CHINUA ACHEBE: works and important facts......
He was born on 16 November, 1930 and died on 21 March, 2013. He was a Nigerian novelist, poet, professor, and critic. He was grown up by his parents in the Igbo town of Ogidi in southeastern Nigeria. His first novel Things Fall Apart (1958) was considered his masterpiece in modern African literature. Achebe wrote his novels in English and defended the use of English, a "language of colonisers", in African literature. Achebe's novels focus on the traditions of Igbo society, the effect of Christian influences, and the clash of Western and traditional African values during colonial period. He was told many stories by his mother and sister. This helped him to express his ideas through his novels. Achebe criticized Joseph Conrad as ""a bloody racist”, in one of his lectures An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" in 1975. Achebe asserted that Conrad's famous novel dehumanises Africans. Achebe had good hand writing and reading skills during his school days. Achebe extensively used library in his school. He discovered Booker T. Washington's Up From Slavery (1901), the autobiography of an American former slave; he was much influenced by the work and it showed him the other dimension of reality. He also read novels such as Gulliver's Travels (1726), David Copperfield (1850), and Treasure Island (1883). In 1950 Achebe wrote a piece for the University Herald entitled "Polar Undergraduate", his debut as an author. While at the university, Achebe wrote his first short story, "In a Village Church", which combines details of life in rural Nigeria with Christian institutions and icons, a style which appears in many of his later works. He worked for Nigerian Broadcasting Service (NBS) in 1954. In May 1967, Nigeria and Biafra war took place. It was influenced on the mind of Achebe. After the war, Achebe helped in starting two magazines: the literary journal Okike and Nsukkascope. In June 2007, Achebe was awarded the Man Booker International Prize. The judging panel included US critic Elaine Showalter and South African writer Nadine Gordimer. His fictions heavily draw from Oral tradition and folk tales. Achebe has been called "the father of modern African writing." Novelist Margaret Atwood called him "a magical writer – one of the greatest of the twentieth century". Poet Maya Angelou lauded Things Fall Apart as a book wherein "all readers meet their brothers, sisters, parents and friends and themselves along Nigerian roads". Nobel laureate Toni Morrison has noted that Achebe`s work inspired her to become a writer and "sparked her love affair with African literature.”
Famous work Things fall apart
SHORT SUMMARY (Synopsis) for THINGS FALL APART by Chinua Achebe
The novel deals with the rise and fall of Okonkwo , a man from the village of Unuofia. Okonkwo was not born a great man, but he achieved success by his hard work. His father was a lazy man who preferred playing the flute to tending the soil. Okonkwo was opposed to his father’s way of life, and always feared failure. In order to prove his ability, he had overthrown the greatest wrestler in nine villages, set himself up with three wives, two barns filled with yams and a reputation for being a hard worker. The reader learns that he was also one of the egwugwu--the masked spirits of the ancestors. His importance is proved when he is sent as an emissary to Mbaino in order to negotiate for hostages, and he returns successfully with a boy, Ikemefuna and a virgin.
Okonkwo has his faults, one of them being his impatience of less successful men and secondly his pride over his own status. His stern exterior conceals a love for Ikemefuna, who lives with him; an anxiety over his son Nwoye, who seems to take after his father; and an adoration for his daughter Ezinma. His fiery temperament leads to beating his second wife during the Week of Peace. He even shoots at her with his gun, but luckily he misses. This shows his short temper and a tendency to act on impulse, a tendency that backfires on him later on in the novel. The boy, Ikemefuna, is ordered to death by the Oracle of the Hills and Caves. Though Okonkwo is upset, he shows his fearlessness and impartiality by slaying the boy himself. His final fault against his tribe is when he unintentionally shoots a boy and kills him; for this he is banished from the village for seven years and has to live in his mother’s village of Mbanta. This is a great disappointment for him although he is consoled and encouraged by his uncle, Uchendu.
The reader now hears of the arrival of the Christian missionaries, who take over the village of Mbanta, as well as Umuofia, set up a church and proceed to convert the tribesmen to Christianity. At first, they face much resistence, but gradually many of the tribesmen including Okonkwo’s own son, Nwoye, are converted and follow the path of Christ. After his period of exile, Okonkwo returns to Umuofia with his family and finds it totally changed. The missionaries have done a lot for the village. Umuofia is prospering economically, but Okonkwo is firm in his refusal to charge his religion.
