Global Culture Crossroads: Okonkwo Vs Idris Elba

BY FEMI AKINTUNDE-JOHNSON

Idris Elba is a name synonymous with global stardom. Whether it is his nuanced performance as Nelson Mandela in ‘Long Walk to Freedom’, or his chilling portrayal of Commandant in ‘Beasts of No Nation’, the actor has proven himself capable of embodying larger-than-life characters. But can he do justice to the towering figure of Okonkwo, the tragic protagonist of Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart? That question has stirred a storm of controversy, reflecting broader concerns about cultural authenticity, representation, and Hollywood’s expanding influence on global narratives.

Achebe’s 1958 novel remains one of the most pivotal works in African literature, dissecting the cataclysmic encounter between the indigenous Igbo people of Nigeria and British colonialism. Okonkwo stands at the heart of this narrative, a man so tethered to his cultural identity that the forces of change render him a tragic relic of a dying era. Bringing such a character to life on the silver screen is no small feat, and casting decisions are vital to preserving the integrity of this narrative. The rumored casting of Elba (52), while exciting to some, has opened a Pandora’s box of cultural and artistic dilemmas.

There are many compelling reasons to support Idris Elba’s portrayal of Okonkwo. First and foremost is his undeniable talent and ability to convey the emotional complexity that Okonkwo demands. Okonkwo’s tragic flaw – his fear of failure and his dogged clinging to outdated ideals – calls for an actor capable of walking the fine line between stoic pride and vulnerable fragility. Elba, with his commanding presence and well-honed versatility, has repeatedly demonstrated the capacity to navigate the moral ambiguity required of such roles.

There is also the practical consideration of marketability. Hollywood’s inclination to cast well-known actors in significant roles is not merely an artistic choice – it’s a financial imperative. Idris Elba, with his international acclaim, could serve as the bridge that connects this deeply Nigerian story with a global audience. In a world where African cinema still struggles to gain mainstream recognition, casting a star like Elba could ensure that Things Fall Apart transcends the ‘foreign film’ niche and garners the widespread attention it deserves.

Yet, this argument is where the cultural fault lines begin to form. As African literature scholars and Achebe enthusiasts argue, Things Fall Apart is not just any narrative that can be globalized for the sake of profit and fame. It is a profound exploration of a specific cultural moment, anchored in the traditions, language, and experiences of the Igbo people. The nuances of the Igbo worldview – expressed in their proverbs, customs, and communal way of life – are integral to the novel’s power. Casting a non-Nigerian, particularly a non-Igbo actor, in the role of Okonkwo risks diluting this cultural specificity, reducing the story to a pan-African narrative that overlooks the deep roots from which it springs.

“There’s a tendency for Hollywood to paint Africa with broad strokes,” noted Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. “But Africa is not a country. Okonkwo is not just any African man. He is an Igbo man, steeped in a very particular tradition and history.” For many, casting Elba, though African, could symbolize another chapter in the West’s tendency to flatten the rich tapestry of African cultures into a monolithic narrative. Elba’s broad appeal and recognizability might attract audiences, but at what cost to the story’s authenticity?

Hollywood often equates star power with marketability, and Elba’s presence undoubtedly brings a level of global recognition that could draw a wide, diverse audience. This is crucial for a film like Things Fall Apart, which, while celebrated in academic and literary circles, may not naturally appeal to mainstream Western audiences. Elba’s acting chops combined with his international acclaim could help bridge that gap.

Idrissa Akuna Elba, OBE, born to Sierra Leonean and Ghanaian parents, is African but not Nigerian. For some, this fact alone disqualifies him from portraying Okonkwo. While Elba is undeniably talented, there is a belief that only a Nigerian actor, someone steeped in the country’s cultural landscape, can truly inhabit the role.

The decision also raises the broader issue of representation in global cinema. If Elba is cast, it may reinforce the troubling precedent of relying on foreign actors to tell indigenous stories. This practice can overshadow local talent and deprive Nigerian actors of opportunities to portray characters that are their cultural birthright. Nigeria’s film industry, Nollywood, is the second largest in the world, and there is no shortage of homegrown talent capable of delivering an authentic portrayal of Okonkwo. To cast outside this wealth of talent might be seen as Hollywood’s endorsement of the notion that African actors lack the capacity to carry a major production – an idea that perpetuates the very colonialist thinking that Things Fall Apart critiques.

