world. I know, among other reasons, because I share the same ancestry with him. Permit me to attempt a brief sentence, with
that Achebean simplicty and clarity. Here, folks, what the world has known since 1958: Achebe is good! Eagle on the Iroko, may your Lineage endure! There has never been one like you!
Ugo n'abo, chukwu gozie gi oo!
THE scholarly jury which chose Achebe's Things Fall Apart as the Best Book of the century and the Best of African Books project itself emerged from the Zimbabwe International Book Fair in 1998. They made their selection of Africa's 100 best books at a recent meeting in Accra, Ghana and their decision was announced at the Golden Tulip Hotel Accra on Tuesday February 18, 2002.
According to the team and statement on the book fair web site, they considered at least "five hundred nominations, from the original one thousand five hundred and twenty-one nominations proposed from many sources all round the world. Prior to the meeting in Accra, members of the Jury had already reduced this list, via electronic discussion, to a more manageable number. An initial meeting to set the guidelines for the process of selection was held in Harare Zimbabwe in August 2001."
The group credits distinguished professor of African history and cultures, Ali Mazrui, with pushing the idea of a list of Africa's 100 best books of the twentieth century during the Zimbabwe International Book Fair in 1998. "His vision was to find a way todirect the spotlight of the world on the achievements of African writers whohave had their works published in the twentieth
century."
The organizers note that "the books considered werein three categories: children's writing, non-fiction/scholarship andcreative writing, which further divides into short stories, novels, poetryand drama. Books were considered in Afrikaans, Arabic, English, French,Gikuyu, Portuguese,
Sesotho, Shona, Swahili, IsiXhosa, Yoruba and IsiZulu." In summarizing their effort and goal, the jurors and the book fair state "Webelieve it is time to celebrate a century of superb achievement in Africancreative writing, scholarship and children's literature. We believe thatthis list will
provoke debate and lead to republication, translations andcurriculum inclusion. We can look forward to the next 100 years of an Africabrimming with creative energy across the entire continent."
The top twelve best books selected by the jurors are listed below, with a brief on its content and value by the scholars:
Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart, 1958
This book has moved from its setting in a small Igbo village into universal prominence as Africa's most widely read novel. Its portrayal of the impactof British colonization on the life of a settled African community makes ita classic on the clash of cultures.
Meshack Asare, Sosu's Call, 1999
This book received the 1st UNESCO Prize for Children's Literature in theService of Tolerance in 2000. It is a wonderful story about a physically disabled girl left in village because she is ìgood for nothingî. She however manages to alert the surrounding villages of coming floods through themiraculous use of talking drums and this way saves them all. The book is beautifully illustrated by the author.
Mariama Ba, Une si longue letter (So Long a Letter), 1979.
A spellbinding book which paved the way for contemporary women's voicesbeing heard through francophone literature. The central character in Ba'snovel narrates her life through a letter to her friend, and manages tosuccinctly capture the everyday frustrations that many women undergo,especially after the death of their spouses.
Mia Couto, Terra Sonambula 1992
In this novel, Couto has managed to blend, in a very unique way, Africanoral tradition and the Portuguese literary language. The way the plotunfolds (a boy and an old man read together a diary they found on a ravagedbus) takes the reader to an unexpected end, as the boy himself was part of the story and, thus, boundaries between reality and fiction become blurred.More than a novel about the recent civil war in Mozambique, this is a bookin which broken and fragmented identities are exposed.
Tsitsi Dangarembga, Nervous Conditions, 1988
An excellent portrayal, exposition and interpretation of an African societywhose younger generation of women struggle with varying degrees of successand almost fatal failure, to wrest it from the unrelenting complexity ofpatriarchal domination and colonialism. Unique in African writing for portraying anorexia, an eating disorder that affects one of the central characters.
Cheik Anta Diop, (The African Origins of Civilization: Myth or Reality)
An outstanding multi-disciplinary work leading the thesis that the foundersof Pharaonic Egypt and, in particular, the 1st Kingdom, were black Africans.His is a theory that has stood the test of 50 years of internationalscholarship in the area.
Assia Djebar, La'Amour, La fantasia, 1985
Djebar is an outstanding contemporary writer from Algeria. She is also a film-maker. L'Amour, la fantasia is a literary work of mixed genres,historical and autobiographical narratives, and interlaced with memories ofyouth and childhood. It speaks of the conquest of Algeria and the war of Independence from a woman's perspective and in such a way as to produce areal feminist literary masterpiece.
Naguib Mahfouz, The Cairo Trilogy, 1945
The Cairo Trilogy is a panoramic three-part work written to explain thesensitivity and mentality of the people who lived in Cairo from the 1900s tothe 1940s. It gives a rich description of their daily lives whileportraying this as part of a wider historical process. Mahfouz won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1990.
