Ugochukwu
Ejinkeonye
Recently, (Saturday April 12, 2008), I
was at the National Theatre, Lagos, because of Prof Chinua Achebe, Africa’s
best known and most widely read author, who many regard as the indisputable
father and rallying point of African Literature. The Association of
Nigerian Authors (ANA) had organised a forum to commemorate the fiftieth
anniversary of the publication of Achebe’s classic novel, Things Fall
Apart, published in London
by William Heinemann in June 1958.
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| *Chinua Achebe |
I was held back at the office by some engagements and so by
the time I arrived at the venue, I had missed a substantial part of the
‘Interactive Session’. I came in while Mr. Segun Olusola, a former ambassador
and arts enthusiast, was concluding his speech. As I sat down, I heard him
paying glowing tribute to Achebe and his novel and saying how happy he was to
be at the event. He then announced that he would also grace the Awka event in
honour of Achebe and Things Fall Apart coming up more than a week
later.
Achebe evokes a very special kind of
feelings in most people that have read either his novels or essays. And
this was evident in the emotion-laden speeches made by various speakers at the
National Theatre that day. The literary patriarch and icon was absent at the
ceremony, but his image loomed large everywhere, and this, mind you, was not
because of those large posters and billboards bearing his photographs (and, of
course, the emblem of the main sponsors, Fidelity Bank Plc) displayed at strategic
points by the organisers.
His wit, deep insights, the wisdom he
conveys with such sagely precision, the simple, subtle diction and
disarming style, the impressive imageries he effortlessly conjures and the
pleasant local colour he so generously splashes on his narratives, never cease
to overwhelm. Achebe is one writer whose reputation and looming image was
neither built nor enhanced by any prize. What further glamour can occasional
decorations add to an already very colourful and ‘big masquerade’? The man
rather dignifies any prize he decides to accept and not the other way round.
For instance, as Achebe and Things Fall Apart are celebrated
across the world this season, only a few, perhaps, might consider it necessary
to recall that a few months ago, he was awarded the Man Booker Prize – a very
important prize, no doubt. Such information, though great in its own
right, makes little or no difference to the man’s already solidly established
stature.
It is impossible to read Things
Fall Apart without visualizing the village of Umuofia
in its alluring freshness in the warm embrace of rich nature in its most
exciting vivacity and purity. This is the only novel I know written by an
African that has acquired such a stature and influence, as to be so celebrated
in such a grand fashion.
No, doubt, Chinua Achebe is Africa’s rare
gift to the world and Nigeria
should never cease to be glad and grateful that this giant emerged from its
loins.
With his novels, superb lectures and rich essays, Achebe has
been able to compel the world out there to significantly alter their entrenched
warped views about Africa.
After a speaking engagement in Canberra, Australia,
in the summer of 1973, Professor Manning Clark, a distinguished Australian
historian wrote to Achebe and pleaded: “I
hope you come back and speak again here, because we need to lose the blinkers
of our past. So come and help the young to grow up without the prejudices of
their forefathers…”
I find this display of sincerity very touching.
Part of the greatness of Things Fall Apart is the significant
readership it enjoys across cultures and races; its message continues to
register lasting impacts that are rare and peculiar. Not a few Nigerians can
recall the instant celebrity status they had suddenly assumed or even some
favours that had come their way in one remote part of the world or the other
just because they had let it be known that they were from Achebe’s country.
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| *Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye |
Achebe has also remarkably excelled as a critic and essayist.
His 1975 Chancellor’s Lecture at the University of Massachusetts
in Amherst, entitled, “An Image Of Africa: Racism In Conrad’s Heart
Of Darkness,” which I am never of tired of
re-reading, has not only significantly altered the nature and direction of
Conrad criticism, but is now widely regarded as one of the significant and influential
essays in the criticism of literature in English.
As I listened to several speeches at the
National Theatre on that Saturday, I could feel the depth of admiration
displayed by the various speakers towards Achebe and his work. The whole
thing was moving on well until one lady came up with elaborate praise for
Achebe for the significant “improvement” his female characters achieved in Anthills
Of the Savannah, unlike what obtained in Things Fall Apart,
which we had all gathered to celebrate that afternoon.
Now, I would easily have ignored
and quickly forgotten this comment as “one of those things” one was bound to
hear in a “mixed crowd” if I had not also heard similar thoughts brazenly
expressed by some female scholars whom I thought should be better informed. For
instance, I was at a lecture in Port Harcourt some years ago when a female
professor of literature announced with the excitement of someone who had just
discovered another earth: When Achebe created his earlier female characters,
she said, we complained; then he responded by giving us Clara (in No
Longer At Ease) and we still complained; then he gave us Eunice (in A
Man Of The People) and we still asked for more; and then he gave us
Beatrice (in Anthills Of The Savannah)! Unfortunately, I have
encountered thoughts even more pedestrian than this boldly flaunted in several
literary essays by women and some men.
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