Financially, the project is rumored to be a massive undertaking. Several reports suggest that Hollywood studios are in discussions with Nollywood producers, potentially involving African production houses to ensure a sense of cultural ownership. This consortium would pool resources, aiming for a budget exceeding $50 million (over ₦80 billion in today’s exchange rate), with plans to shoot on locations in Nigeria and utilize both local and international crews. The involvement of African producers could mitigate concerns about cultural erasure, ensuring that the film’s portrayal of Igbo society remains respectful and accurate. But, as always with such partnerships, there’s a fine line between collaboration and co-optation. If the project is too heavily influenced by Western investors, the danger of diluting the narrative for mass appeal looms large.

The stakes are high. Things Fall Apart is more than just a story – it is a cultural touchstone, a lens through which the complexities of colonialism and cultural identity have been analyzed for decades. A misstep in its adaptation could have lasting implications for how African stories are told on the global stage. We have seen examples of literary works from other cultures being adapted for international audiences, sometimes with mixed results. ‘The Kite Runner’, based on the novel by Khaled Hosseini, was one such example that, despite its success, faced criticism for its oversimplified portrayal of Afghan culture. More recently, Disney’s live-action adaptation of ‘Mulan’ received backlash for flattening Chinese history into a palatable fantasy for Western viewers, despite its attempts to honor the original.

However, there have also been instances where adaptation has been handled with care. Ang Lee’s ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’, for example, succeeded in telling a distinctly Chinese story while captivating a global audience. It maintained the depth and dignity of its cultural context while still appealing to viewers unfamiliar with the traditions it depicted. The key to its success was respect for the material – an understanding that a global audience need not come at the cost of cultural authenticity.

The question that hangs over Things Fall Apart is whether such a balance can be achieved. Can Idris Elba, with all his talent and charisma, embody Okonkwo without overshadowing the Igbo essence that defines him? Can Hollywood adapt a distinctly African narrative without stripping it of its soul?

As Achebe’s Uchendu says, “The world has no end, and what is good among one people is an abomination with others.” This sentiment resonates as filmmakers face the task of translating Achebe’s world to the screen. The contemporary world is watching, waiting to see whether this adaptation will honor the cultural heritage that Achebe so brilliantly captured, or whether it will fall victim to the very forces of commodification and cultural flattening that Things Fall Apart warns against.

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The Nigeria Manifesto-Book Review: The Trouble With Nigeria By Chinua Achebe

BY ERNEST NWEKE

Forty years since its publication, Ernest Nweke believes that if there was ever a ‘right’ man to write any particular book, then Achebe is the man, and The Trouble with Nigeria is the book. What makes this book stand out is its boldness in speaking truth to power.

In 1983, after over 20 years of bloodshed, flagrant corruption, military rule and pockets of intertribal conflicts and massacres that drowned the progress of post-independence Nigeria, it was unequivocally clear there was something wrong with Nigeria. It was not something in her Niger or Benue rivers or any of her waters, neither was it something in the air cascading her rainforests and sprawling fields, because even in the chaos of the madness that was a troubled Nigeria, there were still patches of order and beauty in her topography and sanity in some of her people. Therefore, to answer the question, ‘What is really wrong with Nigeria?’ Nigerian writer and literary giant, Chinua Achebe, wrote a little book in 1983. 

Published 40 years ago, The Trouble with Nigeria by Chinua Achebe recognizes the principal drawback Nigeria faces to be a failure in leadership. According to Achebe, Nigeria was the way it was because Nigerian leaders were unwilling or unable to lead by personal example. He wrote, ‘Nigeria can change today if she discovers leaders who have the will, the ability and the vision’ to bring about the change the country needs. Achebe does not stop at making this seemingly simplistic point. He proceeds to draw out nuances that show how all the apparent setbacks to growth that Nigeria faces as a nation only exist because the leaders in the country could not rise to the occasion required by their position and office. It is remarkable that 40 years later, the problems he found to be the causes of malaise Nigeria battled with, still troubles the country.

Achebe achieves the uncommon feat of accurate national diagnosis with only ten short chapters. He writes like one, counting his words to ensure it does not exceed a predetermined limit and weighing them for intended impact. Beginning by conveying how a good leader can instantly change the tune of things in Nigeria, Achebe goes ahead to show that recalcitrant Nigerian problems like tribalism, delusion of grandiose, ‘the Nigerian style of leadership’, a lack of patriotism, social injustice, indiscipline, corruption, Igbophobia, and a lack of political or leadership purpose only exist because successive Nigerian leaders benefit from it. The synopsis of this text and its theme can be summarized by these words: The Trouble with Nigeria is a litany of the problems of post-colonial Nigeria. 

