Chinua Achebe: A writer who dared to reclaim his history

Achebe is the man who "brought Africa to the rest of the world," Nelson Mandela equated once. It is true that Achebe wrote particularly about his native Ogidi people; however, his writing encompasses not only the whole Nigerian experience but, in essence, and philosophically, it is for the whole humanity of the world, especially for the colonised and oppressed people. He is the beacon who shed light on African deep-rooted tradition and lifted the spirit of young Africans who were wrongly compelled to identify that Africa is a 'historical void'.  

Achebe was born on 16 November 1930, in an Igbo village during the volatile and transition period of African history. Though he was born into a comparatively peaceful Christian family, his life was steeped between the Igbo traditional culture and the white intruders' culture then controlling, subjugating, and shaping the history of Nigeria and the psyche of the traumatised native people. This pushed him to draw the true image of Africa breaking the absolute and grand power of the canonical perspectives of Western literature and history.  

It's not like he was critical of Western colonisation only, he severely castigated the corrupt post-independence African leaders who took away all the glorious achievements of Nigeria. To him, these leaders broke the spirit of young Nigerians and the emerging new independent nation as a whole.  

In his criticism of the novel 'Heart of Darkness' by Joseph Conrad, Achebe finds Conrad "a thoroughgoing racist;" simultaneously, and ironically indeed, he finds the post-independence African leaders 'throughgoing corrupt' who shattered all the hopes and aspirations of African people due to their sheer colonial hangover, vanity, and greed.

Though Achebe has grown up with western canonical writers, it is Joyce Cary's 1939 book named 'Mister Johnson' that scathed his and his classmates' souls while reading in the school as it depicts the death of a meek and docile black protagonist in the hand of his white master out of his apparent whim. He could not even sleep at night after reading this book.

This incident prompted him to write his world-famous book 'Things Fall Apart' (1958) which was initially turned down by white publishers. In this novel, he minutely detailed the African tradition and created a true African character named Okonkwo who was full of energy, vibe, and resilience but flawed in some ways. It is Achebe's nonpartial attitude to life and history that brought him international name and fame.

Dealing with history is always difficult as it is not all about merely showcasing some facts and figures. And, the course of history-like culture is not linear either. In his five novels starting with 'Things Fall Apart' to 'Anthills of the Savannah', along with all his poems, essays, and short stories, Achebe did not support African culture and tradition only, he vehemently criticised some inner loopholes and chasms as they were in some way rigid, raw, and so virgin in nature that 'to adapt' and 'to change' was not that much visible in their dictionary of life. 

On the other hand, western culture and, in fact, the total phenomenon of it was too manipulatively orchestrated that invaded, disrupted, and dwindled both the inner and outer psyche of the native people and their culture.  

The sensitive soul of Achebe was touched by this horrifically complicated situation. This tore apart his soul but became the source of him becoming a great writer. Like his protagonist Okonkwo (Things Fall Apart), Achebe is resilient. He follows the path of Ezeulu (Arrow of God) to embrace and shadow native tradition, and Chinua is our Obi Okonkwo (No Longer at Ease) – a British educated person who does not know how to swim in the wave of two conflicting cultures. As such, a super realistic writer, Chinua Achebe magically fits into the quote of American poet Walt Whitman: "Every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you." 

To Achebe, the middle way is the best. Thus, he does not overdo anything. Even when he weaves and narrates his story, his style and voice are African in nature but his form is almost Western. The tale that he tells about Africa is oral in mood and his refashioning of English into 'New English' is a challenging thing to do while the total layout of the stories are somewhat canonical in the pattern. 

Thus, we the readers sense his covert way of celebrating hybridity which dismantles the established norms of canons as Homi K. Bhabha writes, "it is the power of hybridity that enables the colonised to challenge 'the boundaries of discourse'."

He opted to write in English though he wrote some stories in Igbo languages too. He believed that the English language will be able to carry "the weight of his African experience." On the other hand, another African writer Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o (b. 1938) believes that local African dialects should be the language of all African writers and he further evokes that 'every person, whether in Africa or Europe, has a right to their mother tongue or to the language of their culture.'  

This is an ongoing debate; nevertheless, the position of Achebe is almost like the character of Caliban in Shakespeare's 'The Tempest' who resisted by saying that "You taught me language; and my profit is, I know how to curse" as opposed to colonial master Prospero's claim that Caliban did not have any language before he taught him language. 

Achebe's autobiographical essay collection named 'The Education of a British Protected Child' (2009) and his book 'There was A Country: A Personal History of Biafra' (2012) narrates his personal account of the Nigerian Civil War that carry the solid sense of his nationalistic idea too.  

Achebe taught in different prestigious western universities to represent Africa and to voice out the importance of identity and one's ethnicity. But he is not an ethnocentric writer and historian at all. He, in truth, wanted to align the experience of Africa with the experience of all the oppressed of the world because it is Achebe who knew how difficult it is to grow up as a person in the then colonial Nigeria.

Achebe is a towering figure who compelled the world's audience to revisit Africa with renewed vigour. Though he had writer's block as he was totally shocked at the aftermath of the Biafran war, he continued writing until his death. Even his decades of life paralysed by a car crash in 1990 couldn't stop his imaginative writings as he rightly said that imaginative literature "does not enslave; it liberates the mind of man."  

Though in his speech at Cambridge University at his late age he dubbed the Nigerian contemporary leaders as "indolent kleptocrats," he always longs and hopes for a prosperous Nigeria full of vigour, colour, and life. With cautious doubt, he always believed that Nigeria could be one of the most diverse nations in the whole world. 

As Achebe has grown up with 'eloquent adults', he cannot forget his homeland, and thus he revisited her on and off often. He did not have any overt illusion about Nigeria and as a writer, according to Nadine Gordimer, "who has no illusion and is not disillusioned" defines all about Chinua's philosophical and existential stance in this world.

Chinua Achebe did not choose an easy path. He was a truly African voice who always tried to manifest and represent African rich culture throughout the world through his writings. Besides this, he let the world know about colonial pathology. But, again, like an unbiased writer and historian, he never forgets to unfold "the cesspool of corruption."

We – people of the world – have many things to learn from Achebe's writings. Sometimes, to me, it feels like Achebe was writing the history of Bangladesh which was once colonised by the same British people for 200 years, and the colonial hangover still persists in many multiple facets. Thus, Achebe is omnipresent in every oppressed on the earth.

On 21 March, 2013, Achebe breathed his last breath. He is the 'Father, dear Father' of all the colonised people of the world. He was a voice of revolution and of peace.   

Chimamanda Adichie's poetic tribute to Achebe's death was: "A tree has fallen. A mighty tree has fallen!" Whereas,as a reader I feel and sense many mighty trees like Chimamanda have grown and will grow due to the unprecedented influence Achebe left behind on the mind of the readers and well-wishers around the globe.   

Chinua Achebe was a Nigerian novelist, poet, and critic who is regarded as the dominant figure of modern African literature