ARROW OF GOD. By Chinua Achebe

Literature can often puzzle and startle one, including African
literature - the way we receive and criticise books. A good example is
Ghana's world class writer, Ayi Kwei Armah; the literary world keeps
on praising him and his first novel, The beautyful ones are not yet
born. Yet Armah was a young man, still developing, when the book came
out, and critics did not seem to care about his subsequent, better
works over the decades. This seems to be the case too with Achebe,
whose first novel, Things fall apart, is always talked about and
praised. Yet this one, Arrow of God, published many years after Things
fall apart, is in many ways better and more mature than Things fall
apart. Arrow of God is more mature and dense...here Achebe is at his
best, displaying great knowledge of indigenous black characters, and
also the white (imperial agents) characters too. There is a startling
objectivity and detachment that one would not expect from a African
(black) writer. Yet Achebe, like he did in Things fall apart,
brilliantly goes to the heart of Igbo customs and proverbs throughout
this work. The narrative is ultimately tragic of course - as one might
expect.

- H Ozogula

THE PRIMACY OF THE MOTHER TONGUE

Mother tongue is the language that every child learn to speak firstly when she/he start to speak besides the household of the Africans that their houses English is their first language and in that case the child will start speak the basics of it like Daddy or Mommy. 

True or not any African person who speaks their mother tongue hundred percent daily or more, they dream in their respective language and see every object in their language before they translate it English. “Former South African President, Nelson Mandela said; If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart”.

South African writer, poet and author Tiisetso Thiba took a giant step to write in his mother tongue which is Setswana on his second book titled “Tlhabane Ya Makgowa” and his first book was poetry anthology titled “Let’s Take A Walk Mama”. It is a Setswana novel book that talks about the true story that is happening in various towns and cities but he chosen Rustenburg to be specific.

Indeed, the suave Thiba has found the need to preserve and promote his language because no one will if he doesn’t, besides few they are writing in Setswana too and according to the writers nowadays, their works are mostly written in English and their reasons is to broaden their markets and which will automatically increase the sales as well. But Thiba chosen the path that many are doubtful to choose in terms of their writing careers. 

On 30^th April 2017 Tiisetso Thiba took his book to a location of Mothibistad in Kuruman to launch there. Honestly one can say he took a risk because no one recently launched his/her book written in their mother tongue and if someone did he/she needs applaud. He was not sure of how people will respond to the launch, yet it was a roaring success.

Astonishingly the launch was attended by lots of people and they have expressed themselves by saying “they are not used to this kind of the event in their locations but it was really informative one and hope that many writers will emerge after this book launch”. 

Thiba is intending to launch his latest Setswana novel in various places and encourage writers to write in their languages and readers to read more. This beautiful book was launched by Charmza Literary Club in Bloemfontein.