Thomas Mofolo, Chaka, 1925
This truly continental masterpiece explores the theme of power and itseffect on those who have too much of it. The sweep of Zulu history and thecentral figure of that history, Chaka Zulu, is very impressive. In thehands of Mofolo the Sesotho language reveals its natural poetic beauty.Published in 1925, this novel from Lesotho has inspired generations ofAfrican writers across the continent. Its abiding quality is it evocativebeauty and its insight into the relationship between character and history.
Wole Soyinka, Ake: The Years of Childhood, 1981
The evocation of the wonder of a child's discovery of the world and hisplace in it is a classic autobiography of childhood. It is a remarkable insight into the growth of a writer's imagination as well as an enchantingportrait of natural and human environment of a great writer's beginnings.
Ngugi wa Thiongo, A Grain of Wheat 1967
This is one of four novels written in English by Ngugi wa Thiongo whichdepict some of the dilemmas that face an emergent nation. In this novel,Ngugi moves away from the Christian literalism of his first books whileretaining respect for the moral values which religions instill. His rich characterization, complex narrative and deep humanity weave together to formone of the most ambitious and fully achieved African novels ñ one which iswidely studied and admired in Africa and beyond.
Leopold Sedar Senghor, Oeuvre Poetique 1961
Leopold Sedar Senghor, who died only recently at the age of 97, was one ofthe founding fathers of modern Africa. His political achievements as the first President of Senegal should not be allowed to obscure his poetic genius. Oeuvre Poetique is, without doubt, one of the expressions of African cultural identity. In poems which have been translated into many languagesand which appear in anthologies throughout the world, Senghor explores themythic origins of the African persona. His negritude philosophy influenced every subsequent African author, especially those of the 1950s and 1960s whofollowed in the wake of his first poems in this mode. In French of magisterial resonance, Senghor revealed the soul of Africa to Africa itself,to French literature and to the world.
The scholars offered and listed for for Special Commendation the UNESCO General History of Africa vol. I VIII.This work received a special commendation from the Jury both for the wealth of new information it marshals as well as the new interpretations it bringsto bear on African History. Published over nearly two decades from 1981 to2000, it has established itself as an indispensable source on all periods of African history.It was not included in the list of Africa's 100 best books only because it falls outside the Jury's terms of reference in that it is edited, and includes chapters by Non-Africans. The Jury noted however that the International Advisory Committee for the UNESCO General History of Africawas two-thirds African in its composition and that the editors of each of the volumes were African.
The chairperson of the Jury is the disnguished Professor N.J. ABULO NDEBELE, a Noma Award winner and Vice Chancellor of the University of Cape Town. The book fair site notes that "his special interest areas are creative writing, cultural studies, critical theory, communication skills and expository prose. As an internationallyrespected author, he has published numerous, short stories and novels aswell as essays, articles and chapters in books. His books include Death of a Son, 1996; Sarah, Rings and I, 1993; The Prophetess, 1992; Bonolo and thePeach Tree, 1991; Rediscovery of the Ordinary, 1991; and 'Fools' and other Stories, 1983. His book "Fools" and other Stories was the joint winner of the SANLAM prize for outstanding fiction in 1986."
I met Douglas Killam, one of the leading and pioneer publishers of African literature and a friend of the Achebes during the latter's 70th birthday at the Bard College in New York, and requested him to
an exclusive commentary on Achebe's masterpiece novel written for
USAfricaonline.com and
USAfrica The Newspaper. He did, and it's titled 'Since 1958,
Achebe's Things Fall Apart set a standard of artistic
excellence,
and more.' Killam's contribution is a very insightful and valuable read for all and any serious student and writer on Achebe's works. Some of Achebe's other major books are
No Longer at
Ease (1960),
Arrow of God (1964--rev. 1974), and
Anthills of the Savannah (1987),
USAfricaonline.com has published a number of essays on Achebe. I'm equally privileged to speak with the distinguished Professor Achebe, a number of times a year, for some time now. As I've indicated on a number of platforms and interviews, he's one of my mentors.
I believe and propagate the informed view that Prof. Achebe has been a significant and binding source for an engaging understanding of African pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial history and realities. Hence, the fact this latest honor validates his nearly 5 decades of capturing the true essence and dynamism and cosmology of African life via his Igbo nation and relaities.
I believe that the Achebean ease and facility with the English language insight made him a favorite of African-Americans, and other scholars and regular folks in search of a better, realistic
understanding of Africa.
Also, see my reports/commentaries: Literary giant Chinua
Achebe
returns "home" from U.S., to love and adulation of community; and
Achebe turns 70; celebrates with Mandela, Morrison, world's leading arts scholars in New York
The point is Achebe's cultural contexts are at once globalist and local; hence, his literary contextualizations soar beyond the confines of Umuofia and any Igbo or Nigerian setting of his creative imagination or historical recall. His globalist underpinnings and outlook are truly reflective of the true essence of his Igbo world-view, his Igbo upbringing and disposition. Igbos and Jews share
(with a few other other cultures) this pan-global disposition to issues of art, life, commerce, juridical pursuits, and quest to be republicanist in terms of the vitality of the individual/self. In Achebe's works, the centrality of Chi (God) attains an additional clarity in the Igbo cosmology. Even, in
my letter to my son, Chido Nwangwu II, who turned One on February 12, 2002, those values and messages are embedded and made whole.