The missionary Mr. Brown is overzealous in his methods. A Christian named Enoch enters a meeting of the tribe in which the egwugwu is present, and he unmasks one of them. This causes great anger, and the villagers make a decision to destroy the church, which they eventually do. This action incites the wrath of the District Commissioner, who invites Okonkwo along with five other men and overpowers and imprisons them. These elders are humiliated in the prison. On their return, another meeting is held. The commissioner sends some men to stop the proceedings, and Okonkwo, in a fit of fury, beheads one of them. The tribe is disturbed and they let the other men escape. Finding no more support from his tribesmen, Okonkwo hangs himself. His world has fallen apart.
His tribesmen even refuse to cut him down and bury him since taking one’s own life is a violation of the earth goddess, and his men would not bury such a man. His friend Obierika’s words describe the tragedy most powerfully “That man was one of the greatest men in Umuofia. You drove him to kill himself; and now he will be buried like a dog.”
Okonkwo’s suicide is symbolic of the self-destruction of the tribe, for he was a symbol of the power and pride that the tribe had and with its demise, the tribe’s moral center and structure gave way to a more dominant one.
Prizes:
Commonwealth Poetry Prize in 1982
Man Booker International Prize in 2007
Works:
Things Fall Apart (1958)
No Longer at Ease (1960)
Arrow of God (1964)
A Man of the People (1966)
Anthills of the Savannah (1987)
Regards
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If u like the post please followed the blog
He was born on 16 November, 1930 and died on 21 March, 2013. He was a Nigerian novelist, poet, professor, and critic. He was grown up by his parents in the Igbo town of Ogidi in southeastern Nigeria. His first novel Things Fall Apart (1958) was considered his masterpiece in modern African literature. Achebe wrote his novels in English and defended the use of English, a "language of colonisers", in African literature. Achebe's novels focus on the traditions of Igbo society, the effect of Christian influences, and the clash of Western and traditional African values during colonial period. He was told many stories by his mother and sister. This helped him to express his ideas through his novels. Achebe criticized Joseph Conrad as ""a bloody racist”, in one of his lectures An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" in 1975. Achebe asserted that Conrad's famous novel dehumanises Africans. Achebe had good hand writing and reading skills during his school days. Achebe extensively used library in his school. He discovered Booker T. Washington's Up From Slavery (1901), the autobiography of an American former slave; he was much influenced by the work and it showed him the other dimension of reality. He also read novels such as Gulliver's Travels (1726), David Copperfield (1850), and Treasure Island (1883). In 1950 Achebe wrote a piece for the University Herald entitled "Polar Undergraduate", his debut as an author. While at the university, Achebe wrote his first short story, "In a Village Church", which combines details of life in rural Nigeria with Christian institutions and icons, a style which appears in many of his later works. He worked for Nigerian Broadcasting Service (NBS) in 1954. In May 1967, Nigeria and Biafra war took place. It was influenced on the mind of Achebe. After the war, Achebe helped in starting two magazines: the literary journal Okike and Nsukkascope. In June 2007, Achebe was awarded the Man Booker International Prize. The judging panel included US critic Elaine Showalter and South African writer Nadine Gordimer. His fictions heavily draw from Oral tradition and folk tales. Achebe has been called "the father of modern African writing." Novelist Margaret Atwood called him "a magical writer – one of the greatest of the twentieth century". Poet Maya Angelou lauded Things Fall Apart as a book wherein "all readers meet their brothers, sisters, parents and friends and themselves along Nigerian roads". Nobel laureate Toni Morrison has noted that Achebe`s work inspired her to become a writer and "sparked her love affair with African literature.”
Famous work Things fall apart
SHORT SUMMARY (Synopsis) for THINGS FALL APART by Chinua Achebe
The novel deals with the rise and fall of Okonkwo , a man from the village of Unuofia. Okonkwo was not born a great man, but he achieved success by his hard work. His father was a lazy man who preferred playing the flute to tending the soil. Okonkwo was opposed to his father’s way of life, and always feared failure. In order to prove his ability, he had overthrown the greatest wrestler in nine villages, set himself up with three wives, two barns filled with yams and a reputation for being a hard worker. The reader learns that he was also one of the egwugwu--the masked spirits of the ancestors. His importance is proved when he is sent as an emissary to Mbaino in order to negotiate for hostages, and he returns successfully with a boy, Ikemefuna and a virgin.
