CHINUA ACHEBE (1930 - 2013)

Ishmael Mzwandile Soqaga's tribute to the peerless Achebe

Sincerely, sorrow and poignant lamentations has visited Africa, men and women, young and great are urged to observe a moment of silence. Africa is mourning because of the falling of its pioneering literary ‘god’. Chinua Achebe, the great Nigerian writer is no more. Africa and the world, is appalled by the sudden death of literary icon.


Throughout his life, his extraordinary literary work has reached a great degree of world recognition. Utterly brilliant was one of the remarkable writers of Africa who wrote immensely to entertain, educate and propagate literature firstly in Africa and the world.

Essentially, the great Achebe wrote the most thrilling books and for the fact that he began to write many decades ago his books are constantly read and enjoyed by many people. He was an influential writer when
the west controlled Africa, and he wrote during that time when it was so difficult to be recognized by white colonizers.

Significantly, like his peers and those who were before him, fundamentally he embarked on the most dramatic activity of writing. In 1958 he remarkably wrote his first classic novel, Things Fall Apart and the entry was successfully followed by other world class books; eg Arrow of God, A man of the people, Anthills of the savannah etc.

Achebe has proudly defined himself as a cultural nationalist with the revolutionary mission “to help his society regain belief in itself and put away the complexes of the years of denigration and self-abasement.”
However, he never stopped criticizing postcolonial African leaders who have largely pillaged economies.

The great lesson which we should learn from Achebe is that no matter how complicated the situation may be, one must take pride in himself, and believe in himself. Achebe is a symbol of African pride, and piously he instilled hope and courage for Africa. He wrote when books were not so popular in Africa and when the white man could hardly imagine Blacks producing imaginative works! However apparently nothing so much has changed in postcolonial African schools and libraries. One can hardly hear about African writers being part of English syllabus in schools, and most African libraries are also poorly organised.

While the world mourns and laments the sudden loss of the great Achebe, our African leaders, leaders of society must take into honest cognisance the serious and wonderful work Chinua Achebe churned out in his lifetime. We must constantly remember him and encourage what he invariably considered substantial.

To be honest, even as a young black South African, I am deeply proud of the colossal, mammoth, phenomenal and imperative literary contributions of the great Achebe!

• Mr Soqaga, an author, essayist and Pan-Africanist, lives in Bloemfontein city, South Africa.




THE LITERARY WORKS OF ACHEBE


Novels

Things Fall Apart (1958) No longer at ease (1960) Arrow of God (1964)
A Man of the People (1966) Anthills of the Savannah (1987)

Short Stories

The Sacrificial Egg and Other Stories (1953) Girls at War and Other
Stories (1973) African Short Stories (editor, with C.L. Innes) (1985)
Heinemann Book of Contemporary African Short Stories (editor, with
C.L. Innes) (1992) The Voter

Poetry

Beware, Soul-Brother, and Other Poems (1971) (published in the US as
Christmas at Biafra, and Other Poems, 1973) Don’t let him die: An
anthology of memorial poems for Christopher Okigbo (editor, with Dubem
Okafor) (1978) Another Africa (1998) Collected Poems (2005) Refugee
Mother And Child

Essays, Criticism and Political Commentary

The Novelist as Teacher (1965) An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s
“Heart of Darkness” (1975) Morning Yet on Creation Day (1975) The
Trouble With Nigeria (1984) Hopes and Impediments (1988) Home and
Exile (2000) Education of a British protected Child (2009)

Children’s Books

Chike and the River (1966) How the Leopard Got His Claws (with John
Iroaganachi) (1972) The Flute (1975) The Drum (1978)

Celebrating African literary critics

By Christine Mautjana

Becoming a writer or rather a published writer seems fraught with fears and difficulty especially for us women. Most of the time we seem to want and change and chop a lot, revise and revise till we more or less get sick of what we are trying to put together! We are mainly afraid of how the public will react to what we have written; especially the critics.

This attitude could be seen – though politely and mildly done – in part of Jah Rose’s intelligent response in the book of interviews I edited, Interviews with effervescent writers (2012). Here Nthabiseng Jah Rose Jafta confesses that she used to wonder whether critics were there just to sort of pull works down. Interestingly, Teboho Letshaba refers to critics “slashing” works in his own interview

To a large extent critics make or break works; but it is also true that if a work (book) is quite good most critics or reviewers will have positive things to say about it. I saw the study book put together by Siphokazi celebrating South African female writer Sindiwe Magona’s literary work, and most parts of the different essays were positive.

I am sure writers do not want to publish books nobody notices or talks about, at a serious level. On my own part, I would have been very very disappointed indeed if critics had ignored “my” book, Interviews with effervescent writers. I am reasonably happy that most of the “critics” were kind (hopefully not patronising) though of course there is always scope for improvement.

We learn a lot along the line and the great thing is to be guided by those who know their onions in this business. I think I have benefitted so much from reading reviews written by Pule Lechesa in particular, the essays (not really the fiction) of Bolaji, and other pieces put together by the likes of Qoopane, Raphael Mokoena, Deon-Simphiwe Skade and Mathene Mahanke. It is extraordinary how much we can read from these gentlemen from the internet.

I think we must commend, salute such literary wordsmiths (critics). How else can we learn about African literature if not for the efforts of these people? In their essays they often refer to other literary works, many allusions to African writers and their books; and to those overseas. I myself used to think African literature was undeveloped, compared to others – but thanks to “critics” I now realize there are many dozens of distinguished African writers and hundreds of books published over the decades!

In his study on ntate Bolaji, Ishmael Mzwandile Soqaga postulates: whoever would think that Wole Soyinka can be criticised? (Soyinka is the first black man to be awarded the Nobel award for Literature) If he can be criticized – and sometimes very powerfully too – why should any budding writer think they should not be criticized?

Hence as 2013 moves on, we must thank those African literary personnel who continue to put us on the map, over the decades, including some creative writers who are fine critics too. From the likes of Eustace Palmer, Es’kia Mphahlele, Lewis Nkosi, to the younger ones like Simphiwe Skade, Lechesa and Mokoena. Long may it continue!

• Mautjana is editor of the book, Interviews with Effervescent Writers