After his appointment as director of Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation’s external broadcasting show, Voice of Nigeria in 1957, Chinua Achebe attended the British Broadcasting Corporation staff school. Here, he met literary critic Gilbert Phelps (his teacher then), who recommended his manuscript for publication. This birthed Achebe’s first published novel a year later.
In this groundbreaking debut, Things Fall Apart, Achebe accorded the religion, culture and domestic economies of everyday Igbo lives a level of intimacy and humanity that rendered their experiences universal, stirring the global shift of perspective. Also, in this book, he condemned the colonialists’ ignorance of African culture and depicted how Western materialism birthed impunity among African communities. He stated;
“The white man is very clever. He came quietly and peaceably with his religion. We were amused at his foolishness and allowed him to stay. Now he has won our brothers, and our clan can no longer act like one. He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart.”
After the book’s publication in 1958, two years away from Nigeria’s independence, it became the first ever, by an African writer, to be set as a required text in schools across the continent’s English-speaking countries. And now, more than 60 years after publication, it is the most widely read work by an African writer and has introduced readers across the world to the continent’s writing.
No Longer at Ease
Chinua Achebe’s second novel, No Longer at Ease, highlighted the challenges facing the new generation on the threshold of Nigeria’s independence. The protagonist, a civil servant and grandson to Okonkwo (from Things Fall Apart) is entangled in corruption and is eventually jailed for bribery.
In 1962, after helping set up ‘Voice of Nigeria’, Achebe attended an executive conference of African writers in English at the Makerere University College in Uganda. Here, he was appointed to be General Editor of the African Writers Series, a body that proved to be valuable in introducing Africa’s postcolonial literature to the world. While at the conference, he was asked to read a novel, Weep Not, Child, by Ngugi wa Thiong’o (then a student named James Ngugi). An impressed Achebe sent the book to Heinemann and after two years, it was published, marking the now legendary Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s debut as a published author.
Arrow of God, A Man of the People and Achebe’s Involvement in the Nigeria-Biafra War
The author’s third and fourth novels, Arrow of God and A Man of the People respectively, are set in post-independence times. In the former, a village priest sends his son, Oduche, to be educated by Christian missionaries, in the hope that he gains enough knowledge to use in protecting his community. The outcome, however, is that Oduche becomes a convert and attacks Igbo religion and culture.
The latter, published in 1966, is a political satire that offers a critical perspective on governmental corruption and the nature of politics, power and greed. The book ends with a coup.
It is this ending that brought Chinua Achebe to the attention of military personnel, when the Nigeria-Biafra war was starting. They suspected him of having knowledge of an impending coup, since everything else he had written in the novel was already happening. A pursuit of him and his family ensued, from which they managed to get away unscathed. Well except the wife, Christie, suffering a miscarriage. Not long after, his passport was revoked by the government of Nigeria due to his open support for Biafra.
Seeing the ravaged state of his country-people due to the war and the resource insufficiency it brought about, Chinua Achebe reached out to the Americas and Britain for aid.
After the war, Achebe helped start the native literary journal Okike (a forum for African art, fiction, and poetry) and Nsukkascope (an internal publication of the University of Nigeria).
Post-War Literary Works, Political Involvement and Achebe’s Criticism of African Leadership
Later, from the 70’s and 80’s, Achebe’s criticism expanded to that of African leadership. While serving as the deputy national vice-president of the left-leaning political party People’s Redemption Party (PPP), he published The Trouble with Nigeria, in which he asserts that the country’s only trouble is the failure of leadership; combined with the unwillingness or inability of its leaders to rise to the responsibility and to the challenge of personal example which are the hallmarks of true leadership.
He would soon resign from politics due to his frustration over the corruption and elitism he witnessed.
Achebe released his fifth novel in 1987; Anthills of the Savannah, a finalist for the Booker Prize. It was about a military coup in the fictional West African nation of Kangan. He also published collections of poetry like Soul-Brother; collections of short stories and children’s books like How the Leopard Got His Claws; a number of essay books; and his last publication, the autobiographical There Was a Country: A Personal History of Biafra; among others.