 
THE PLACE OF LANGUAGE IN THE BOOK AND IN OUR TROUBLES

Achebe keeps the language of The Trouble with Nigeria Nigerian, direct and simple. He avoids using flowery words in his prose and writes as one who understands the gravity and urgency of the subject matter. From the very first page, a reader familiar with Nigerian English finds expressions like ‘on seat’ and ‘go-slow’—which, even though they may seem peculiar to non-Nigerian readers, make perfect sense to Nigerians.

Pointing out how crucial language is in understanding the setbacks Nigeria faces, sociolinguist, lecturer, PhD student and researcher, Chisom Paula Ogamba, recognized the significance of Achebe’s diction in this work:

It is interesting that from the beginning, you find him writing in Nigerian English. The Trouble with Nigeria lies, in part, in the construct of her multilingualism. Nigerians, who are at best bilinguals but existing in a multilingual society, still have to operate like they live in a monolingual speech community. An effort to communicate with one ubiquitous intelligible language always erodes a lot of cultural and historical context that matters to the individual ethnic groups. These losses would ordinarily be greater in the hands of one who is not a master of the one generally intelligible language and would give rise to hegemonies that bad leaders capitalize on to deepen the friction among Nigerians for their own personal gains.

Reconsidering Nigeria’s problems from a linguistic perspective helps one appreciate the significance of Achebe, a man who has always written for a Nigerian audience in Nigerian English, being the one to write a book that traces the root of these problems and its solution. If there was ever a ‘right’ man to write any particular book, then Achebe is the man, and The Trouble with Nigeria is the book.

With a theme as critical as the one the book covers, it is easy to overlook the incredible pacing of the entire piece. Achebe takes on each chapter with a rhythmic celerity that covers for its lack of flowery narrations. The chapters are not so long that they drown the reader in gloom and hopelessness but are long enough for the reader to get the message he intends to pass. A part of what makes The Trouble with Nigeria stand out is its boldness in speaking truth to power. In the chapter on corruption, Achebe calls out the then-president, Shehu Shagari, for downplaying just how corrupt Nigeria was.

Achebe writes, ‘Shehu Shagari should return home, read the papers and from time to time talk to Nigerians outside the circle of presidential aides and party faithfuls.’ This sort of boldness matters because politics and leadership in Nigeria metes a silencing ruthlessness on citizens who speak truth to power and reward sycophants. Being able to speak truth to power in this way and calling Nigeria’s problem what it really is—a failure in leadership—is why The Trouble with Nigeria stood out in 1983 and partly why it is still a valid text today.

Ogamba said that the problem with Nigeria was and still is bad leadership, It is because we have consistently had a recycling of unqualified old men who hoist themselves on the people, and in most cases against the will of the people, that we see a lot of the problems we have as a nation going on with no hope of an end. It is why we have a lot of corruption and injustice from all arms of government. When all three arms of government are complicit in illegality, their choices become reduced to advancing personal interests or drowning together if any arm should insist on actually serving in the interest of the common Nigerians.

 
NIGERIANS KNOW WHERE THEIR TROUBLES LIE

From nationwide solidarity witnessed across Nigeria during the EndSARS protest in 2020 to the unprecedented youth voter turnout experienced in the most recent election, it is clear that Nigerian youths see a problem with how things have been and believe they can make a change. One can say that even in this age and time, a failure of leadership is still the prime problem in Nigeria.

In a twist that comes off as a providential irony or comedy, Achebe tells the story of a judge who was party to an act of indiscipline on the Enugu-Onitsha highway in 1980. At the end of the story, he quotes Julius Caesar, where Shakespeare wrote, ‘The name of Cassius honours this corruption and chastisement doth therefore hide his head’ and asks the reader to substitute ‘Cassius’ with ‘the Lordship’. To this day, 40 years after he published the book, there are still Nigerians who believe that the results of many election tribunal cases are mere ‘names of our lordships honoring flagrant corruption’.

 
ACHEBE’S ONLY FAILING

Achebe, however, commits a blunder not uncommon of educated Nigerian elite of his era and those of today. He infers or writes as though the salvation of Nigeria would come from efforts by the people in his class, the educated. To call this simplistic would be to put it lightly because it is also historically inaccurate—for ours or any society in the world. The working class—and by the working class, I mean the lowest class who are unskilled or semiskilled and poor—has a higher population ratio when compared to the elite (be it economical or educational) and also suffers more from the machinations of terrible leadership and as such are always the driving force of change in any society. While the educated elite theorizes the failings of the political elite, it is the lower class that will march to Château de Versailles asking for a change.

