ImageNations

For now the fact that one of the doyens of Africa's men of letters, Chinua Achebe, is dead is no longer news. ImageNations intentionally kept off the fray of all the earlier expressions of condolences. Yet, it would not be absolutely right to stay off forever. For most non Africans the only African book they have read and to which they will quickly refer a reader is   Things Fall Apart  and the fact that the book was translated into 50 languages and was made a reading requirement also worked to boost its popularity. However, my favourite novel of his is Arrow of God . The third book in what later became known as the African Trilogy, which comprised the two mentioned books and No Longer at Ease. There are several Africans who have also not read beyond TFA; though I will appeal to them to read the others. My favourite proverb in his book goes like this 'the sun will shine on those who stand before it shines on those who kneel under them.' This proverb is profound. There ...

The trouble with Nigeria is simply and squarely a failure of leadership. There is nothing basically wrong with the Nigerian character. There is nothing wrong with the Nigerian land or climate or water or air or anything else. The Nigerian problem is the unwillingness or inability of its leaders to rise to the responsibility, to the challenge of personal example with are the hallmarks of true leadership. [1] One of the commonest manifestations of under-development is a tendency among the ruling elite to live in a world of make-believe and unrealistic expectations. This is the  cargo   cult  mentality that anthropologists sometimes speak about - a belief by backward people that someday, without any exertion whatsoever on their own part, a fairy ship will dock in their harbour laden with every goody they have always dreamed of possessing. [9] In spite of conventional opinion Nigeria has been less than fortunate in its leadership. A basic element of th...

Title: The Trouble with Nigeria Author: Chinua Achebe Genre: Non-Fiction/Socio-Political Articles Publishers: Heinemann Pages: 68 Year of First Publication: 1983 Country: Nigeria Read for Amy's BAND The Trouble with Nigeria is a book of frustration of what could be termed as the Nigerian (African) Condition. In this book, Chinua Achebe spelt out, without playing around with proverbs, aphorisms, and such  curlicued manner of speech, the reasons why Nigeria, and perhaps most African countries, are facing such ginormous and seemingly unsurmountable developmental challenges. In 'Where the Problem Lies', the author specifically identified and attributed the problem. He writes  the problem with Nigeria is simply and squarely a failure of leadership. There is nothing basically wrong with the Nigerian land or climate or water or air or anything else. the Nigerian problem is the unwillingness or inability of its leaders to rise to the responsibility, to the c...

Homeward-bound from your great hunt, the carcass of an elephant on your great head, do you now dally on the way to pick up a grasshopper between your toes? Page 30 I have never seen the sense in sleeping with people. A man should wake up in his own bed. A woman likewise. Whatever they choose to do prior to sleeping is no reason to deny them that right. Page 37 [P]ower is like marrying across the Niger; you soon find yourself paddling by night. Page 45 Worshipping a dictator is such a pain in the ass. It wouldn't be so bad if it was merely a matter of dancing upside down  on your head. With practice anyone could learn to do that. The real problem is having no way of knowing from one day to another, from one minute to the next, just what is up and what is down. Page 45 Chris has a very good theory, I think, on the military vocation. According to this theory military life attracts two different kinds of men: the truly strong who are very rare, and the rest who wo...

Title: Anthills of the Savannah Author: Chinua Achebe Genre: Fiction/Tragedy/Politics Publishers: Heinemann (African Writers Series) Pages: 233 Year of First Publication: 1987 Country: Nigeria Anthills of the Savannah , a 1987 Booker Shortlist, is the fifth book of Achebe's oeuvre I have read. This novel is quite different from the first four of Achebe's books in terms of the narrative style, the prose, the setting and to some extent the theme. Had Achebe not written Things Fall Apart    and my favourite The Arrow of God , this book alone would have established the Man Booker International Prize winner (2007) as one of Africa's literary giants. In this very unique novel, Achebe treats the issue of despots, male chauvinism and power from a rather different and unexpected perspective. He opens up the struggles that goes on behind the power scenes and how easily an innocent, generally good individual could easily transmogrify into an absol...

