CHINUA ACHEBE AT 80!

Chinua Achebe at 80

By Joseph Lefuo

There can be no doubt about it: the celebrations will cascade on, the drums will roll, as Africa celebrates the 80th birthday of Chinua Achebe, who many consider as the greatest novelist black Africa has ever produced. Achebe, who will be 80 later this year, wrote Africa’s all time most famous novel, Things fall apart (1958)

It is a novel that has delighted and moved the world for decades. But the author (Chinua Achebe) published other excellent novels – like No longer at Ease, (1960), Arrow of God, (1964) A man of the people (1966), and Anthills of the Savannah (1987). Of course there was a 20 year gap between A man of the People, and Anthills of the Savannah, which has been attributed to Achebe being “traumatised” by the Nigerian civil war (in the late sixties).

Achebe is an Ibo (or Igbo) from the eastern part of Nigeria. The Ibos were mainly the disenchanted people of eastern Nigeria who tried to form their own country or republic: “Biafra” precipitating the Nigerian civil war which ended in 1970. From his writings it is clear enough that Achebe was very much a Nigerian in spirit before the war (this is not to suggest that he is no less a Nigerian thereafter, as can be ascertained from his honest, earnest book of essays The Trouble with Nigeria)

In his novel, No longer at ease, for example, young well educated Obi regards himself as both an Ibo man, and a Nigerian. There is nothing wrong in being proud of one’s tribal origins or Mother tongue (Ghana’s Kofi Awoonor has demonstrated this in his works too). In Achebe’s A man of the people, national (Nigerian) politics loom large too, whilst still paying tribute to ethnic origins. Like Wole Soyinka (a Yoruba and a proud Nigerian too) Achebe’s works often assume a national and international dimension.

Things fall apart has been acclaimed as a classic as the author (Achebe) re-creates a pre-colonial, proud society with elaborate, intriguing customs complemented by a fluent, expressive language. If we contrast this work with Camara Laye’s superb work The African Child, the dispassionate approach by Achebe to his own first novel puts him in a special class. When an author tries to be “neutral” a work is often more powerful, and many critics, eg, hated the tone of Ayi Kwei Armah for example in Two thousand Seasons. Achebe’s work shows a highly intelligent, dispassionate author at work.

Achebe’s language in his fictional work shows that he is very much at ease with his mother tongue. Whilst writing in English he goes out of his way to convey the particular authentic atmosphere of the (often) people at grassroots level he is writing about; even as regards “Pidgin English” he gets the inflections and jokes right. Hence, his global acclamation as a great writer

There is the tendency to harp on Things fall apart as the author’s greatest work, and it must be said that many of such observers have probably not read all of Achebe’s works of fiction. It is a matter of taste, but I personally believe that novels like Arrow of God and No longer at ease (both also written by Achebe) are perhaps better than the original classic (Things fall apart) Certainly Achebe’s re-creation of the past and the sweep (even co-incidence?) of pivotal events in the society is more powerful in Arrow of God. Many critics frowned at A Man of the people, but it’s a brilliant work too, castigating political corruption, and also a satire – before Armah’s The beautyful Ones are not yet born.

But all this show how great a writer Chinua Achebe is. His books are read all over the world. Like in his works, Achebe in real life condemns negative things, including bad leadership, but at the same time he has a gentle, sagacious sense of humour. No praise can be too much for this wonderful son of Africa! We wish him all the best as he clocks 80…