Okonkwo has his faults, one of them being his impatience of less successful men and secondly his pride over his own status. His stern exterior conceals a love for Ikemefuna, who lives with him; an anxiety over his son Nwoye, who seems to take after his father; and an adoration for his daughter Ezinma. His fiery temperament leads to beating his second wife during the Week of Peace. He even shoots at her with his gun, but luckily he misses. This shows his short temper and a tendency to act on impulse, a tendency that backfires on him later on in the novel. The boy, Ikemefuna, is ordered to death by the Oracle of the Hills and Caves. Though Okonkwo is upset, he shows his fearlessness and impartiality by slaying the boy himself. His final fault against his tribe is when he unintentionally shoots a boy and kills him; for this he is banished from the village for seven years and has to live in his mother’s village of Mbanta. This is a great disappointment for him although he is consoled and encouraged by his uncle, Uchendu.
The reader now hears of the arrival of the Christian missionaries, who take over the village of Mbanta, as well as Umuofia, set up a church and proceed to convert the tribesmen to Christianity. At first, they face much resistence, but gradually many of the tribesmen including Okonkwo’s own son, Nwoye, are converted and follow the path of Christ. After his period of exile, Okonkwo returns to Umuofia with his family and finds it totally changed. The missionaries have done a lot for the village. Umuofia is prospering economically, but Okonkwo is firm in his refusal to charge his religion.
The missionary Mr. Brown is overzealous in his methods. A Christian named Enoch enters a meeting of the tribe in which the egwugwu is present, and he unmasks one of them. This causes great anger, and the villagers make a decision to destroy the church, which they eventually do. This action incites the wrath of the District Commissioner, who invites Okonkwo along with five other men and overpowers and imprisons them. These elders are humiliated in the prison. On their return, another meeting is held. The commissioner sends some men to stop the proceedings, and Okonkwo, in a fit of fury, beheads one of them. The tribe is disturbed and they let the other men escape. Finding no more support from his tribesmen, Okonkwo hangs himself. His world has fallen apart.
His tribesmen even refuse to cut him down and bury him since taking one’s own life is a violation of the earth goddess, and his men would not bury such a man. His friend Obierika’s words describe the tragedy most powerfully “That man was one of the greatest men in Umuofia. You drove him to kill himself; and now he will be buried like a dog.”
Okonkwo’s suicide is symbolic of the self-destruction of the tribe, for he was a symbol of the power and pride that the tribe had and with its demise, the tribe’s moral center and structure gave way to a more dominant one.
| Interesting Chinua Achebe Facts: |
|---|
| Chinua Achebe wrote his first short story while at University College titled In a Village Church. |
| After graduation from the University in 1954, Chinua Achebe became a teacher at the Merchants of Light School in Oba. |
| Chinua Achebe quit teaching to become the Director of External Broadcasting in Lagos at the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation. |
| In 1958 Chinua Achebe sent his manuscript for Things Fall Apart to an agent recommended to him by a friend named Gilbert Phelps. |
| Things Fall Apart was rejected by several publishers, until it reached Heinemann where an educational advisor said, "This is the best novel I have read since the war." 2000 copies were printed in 1959 and the novel received positive reviews and endorsements. |
| Things Fall Apart went on to be translated into more than 50 languages and sold more than eight million copies around the world. |
| Chinua Achebe's next two novels were No Longer at Ease (1960), and Arrow of God (1964). |
| Chinua Achebe married Christiana Chinwe Okoli on September 10th, 1961. They had several children together including Chinelo, Ikechukwu, Chidi, Nwando, and eventually had several grandchildren as well. |
| Chinua Achebe's novel A Man of People was published in 1966. It brought military trouble to him because his book foreshadowed the coup. He sent his wife and children to Port Harcourt, and then followed them to safety. |
| Chinua Achebe's first children's book Chike and the River was published in 1966. He also wrote the children's books How the Leopard Got His Claws (1972), The Flute (1975), and The Drum(1978). |
| Anthills of the Savannah was Chinua Achebe's 5th novel, and it was published in 1987. |
| Chinua Achebe also wrote many short stories, essays, criticisms, poetry, political commentary, and works of non-fiction. |
| Chinua Achebe continued to teach throughout his life. He was a professor at the University of Nigeria, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and at Bard College in New York. |
| Chinua Achebe received more than 30 honorary degrees at universities around the world. |
| Chinua Achebe won many awards for his writing including the Nigerian National Order of Merit, The Man Booker International Prize, the Commonwealth Poetry Prize, the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize, and the United Nations Population Fund appointed him a Goodwill Ambassador in 1999. |
| Chinua Achebe died |
Commonwealth Poetry Prize in 1982
Man Booker International Prize in 2007
Works:
Things Fall Apart (1958)
No Longer at Ease (1960)
Arrow of God (1964)
A Man of the People (1966)
Anthills of the Savannah (1987)
Regards
literaturegroupblog
If u like the post please followed the blog
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