With the death of Chinua Achebe, lovers of literature lost a friend; Nigerians, a philosopher; Africans, a guide; and social activists, a writer activist.
The neo-colonial African scenario has thrown up a number of writer activists, both men and women. The list is long and variegated, but the more prominent among them are: Wole Soyinka (Nigerian Nobel Laureate), Ngugi wa Thiong’o (Kenyan, now an exile in US), Nawal el Sadaawi (Egyptian), Frantz Fanon (Martinique) and Abeba Tesfagiorgis (Eritrea). All these writers are not only concerned with the socio-economic exploitative structures in their countries, but they are also actively involved in people’s liberation movements against the emerging neo-colonial order. Achebe himself stood by his fellow Biafrans for a separate country outside Nigeria (Biafra is in southern Nigeria). His latest book, There was a Country (2012), records once again the gory reminiscences of the Civil War in Biafra(1967), a dark chapter in Nigerian history.
Things Fall Apart (1958), Achebe’s first novel, celebrated its 50th year of publication in 2008 in the academia in Africa, Europe and India. As I pen this tribute to this iconic Nigerian writer, my memories swirl around celebrations at the Mahatma Gandhi University, Nalgonda, in 2008 when I was heading the Department of English. The novel has been translated into more than 50 languages, and more than 10 million copies of it are in circulation. The novel tells the poignant story of an African tragic protagonist who fought alone valiantly against the combined forces of religion (Christianity) and its ally, the colonizer. Both Things Fall Apart and Anthills of the Savannah (1987) are masterly recreation of African myths, rituals, folklore and orature which are integral to their culture, traditions and ethos. Achebe injected into his writings the very core and spirit of Africa in every conceivable manner. He also tried his best to Africanize English. He regretted he had no choice except to use the English language, the legacy left behind by the colonizer. But the gifted novelist that he was, he was able to mould and adapt the English language to encapsulate the inner core of the African experience. “The English language will be able to carry the weight of my African experience,” he wrote memorably.
The oeuvre of Achebe – Things Fall Apart (1958), No Longer At Ease (1960), Arrow of God (1964), A Man of the People(1966) and Anthills of the Savannah (1987) — not only reflect the Nigerian scenario of colonial and post-colonial phases, but by extension they also mirror the similar situation in other parts of Africa. These five novels can also be read as the history of Nigeria for a century, from 1890s to 1980s.
Achebe, thus, is a historian as well in addition to being a novelist, poet, critic and essayist. Above all, he is a writer activist. He began his career as a script writer for the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation. Achebe never minces words in his criticism of racism and racists. He believed that racism was a product of the West imposed on Africa and elsewhere. For instance, he pointed out Africa did not even exist as an area of darkness in Hegel’s Philosophies of History. For Joseph Conrad, the image of Africa is Heart of Darkness, the title of his magnum opus. Who else other than Achebe can have the courage and conviction to call Conrad a ‘bloody racist’, invested with ‘a petty European mind’? Achebe wrote out of a commitment to rectify the distorted versions of Africa as a ‘dark continent.’ “I believe it is impossible to write anything in Africa without some kind of commitment… some kind of protest… because there were people who thought we didn’t have a past. What we were doing was to say we did…”
Achebe’s first three novels are set in colonial Africa. One can witness the drama of colonial encounters in Africa on the arrival of the white man with his new religion and the Bible, followed by his ally, the colonizer with his gun. The Bible and the gun sum up the tale of colonialism in Africa. But Achebe’s later novels, A Man of the People and Anthills of the Savannah, depict the changed scenario with the black zombies in places of power in a neo-colonial set up. The enemy in this context is the insider, dancing to the tunes of neo-colonial masters in Europe and America. This, precisely, is the tragedy of Africa. India and other developing countries are also cast in the same mould. Achebe’s writings, therefore, have a special resonance for India.
Achebe is no more. But he lived meaningfully, and left behind a rich and varied legacy to the posterity. He has also shown to the world how even the weakest of the weak can offer resistance to the mightiest of powers. I would like to conclude this with a parable narrated by an unlettered villager in Anthills of the Savannah. In this anecdote, the tortoise represents innocent masses, and the leopard monstrous state power. According to an African myth, the tortoise and the leopard are sworn enemies. Whenever the leopard sights tortoise, the latter is instantly killed. Once a leopard finds a tortoise on the way. The leopard says: “I am going to kill you.” The tortoise begs for a minute or two to prepare himself for his death. The tortoise begins to kick and rove dust all over the place. The puzzled leopard asks him: “What are you doing?” Quick comes the response from the tortoise: “I am going to be killed now. But I want the passers-by who come here to realize that there was an epic battle between you and me.” The dust of history will perhaps never settle down, but only a few gifted writers like Achebe could see through all the dust and haze, and bring us rare insights into the human condition.
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