Title: A Man of the People Author: Chinua Achebe Genre: Novel Publishers: Heinemann (African Writers Series) Pages: 149 ISBN: 978-0-435-90534-7 Year of Publication: 1966 Country: Nigeria A Man of the People follows Arrow of God in publication; however, this story is quite different from the first three of Achebe 's works popularly referred to as The African Trilogy. In A Man of the People , the voice and the characterisation, and to a lesser extent the subject matter are different. It is as if Achebe, thirty-six years at the time of publication, and having enjoyed immense success with his Things Fall Apart debut, wanted to experiment or perhaps challenge himself to write as he had never before. Unlike  No Longer at Ease ,  the corruption Achebe writes of in this novel is not that perpetrated by Civil Servants but one seated in the fish's head - the corruption that was festering in the body politic, which had subsumed or smothered all developmental ...

Usually, I try to review novels and not to compare them. However, there comes a time when one cannot run away from a topic, a call, no matter how one tries. This topic had been in my head ever since I reviewed Chinua Achebe's No Longer at Ease  (on September 30, 2009). I dreamt about it, talked about, did everything but obey this call. The only way to prevent an incubus from attacking you is to remain un-asleep, no? Well, that might not even suffice but I know that the only way to obey a call is to respond to it. Finito! So today, in this very post, I respond to this call. No one can challenge the achievements of Ayi Kwei Armah and Chinua Achebe . Even though these two literary giants of African descent may disagree at the academic level, their literary works stated here tend to converge at several points, and diverge at some. This issue has bothered me for so long and I refrained from writing about it, mainly because as a untrained essayist and a first-ladder novice in acade...

Title: Arrow of God Author: Chinua Achebe Genre: Novel (Religious, Life, Dystopian) Publishers: Heinemann (African Writers Series) Pages: 230 Year: 1964 (this edition 1986) Country: Nigeria This is the last of the African Trilogy by Chinua Achebe. Unlike Things Fall Apart and No Longer At Ease , Arrow of God was set in Umuaro in the years of the colonial period but some years after the Okonkwo era. It has very little to do with Okonkwo, except with the mention of the novel The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger , written by the District Commissioner and a slight reference to some incidents during  Okonkwo's era. All the same, one common thread that runs through all these novels is the clash between the coming of Christianity and the Traditional beliefs system and the complicity of the people in the former. However, Arrow of God tells more than just the clash between beliefs. It tells also of how one man's quest for vengeance...

Title: No Longer At Ease Author: Chinua Achebe Genre: Novel (Life, Transition) Publishers: Heinemann (African Writers Series) Pages: 154 ISBN:978-0-435913-51-9 Year: 1960 (this edition, 2008) Country: Nigeria No Longer At Ease  is the second book in a series of books, which have come to be called the African Trilogy. It was set in Lagos, Nigeria within the period prior to independence. In this novel, Chinua Achebe merges the traditional with the modern, creating a story that tells of the genesis of corruption and the culture of demand. The plot deals with how the culture of expectation leads to corruption and decadence of the individual and the institutions they work for. This story is similar to Ayi Kwei Armah's Fragments   and fits a quote in Amu Djoleto's novel The Strange Man : "Convention and conformity are the foundation stones of decadence". Obi Okonkwo, son of Isaac Okonkwo (or Nwoye) and grandson of Okonkwo in Things Fall Apart , had...

Title: Things Fall Apart Author: Chinua Achebe Genre: Novel (Traditional, Historical) Publishers: Heinemann (African Writers Series) Pages: 166 Year: 1958 Country: Nigeria Published in 1958, Things Fall Apart is one of the most widely read African novel. It is the first of Achebe's body of work and also the first book of what is usually referred to as the African Trilogy. Other novels in this trilogy are: No Longer At Ease  and Arrow of God . Set in Umuafia in the 1930s or so, Things Fall Apart, tells the story of the rise and fall of Okonkwo. Okonkwo was widely known throughout the nine villages of Umuafia for his warring prowess, where he is famed for having brought home five heads from all his wars and for his wrestling prowess for having thrown down the Cat. He was also industrious and rich, had three wives and many children, had large yam farms and had taken three of the four available titles in Umuafia. However, Okonkwo's bravery, belligerence...