Albert Chinụalụmọgụ Achebe

(16 November 1930, Egidi, Nigeria –

2013)
The Founding Father of African Literature
Chinua Achebe (pronounced /’tʃɪnwɑ’ ə’tʃɛbeɪ/ has been rightly considered as one of
the Founding Fathers of African Literature, and, perhaps, one of its staunchest
promoters.
His writings include five novels, a collection of short stories, poetry as well as academic
criticism, which must be sen in close connection to his teaching career in a number of
prestigious universities.
Africa and Nigeria

Biography

Achebe's parents, Isaiah Okafo Achebe and Janet Anaenechi Iloegbunam, were converts
to the Protestant Church Mission Society (CMS) in Nigeria. The elder Achebe stopped
practicing the religion of his ancestors, but he respected its traditions. Chinua's
unabbreviated name, Chinualumogu ("May God fight on my behalf”), was a prayer for
divine protection and stability.
The Achebe family had five other surviving children, named in a similar fusion of
traditional words relating to their new religion: Frank Okwuofu, John Chukwuemeka
Ifeanyichukwu, Zinobia Uzoma, Augustine Nduka, and Grace Nwanneka.
Ndị Igbọ (Heebo, Eboans, Ebo(e) )
Achebe comes from one of the many ethnic groups in the largest country in the West
Africa – The Igbo or Ibo people living chiefly in southeastern Nigeria.
The Igbo people are one of the largest and most influential ethnic groups in Nigeria –
their current number is estimated between 25-30 million people, who live not only in
Africa, but in UK, USA, the Caribbean, and even in Japan!
Organized by clan, lineage, village affiliation, and dialect
In rural areas in Africa, the Igbo are mostly farmers. Their most important crop is
the yam; celebrations are held annually to celebrate its harvesting. Other staple crops
include cassava, and taro.
Before British conquest the Igbo were a politically fragmented group. There were
variations in culture such as in art styles, attire and religious practices. Various
subgroups were organized by clan, lineage, village affiliation, and dialect. There were
not many centralized chiefdoms, hereditary aristocracy, or kingship customs except in
kingdoms such as those of the Nri, Aqbor and Onitsha.
An Igbo man with facial scars (ichi)
Storytelling and formal education
Storytelling was a mainstay of the Igbo tradition and an integral part of the community.
Chinua's mother and sister Zinobia Uzoma told him many stories as a child, which he
repeatedly requested.
His education was furthered by the collages his father hung on the walls of their home,
as well as almanacs and numerous books – including a prose adaptation
of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (c. 1590) and an Igbo version of Bunyan’s
The Pilgrim Progress (1678).
One of the best students in missinary schools
Between 1936 and 1944 Achebe attended a number of religious schools, where te
language of instruction ws English, where his intelligence was soon recognized.
He was described as one of the students with the best handwriting in class, and the
best reading skills. Some incidents in Sunday schools from the period would be
recreated vividly in his fiction.
Secondary education
When the time came to change to secondary school, in 1944, Achebe sat entrance
examinations for and was accepted at both the prestigious Dennis Memorial Grammar
School in Onitsha and the even more prestigious Government College in Umuahia.
Government College in Umuahia
Modelled on the British public school, and funded by the colonial administration,
Government College had been established in 1929 to educate Nigeria's future elite. It
had rigorous academic standards and was vigorously elitist, accepting boys purely on
the basis of ability.
The language of the school was English, not only to develop proficiency but also to
provide a common tongue for pupils from different Nigerian language groups. Achebe
described this later as being ordered to "put away their different mother tongues and
communicate in the language of their colonisers". The rule was strictly enforced and
Achebe recalls that his first punishment was for asking another boy to pass the soap in
Igbo.
University years
Once able to read as many books as he could, Achebe developed a strong taste for
fiction written in English. It prepared him well for the newly founded University College
at Ibadan (nowadays Ibadan University), an extension of London University, despite the
fact that he had first read medicine, but, after the first year, Achebe changed to English,
history, and theology.
Famous authors from Ibadan University
From its inception, the Ibadan university had a strong English faculty; it had had many
famous writers amongst its alumni. These included Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka,
novelist Elechi Amadi, poet and playwright John Pepper Clark, and poet Christopher
Okigbo.
It was during his studies at Ibadan that Achebe began to become critical of European
literature about Africa.
Journalist for Nigeria Broadcasting Service
He was also painfully aware that the British colonial rule was coming to an end, and,
upon his graduation in 1953, he taught for a while, but, once he saw an opportunity to
work as a radio journalist in the country’s capital Lagos, in 1954.
He mastered the subtle nuances between written and spoken language, a skill that
helped him later to write realistic dialogue.
Things Fall Apart
It was in Lagos that he started to write his first novel. While on a study trip to London
1956, he offered his unifinished manuscript to a novelist named Gilbert Phelps, who
encourged him to continue with its writing.
Upon his return to Nigeria, Achebe heavily edited and revised the early version of the
book. In 1958, the book was issued by the London publisher Heinemann in 2,000
copies.

