interview with chinua achebe

8/12/2019 Interview with Chinua Achebe

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PBS - HOPES | Nigeria | Essay http://www.pbs.org/hopes/nigeria/essays.html

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An intimate interview

with Chinua Achebe

The man who so successfully describes African village life washimself born in a village close to the Niger River on November15, 1930. Chinua Achebe was familiar with both Christian andIbo traditions. His father was an Ibo who had converted to

Christianity. Achebes early knowledge of the differencesbetween cultures was a valuable preparation for the writing ofThings Fall Apart. He wrote Things Fall Apart, partly inresponse to what he saw as inaccurate characterizations ofAfrica and Africans by British authors. The book describes theeffects on Ibo society of the arrival of European colonizers andmissionaries in the late 1800s. Achebes satire and his keen earfor spoken language have made him one of the most highlyesteemed African writers in English.

An exceptionally bright student, Achebe went on to studyEuropean literature at a Nigerian university. His mastery ofEuropean and African traditions explains why his Ibo tale hasthe clear, dramatic form of a Greek tragedy. Although Achebehas worked in both radio broadcasting and publishing, today heearns his living as the Charles P. Stevenson Jr. Professor ofLanguages and Literature at Bard College in New York.

Blackside Inc. (BSI) conducted the following interview withChinua Achebe (CA) via telephone shortly after the 70thbirthday of the patriarch of the modern African novel.

BSI: If Okonkwo were living today, how would he feel about thepresent state of Nigeria? What would be his solution to some ofNigerias problems?

CA: Well, we know from the kind of person he was that hewould be saying to Nigerians, I told you so, you should havestopped it you should have stopped this thing when it began.People say that if you find water rising up to your ankle, thatsthe time to do something about it, not when its around your

neck. Okonkwos solution to colonial invasion was to rebuff it,to repulse it, to drive it back. The problem with this is thatOkonkwo was the only person in his community who saw theproblem and its solution that simply.

You see, his community was aware from what they knew ofEuropean invasion of Africa at that point that it was not going tobe easy to drive it back, they had examples around ofcommunities that were bombarded, of markets that werebombarded. So it was not a simple matter of cowardice orbravery, it was really a question of looking taking a hard lookat the situation and deciding that this thing cannot be handled inthis simple way without running very, very great risks. And sothe community would be where we are today, that whicheverway you turned at the beginning of colonial invasion, whicheverway you turned, you were going to come to a sticky end. The

colonizers were not going to be persuaded by simple resistanceto re-evaluate their intentions. So theres really no escape, thatswhat Im saying. Theres no escape.

BSI: Many in Nigeria have called for a sovereign nationalconference in Nigeria to deal with Nigerias problems, includinggiving those minority ethnic groups in Nigeria a stronger voiceand control over their natural resources. Would Okonkwo callfor a separation of Nigerian states, or would he be willing towork toward a more unified Nigeria?

CA: I think in hindsight, he would probably say, OK, we shouldwork together, we should find we should find a way to talk toone another, to negotiate, to learn from our mistakes in the past.You see, Okonkwos mistake in the past was that his peoplewere deliberating on what to do about the colonial invasion.

They had not made a decision, they were still struggling withthis debate when Okonkwo went out on his own and killed the


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white mans messenger. What he intended to do by this was toforce his people into the kind of action that he preferred. Now,the Ibo people do not like to be forced to end deliberating as agroup. They dont want somebody to preempt them. And soOkonkwo now knows that fact, and I think that would influencehis attitude today what Nigeria needs, its nothing new, it is asold as you have neighbors, that if you have a neighbor, you talkwith them, you discuss with them, you reduce the level ofhostility. Thats really what Nigeria needs. Its really quitesimple. The minorities or the majorities, they are just peoplewho have always lived together in the same space. Sometimesyou hear people talking as if they were new to that their part ofNigeria, or as if their neighbors were new to those parts ofNigeria.

Nigeria has not imported any new people. The people you see inNigeria today have always lived as neighbors in the same spacefor as long as we can remember. So its a matter of settlingdown, lowering the rhetoric, the level of hostility in the rhetoricis too high. If we did that, I think we might be able to begin tosolve the problems of Nigeria. Then we would be able to enjoythe enormous benefits that will come from the fact thatNigerians are very, very talented people, and Nigeria is a veryrich country in manpower and natural resources. And we canreally begin to create a new and progressive nation, something

that we missed out in the 20th century, and we should we mustnot miss out again in the 21st.

BSI: In 1995, after General Sani Abacha appointed himselfpresident of Nigeria, he jailed and terrorized scores of

journalists, lawyers, and military officers accused of plottingagainst him. What is your take on the treatment of journalistsand other political activists in Nigeria, past and present? Whatwas your reaction to the execution of Ken Saro Wiwa?

CA: Well, my reaction [to Wiwas execution] was it would beexpected, horror and great sadness that I indicated at that point.The situation with Abacha was particularly painful to mebecause when he came to power, when he seized power, I wasvery angry that there were people who were able to say that weshould give him time, because he might be better than

Babangida, the general who had annulled the election that washeld. There were people who did not feel as angry as theyshould have that another soldier was coming up and makingpromises about when he would hand power back. And some ofthe people who were saying this were journalists, so I was reallyquite annoyed that we were now dealing with yet anothersoldier, who was even worse in terms of intellect, in terms ofanything, to Babangida.

