Chinua Achebe
It's been over a year since I recommended the ideas and writing of Chinua Achebe. Since The Economist mentioned him on the 50th anniversary of the publication of his first great novel, Things Fall Apart, I'll mention him again.If you're looking for an explanation of Nigerian political culture, I don't think there's a better place to begin than with Achebe's books. Details on my recommendations are in the July 2007 blog entry, Chinua Achebe, or the April 2007 entry, Nigerian elections or crisis?.
A golden jubilee
"CHINUA ACHEBE’S Things Fall Apart, which celebrates its golden jubilee this year, is Africa’s best known work of literature. The slim novel has been translated into 50 languages and has sold 10m copies. Never once has it been out of print...
"Now known as the grand-daddy of African fiction, Mr Achebe has had a more difficult life. In 1990 he was involved in a car accident in Nigeria, and has since been a paraplegic. He and his wife, Christie, live in upstate New York, where he is professor of languages and literature at Bard College."The golden jubilee of Things Fall Apart was presaged by the announcement in June 2007 that Mr Achebe had been awarded the second Man Booker international prize. In contrast to Man Booker’s older and better known annual counterpart which lauds a single new book, the international prize celebrates an 'achievement in fiction'. Asked what the panel had been looking for among the 80-or-so living authors whose work was considered for the prize, Nadine Gordimer, the oldest of the three judges and the only Nobel-prize-winner, gave an immediate response: 'illumination'.
"Elegant in his wheelchair, dressed in his Nigerian chief’s robes and his red domed hat, Mr Achebe has been receiving accolades the world over...
"The festivities continued in London earlier this month where Mr Achebe was the guest of honour at a lunch at the House of Lords and then the subject of a two-day conference at London University’s School of Oriental and African Studies. The highlight will be a ceremony early next month at the Library of Congress just before the author’s 78th birthday.
"For Mr Achebe, the end of the celebrations will mark a welcome return to his peaceful life at Bard College... An autobiographical essay, Reflections of a British Protected Child, about his childhood in the British Protectorate of Nigeria, is finished and now in the hands of his agent.
"His next project will be to translate “Things Fall Apart” into his native Ibo for the first time..."
Labels: civil society, history, Nigeria, political culture
posted by Ken Wedding @ 6:45 AM
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