Also, Achebe captures the Igbo world taking due cognizance of the usefulness of the whole, the community. I've studied, lived and tried to better understand, essentially, the rigor and towering moral certainties which Achebe have employed in most of his works and his world. I know, among other reasons, because I share the same ancestry with him. And, reasonably, Achebe's message has been neither dimmed nor dulled by time and clime. He has been translated in more languages than any other writer in the developing world. He's our pathfinder, the intellectual godfather of millions of Africans and lovers of the fine art of good writing.
Any wonder, that our Eagle on the Iroko, Chinua Achebe, effortlessly utilizes his rich, moralistic and dynamic Igbo ancestry, on south eastern Nigeria, to speak to the world.
Permit me to attempt writing a brief sentence, if you may, with
that Achebean simplicty and clarity. Here, folks, what the world has known since 1958: Achebe is good!
Eagle on the Iroko, may your Lineage endure!
There has never been one like you!
Ugo n'abo, chukwu gozie gi oo!
Chido Nwangwu, recipient of the Journalism Excellence award (1997), is Founder and Publisher of USAfricaonline.com (first
African-owned U.S.-based professional newspaper to be published on the internet), USAfrica The Newspaper,
NigeriaCentral.com
and
The Black Business Journal. He also serves as an adviser to the Mayor of Houston on international business (Africa) and appears as an analyst on CNN, VOA, NPR, CBS News, NBC and ABC news affiliates.
Since 1958, Achebe's "Things Fall Apart" set a standard of artistic excellence, and more
By DOUGLAS KILLAM
Special and Exclusive to USAfricaonline.com
USAfrica The Newspaper, Houston
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We met in person at the first conference on Commonwealth Literature, organized by Professor An Jeffares at Leeds University in 1964. We met again in Lagos, later, the same year. We met again at the Canadian Association of Commonwealth Literature conference in Toronto in 1973.
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The celebration of Chinua Achebe's 70th birthday acknowledge, time and again, the central and seminal role that Achebe has had in restoring dignity to Africa through his writings. Second, it underlined the central role he has played since 1960 towards the fostering of literary criticism. Third, he has offered encouragement and challenged African societies to strive for the improvement of the human condition.
What was also asserted was the fact that while it is possible now to read hundreds of books by African writers, when Achebe published "Things Fall Apart" in 1958 he set a standard of artistic excellence which prompted other writers to test their ambitions. Nothing that had gone before, only a few texts, compared with the complete artefact that was and is "Things Fall Apart." Achebe's command of the medium of fiction was confirmed by the novels which followed. More than that, as James Currey insisted, was Achebe's central role in the development of modern African writing through his role as Advisory Editor for the Heinemann African Writers Series, surely one of the most amazing publishing phenomenon in publishing history.
The story of the development of the African Writers Series and Achebe's central role deserves to be told and then told again as a reminder of the way in which an important body of writing was brought to the attention of a world community in a remarkably short time.
On a personal note, I first met Chinua in "Things Fall Apart" in 1960 and confirmed the meeting in "No Longer at Ease" the following year. We met in person at the first conference on Commonwealth Literature, organized by Professor An Jeffares at Leeds University in 1964. We met again in Lagos later the same year. We met again at the Canadian Association of Commonwealth Literature conference in Toronto in 1973. We met, yet again, in Enugu in the days preceding the outbreak of the Nigeria-Biafra Civil War (which started in 1967), a meeting where tensions were riding high in the then Eastern Region (which constituted Biafra) but where Chinua's presence provided a kind of calm center. At each meeting, I felt a growing friendship which superceded mere meetings. This feeling was confirmed in 1985 when Chinua came to University of Guelph as Senior Commonwealth Practioner. His two month's stay was filled with invitations to visit many places, not all of which he was able to accept. He did have time to show his culinary capabilities one evening where the ground but stew and gris gris were unsurpassed.
Achebe's daughter, Chinelo, came to Guelph a year or two later to do graduate work. When Chinelo flew from Lagos Chinua phoned me in Guelph to say what her arrivals time was meant to be and said words to the effect that I was now the father. That was when I felt I had become a part of the Achebe family. This feeling too has since been confirmed. When Achebe came to Guelph to be first plenary speaker at the international FILLM conference his daughter gave a reception for him in our home. It happened that on that day an advance copy of his book "Anthills of the Savannah" arrived on my desk. The fifth novel was launched in the presence of some twenty Nigerian men and women who came from near and far to greet Chinua.
The friendship offered by all of the Achebe family was demonstrated at the November 2000 meetings at Bard College. And it is a great honor to feel oneself numbered among the legion of friends to whom the Achebes have offered their warm welcome.
Killam's commentary on Achebe also appears in USAfrica The Newspaper, The Black Business.