A flow of black African writers

Despite its mixed reception at first, it consequently sold in 8 million copies, having
initiated a flow of black African writers from all over the continent that Heinemann
published in the newly started African Writers Series.
These books, at first, mostly dealt with the immediate colonial history of their respective
countries, focusing primarily on the first contact between the white colonizers and the
local native black population.
Exploration of ‘colonial themes’
More importantly, they opened a rather fertile ground for exploration of ‘colonial themes’
as an act of self-assertion and liberation from the opressive colonial system, which had
often caused rifts and fissures withi the traditional texture of African societies when
confronted with the brutal and agressive forms of Colonialism under the thin disguise of
advancement, modernity and progress.

Colonial Africa and Nigeria

The British in West Africa

The British tried to prevent the French and Belgian colonial aspirations in this part of the
‘black continent’.
They took Nigeria in the second part of 19th century in their expansionist claims over
the vast territory of the West Africa, better known as the Gold Coast, which had been
for two centuries the major source of slaves and mineral ores.
Because of the size of the region and its ethnic diversity, the ‘Indirect Rule’ was thought
to be the best solution to handle the native population under the Imperial
administration.
Frederick John Dealtry Lugard, 1st Baron Lugard (1858 – 1945)
Under the British colonialism in the 19th century; Eze (kings) were introduced into most
local communities by Frederick Lugard, the brutal High Commissioner of the
Protectorate of Northern Nigeria (1899 – 1906), as "Warrant Chiefs"

Dramatic changes under colonial rule

Colonial rule drastically transformed Igbo society as depicted by Chinua Achebe in his
first book Things Fall Apart (1958).
The introduction of European ideology into Igbo society and culture caused dramatic
changes in living conditions, often combined with a number of individual and collective
traumas experienced in the process.
The old ways gradually disappeared
The tradition of building houses out of mud walls and thatched roofs died while houses
started being built with cement blocks and zinc roofs. Roads for vehicles were built.
Buildings such as hospitals and schools were erected in many parts of Igboland.
Along with this change came electricity and runnng water in the early 20th century.
Electricity brought new devices such as radios and televisions which are now common
place in most Igbo households.
Traditional and modern aspects of Igbo life
Unstable political situation
Like Achebe’s own parents, many Igbos had converted to Christianity during the British
rule, thus creating a rather dynamic and active part of the colonial society. By the mid-
20th century, the Igbo people (60-70% of the population in the southeast) developed a
strong sense of ethnic identity.
They opposed the dominantly Muslim Fulani and Hausa people in Northern Nigeria
(65%), as well as animistic Yorubas (75%) in the southwestern parts of the country,
when the independence of the country became imminent in 1960.

300 differing ethnic and cultural groups

As with many other African nations, Nigeria was an artificial structure initiated by the
British, who had largely neglected to consider religious, linguistic, and ethnic
differences.
Nigeria had in 1960 a population of 60 million people consisting of nearly 300 differing
ethnic and cultural groups.
British decolonisation of Africa
More unified Igbo political culture
The Igbo people took to Western education actively, and they overwhelmingly came to
adopt Christianity. Population pressure in the Igbo homeland combined with aspirations
for monetary wages drove thousands of Igbo to other parts of Nigeria in search of work.
By the 1960s Igbo political culture was more unified and the region relatively
prosperous, with tradesmen and literate elites active not just in the traditionally Igbo
South, but throughout Nigeria.
British colonial legacy divided the country
The British had divided the country in such a way that the North had slightly more
population than the other two regions combined.
On this basis, the Northern Region was allocated a majority of the seats in the Federal
Legislature established by the colonial authorities.
Within each of the three regions the dominant ethnic groups; the Hausa-Fulani, Yoruba,
and Igbo, respectively, formed political parties that were largely regional and based on
ethnic allegiances.
Massive massacres of the Igbos living in the North
Political unrest in the country resulted in the military coup and counter cop in 1966. It
was followed by massive massacres of the Igbos living in the North.
It was estimated that about 30,000 out of the 13 million people of Ibo/Igbo ethnic origin
lost their lives.
1.8 million refugees fled to the native provinces in the southeast.
Civil War