We in Nigeria now have a lot of responsibility for the decay ofNigerian politics, because theres no unity, there was nodetermination to say, enough is enough. Whenever one soldiercame up, there would be someone saying, oh, hes better thanthe last one. And we failed to recognize that there was nosolution, there was never any solution in military dictatorships.Before Abacha, we had Babangida, who in the view of manypeople actually destroyed the Nigerian nation by that decision toannul an election that was laboriously arranged and executed.He called into question any possibility of a peaceful transitionfrom one government to another. Abacha was simply the lastcrude conclusion of a train that had been set in motion. Andtherefore, what Abacha did, including the hanging of Ken SaroWiwa, was not really surprising to anyone who knew the qualityof the man. He was a man you would not dare if you said tohim, I dare you to do this, he would do it. And that, when youget to that level of response, action and response in politics, youare in deep trouble. And Nigeria was in deep trouble.

BSI: Many speak of the brain drain that takes place in Nigeria.Some of its sharpest minds, including you, have moved abroad.What are your reasons for exile?

CA: Well, everybody has his or her own reason. My reason isprimarily Ive said this many times has to do with this spinal


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injury [Achebe was paralyzed from the waist down in a seriouscar accident], which I sustained 10 years ago. I would have beenout [of Nigeria] whether or not there was Abacha, because themedical facilities in Nigeria had deteriorated to a point where itwas impossible for me to have the surgery that I required aftermy accident. So that was why my exile began it did not beginwith the political situation in the country, although the politicalsituation in the country indirectly created the situation in whichour hospitals were no longer functioning.

But you will find that there are many people who left the countryfor a whole range of reasons. Safety is one major reason, butalso simply because a professional, for instance, who can nolonger carry on his or her professional work, a doctor in ahospital who can no longer carry on his work because thehospital has broken down to give you one personal example, asurgeon who flew out with me after my accident, flew out fromthe teaching hospital where I was being treated in Nigeria until itwas discovered that I needed to go abroad, to England, and thedoctor traveled with me. And when we got to England, hediscovered that the surgeon who was going to perform thesurgery on me had been his classmate. The point Im makinghere is that he this Nigerian surgeon could have performed thesame operation if the facilities had been there in Nigeria. Imsimply hoping that we will quickly get the country back to a

state where a large number of these people will begin to go back.Because this is really where their work is, its not becausepeople love America more than they love Nigeria. Its in Nigeriathat their heart is. And so its painful for these professionals.

BSI: Your representation of indigenous Ibo culture contradictsstereotypical, often oversimplified European representations.Most people around the world know a little of Nigeriastraditional past directly because of you. How have you come toterms with this awesome responsibility? And do you feel thatyou tell it like it is, or are you sometimes tempted to romanticizecertain aspects of traditional Nigerian culture?

CA: First of all, let me take the second part. I do notromanticize, because that was the one thing that was very clearto me 40 years ago when I was a young man beginning to write,

that I was not going to romanticize my culture, because I knewthat theres a matter of integrity in artistic creation which isinvolved, and that your reader must trust what you say, that whatyou see is what you are going to report. It is such as seriousissue, ones story other people who have a vested interest inundermining my humanity have bastardized my story. So its avery serious challenge they have thrown at me.

I have no question no doubt whatsoever in my mind about myhumanity or the humanity of my people. And the story I amgoing to tell is to make this humanity apparent. Now, you noteIm talking about humanity; Im not talking about angels. Imnot talking about perfect beings. Im talking about people. Andso it was important to me if I knew nothing at all about novelwriting, I knew this one fact, that I wanted to make the humanityof my people apparent. And at the end of my story, what Imsaying to my reader is, now Ive told you about these people, Idare you to challenge their humanity.

BSI: What effect did politically charged musicians and artists,particularly Fela Kuti, have on Nigerians? And how do you seethese artists affecting change?

CA: Oh, quite a lot. As a matter of fact, Fela Kuti was a goodfriend of mine, and in my exile, I went to the University ofMassachusetts to hear him perform a few years before he died.And we were I would say kindred spirits. He was in music andI was in literature, and there were other kindred spirits. Felasinfluence on Nigeria was quite strong, in fact, phenomenal. AndNigerians appreciate his work. Thats really all I need say.

BSI: What is your sense of hope for the continent? And does thishope largely come from Africas women?


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CA: Well, I think the women are extremely important in that inour culture, whenever things really got out of control, whenthings were damaged beyond repair, the culture seemed to callon the women to move in and repair the damage. Historically,this has happened a number of times in our history. When theBritish came to Ibo land, for instance, at the beginning of the20th century, and defeated the men in pitched battles in differentplaces, and set up their administrations, the men surrendered.And it was the women who led the first revolt. They said it wasa revolt against taxation. It was actually a revolt againstimposition of foreign rule. And it happened in such a spectacularway the British could not understand it what was going on.Here were these peasant women scattered over hundreds ofsquare miles, and they were able to get into action in a verycoordinated way. The British pulled back, and went to study theIbo people again.

That is the kind of thing I have in mind when I talk aboutwomen coming in when things seem to be completely hopeless.Somehow in our idea of creation, women are very, very close tothe creator. It is very important to them that our world continues.And so they have this last resort responsibility. Now, that was allright in the past. It is something we can look at and learnsomething from. But it may well be that today, we dont wantthe women to be in the background until things get out of

control. It may well be that they should be in the action all thetime so that things dont get out of control.

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interview with chinua achebe

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