Led by the military governor of the Igbo-dominated southeast, Colonel Ojukwu, the
Igbos proclaimed independence as the Republic of Biafra on 30 May 1967. The federal
government responded with a massive military actions against the secessionists.
The Civil War raged the region between July 1967 and January 1970, when the Biafran
troops finally laid down their arms.
Human catastrophe
Aftermath and its consequences
The war cost the Igbos a great deal in terms of lives, money and infrastructure. It has
been estimated that up to three million people may have died due to the conflict, most
from hunger and disease. Reconstruction, helped by the oil money, was swift. However,
the old ethnic and religious tensions remained a constant feature of Nigerian politics.
While accusations were made of Nigerian government officials diverting resources meant
for reconstruction in the former Biafran areas to their ethnic areas. Military government
continued in power in Nigeria for many years, and people in the oil-producing areas
claimed they were being denied a fair share of oil revenues.

The independent state of the Republic of Biafra in June 1967- Campaigner for Biafran
cause

Achebe was deeply hurt by the violence that devastated his country, and, aricularly, his
Igbo fellow people. He fought actively as a renowned novelsit, journalist and public
figure for the Biafran cause even serving as its ambassador.
He campaigned all over the world against the terrible human disaster that befell on
Nigeria and biafra, but, once the Civil War ended in 1970, he returned to the country
and began to teach at the University of Nsukka.
Editor of several literary journals

Achebe and the Okike committee later established another cultural magazine, Uwa Ndi
Igbo, to showcase the indigenous stories and oral traditions of the Igbo community.
In February 1972 he released Girls at War, a collection of short stories ranging in time
from his undergraduate days to the recent bloodshed.
It was the 100th book in Heinemann's African Writers Series.
Attack against Conrad
In mid-1970s he moved with the family to Amherst, MA; USA, where he continued to
teach. He soon became one of the most prominent postcolonial theorists, especially
after his fierce atack on Joseph Conrad with his 1978 essay ’An Image of Africa: Racism
in Heart of Darkness.’

Anthills of the Savannah (1987)

After a brief return to Nsukka, he retired from active politics. He spent most of the
1980s delivering speeches, attending conferences, and working on his fifth novel. He
also continued winning awards and collecting honorary degrees.
Anthills of the Savannah was released in 1987, which was described in The Financial
Times:
"in a powerful fusion of myth, legend and modern styles, Achebe has written a book
which is wise, exciting and essential, a powerful antidote to the cynical commentators
from 'overseas' who see nothing ever new out of Africa “.
Professor at Bard College
After his son was attacked in Lagos in 1990, Achebe moved to USA, where he taught as
Charles P. Stevenson Professor of Languages and Literature at Bard College, New York
State, for the next 15 years.
He did not publish more novels or fiction for that matter, but remained highly active in
the world of letters with numerous lectures, essays and public appearances.
Amherst College, MA, and Bard College, NY

From 2009 until his death, he served as David and Marianna Fisher University Professor
and Professor of Africana Studies at Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, in the
USA.
Prizes and Awards
In June 2007, he was awarded Man Booker Prize. The panel of judges had stated that
he "illuminated the path for writers around the world seeking new words and forms for
new realities and societies"; and South African writer Nadine Gordimer, said Achebe has
achieved "what one of his characters brilliantly defines as the writer’s purpose: 'a new-
found utterance' for the capture of life’s complexity".
In 2010 Achebe was awarded The Dorothy and Lilian Gish Prize for $300,000, one of
the richest prizes for the arts.
His role as a writer
In his book of essays, Morning yet on Creation Day, Achebe explains his belief that "art
is, and always was, at the service of man. Our ancestors created their myths and
legends and told their stories for a human purpose."
Therefore, Achebe believes that all good stories should have a purpose and that is what
he has tried to emulate in his works.
The portrayal of indigenous life
Achebe's novels approach a variety of themes. In his early writing, a depiction of
the Igbo culture itself is paramount.

Critic Nahem Yousaf highlights the importance of these depictions: "Around the tragic
stories of Okonkwo and Ezeulu, Achebe sets about textualising Igbo cultural identity“.

The portrayal of indigenous life is not simply a matter of literary background, he adds:
"Achebe seeks to produce the effect of a precolonial reality as an Igbo-centric response
to a Eurocentrically constructed imperial 'reality'."
A prevalent theme in Achebe's novels
A prevalent theme in Achebe's novels is the intersection of African tradition (particularly
Igbo varieties) and modernity, especially as embodied by European Colonialism.
The village of Umuofia in Things Fall Apart, for example, is violently shaken with internal
divisions when the white Christian missionaries arrive.
Nigerian English professor Ernest N. Emenyonu describes the colonial experience in the
novel as "the systematic emasculation of the entire culture."
An African classic
In an essay written in 1972, Charles R. Larson says:

"Things Fall Apart has come to be regarded as more than simply a classic; it is now
seen as the archetypal African novel. The situation which the novel itself describes - the
coming of the white man and the initial disintegration of traditional African society as a
consequence of that--is typical of the breakdown all African societies have experienced
at one time or another as a result of their exposure to the West.
Novel set in the 1890s
Things Fall Apart is set in the 1890s and portrays the clash between Nigeria’s white
colonial government and the traditional culture of the indigenous Igbo people.
Achebe’s novel shatters the stereotypical European portraits of native Africans.
He is careful to portray the complex, advanced social institutions and artistic traditions
of Igbo culture prior to its contact with Europeans.
Yet he is just as careful not to stereotype the Europeans; he offers varying depictions of
the white man, such as the mostly benevolent Mr. Brown, the zealous Reverend Smith,
and the ruthlessly calculating District Commissioner.

Okonkwo
Achebe sketches a world in which violence, war, and suffering exist, but are balanced by
a strong sense of tradition, ritual, and social coherence.
His Igbo protagonist, Okonkwo, is a self-made man. The son of a charming never-do-
well, he has worked all his life to overcome his father's weakness and has arrived,
finally, at great prosperity and even greater reputation among his fellows in the village
of Umuofia.
Okonkwo is a champion wrestler, a prosperous farmer, husband to three wives and
father to several children. He is also a man who exhibits flaws well-known in Greek
tragedies.
Inner conflicts in Okonkwo
Okonkwo is a tragic hero in the classical sense: although he is a superior character, his
tragic flaw —the equation of manliness with rashness, anger, and violence —brings
about his own destruction.

Okonkwo is gruff, at times, and usually unable to express his feelings (the narrator
frequently uses the word “inwardly” in reference to Okonkwo’s emotions).
Complex emotions in Okonkwo
But his emotions are indeed quite complex, as his “manly” values conflict with his
“unmanly” ones, such as fondness for Ikemefuna and Ezinma.
The narrator privileges us with information that Okonkwo’s fellow clan members do not
have — that Okonkwo surreptitiously follows Ekwefi into the forest in pursuit of Ezinma,
for example — and thus allows us to see the tender, worried father beneath the
seemingly indifferent exterior.

Domineering patriarch
Okonkwo ruled his household with a heavy hand.
His wives, especially the youngest, lived in perpetual fear of his fiery temper, and so did
his little children.
Perhaps down in his heart Okonkwo was not a cruel man.

Life dominated by fear

But his whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and of weakness. It was
deeper and more intimate than the fear of evil and capricious gods and of magic, the
fear of the forest, and of the forces of nature, malevolent, red in tooth and claw.
Okonkwo's fear was greater than these. It was not external but lay deep within himself.
It was the fear of himself, lest he should be found to resemble his father.
A series of tragic events
And yet Achebe manages to make this cruel man deeply sympathetic. He is fond of his
eldest daughter, and also of Ikemefuna, a young boy sent from another village as
compensation for the wrongful death of a young woman from Umuofia.
He even begins to feel pride in his eldest son, in whom he has too often seen his own
father. Unfortunately, a series of tragic events tests the mettle of this strong man, and it
is his fear of weakness that ultimately undoes him.
Disruption of native culture
Achebe does not introduce the theme of colonialism until the last 50 pages or so. By
then, Okonkwo has lost everything and been driven into exile. And yet, within the
traditions of his culture, he still has hope of redemption.

The arrival of missionaries in Umuofia, however, followed by representatives of the

colonial government, completely disrupts Igbo culture, and in the rift between old ways
and new, Okonkwo is lost forever.
His use of English language
Achebe wanted this novel to respond to earlier colonial accounts of Africa; his choice of
English language in this and latter books was thus political.
Unlike some later African authors who chose to revitalize native languages as a form of
resistance to colonial culture, Achebe wanted to achieve cultural revitalization within and
through English.
Nevertheless, he managed to capture the rhythm of the Igbo language and he
integrates Igbo vocabulary into the narrative.
Masculinity and femininity

The gender roles of men and women, as well as societies' conceptions of the associated
concepts, are frequent themes in Achebe's writing. He has been criticised as a sexist
author, in response to what many call the uncritical depiction of traditionally patriarchal
Igbo society, where the most masculine men take numerous wives, and women are
beaten regularly.

Limited gendered vision

Others suggest that Achebe is merely representing the limited gendered vision of the
characters, and they note that in his later works, he tries to demonstrate the inherent
dangers of excluding women from society.
Major themes
The Struggle between Change and Tradition
Tragic outcome of colonized subject when confronting the white master’s world
The clash between native and Christian religion
Language as a sign of cultural difference

Chinua Achebe died in 2013.