If anything, we can cite examples to the contrary. One can point out how university professors have consistently served as tools that dignify fraudulent elections while being used as returning officers during elections. These educated elite on the highest ranks of our intellectual stratification do not fit into what Achebe imagined our salvation would look.

THE NIGERIAN MANIFESTO

One can call The Trouble with Nigeria ‘The Nigeria Manifesto’ because it does not only tell us of heads of state from the first 23 years of independence who failed Nigeria and Nigerian, but how more heads of state would go on to fail Nigerians 40 more years down the line. For over 60 years, the trouble with Nigeria has lain in leadership failure.

In the last chapter, ‘The Example of Aminu Kano’, Achebe insists that leaders must ask themselves the same question Nigerian nationalist Mallam Aminu Kano asked many years ago—‘What is the purpose of political power?’ Successive regimes of military and civilian leadership have failed to ask themselves this question; what is the purpose of political power to them? Is making and implementing positive, actionable plans for Nigerians or is political power something they want because ‘it is their turn’? Until Nigerian leaders and prospective leaders can answer this question, they will always misuse their office and remain our principal problem as a nation.

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Haunting Echoes Of A Commemoration

Chinua Achebe. Image: Leonardo Cendamo/Getty


BY OKECHUKWU UWAEZUOKE


A group exhibition, whose theme revolves around the 60th anniversary celebration of Chinua Achebe’s iconic debut novel Things Fall Apart, concluded its three-city tour of Nigeria in Lagos, after previously holding in Awka and Abuja, Okechukwu Uwaezuoke reports

First, there was a caveat. And it was offered shortly before the Lagos leg of the exhibition was officially opened at the Thought Pyramid Art Centre along Norman Williams Street in South-west Ikoyi that Saturday, August 24 evening. At a cosy end of the gallery’s upper floor, where a roundtable discussion was in full swing, its resilient curator, Chuu Krydz Ikwuemesi, had reminded the discussants that – though the exhibition, And the Centre Refuses to Hold: Homage to Things Fall Apart @60, was based on Chinua Achebe’s debut novel, Things Fall Apart – it was not really concerned about the illustration of the novel’s content.

Among the leading art personalities present at that session, by the way, were the Obi of Onitsha, Nnaeneka Achebe; the renowned art collector, Omooba Yemisi Shyllon; the cultural activist and former newspaper editor, Jahman Anikulapo as well as the Arthouse Contemporary Limited’s founder, Kavita Chellaram. Also sitting among several others at the roundtable were two of the exhibiting artists – Tobenna Okwuosa and Akeem Muraina.

Indeed, Ikwuemesi was only re-echoing what the literary luminary and Nobel laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, had written in his preface to the exhibition catalogue. Soyinka had explained that this endeavour was a continuation of the original “dialogue between image and word”, which began when his African publishers, Bookcraft, launched an outsize edition of Achebe’s iconic novel. This edition, it would be recalled, had featured contributions by a coterie of leading contemporary Nigerian artists. But, this exhibition, Soyinka reminded its audience, had set out “as original artistic tributes, for which the literary work maintains a ‘low profile’ as inspirational resource, leaving the artists to their own re-creative devices.” It is for this reason, he added, that it “should therefore be encountered as products in the vein of association of ideas, set as images, and not literal interpretations of the originating narrative.”

Featured at the exhibition, which ended yesterday, were works produced in diverse media by the following artists: Chuu Krydz Ikwuemesi, Tobenna Okwuosa, Ato Arinze, George Odoh, Tony Nsofor, Anthony Polo, Akeem Muraina, Ato Arinze, Chinyere Odinukwe, Nnaemezie Asogwa, Benjamin Akachukwu, Obi Nwaegbe, Iyke Okenyi, Jerry Buhari, Chris Echeta, Blaise Gundu Gbaden, Rita Doris Ubah, Doofan Kwaghhool and Abigail Nnaji.

Expectedly, the artists’ diverse backgrounds, experiences and idiosyncrasies gleamed through the works, among which were photographs, drawings, paintings, sculptures, installations and mixed media. These babel of expressions swirl around the trending issues in post-colonial Africa, through which the exhibition gropes for a unifying theme.

Take Akeem Muraina, the Lagos-based sculptor, for instance. Among the four works he contributed to the exhibition, two were metal sculptures while the remaining two were charcoal drawings. One of the metal sculptures, titled “Aremo” (Yoruba for step-father) depicts a bull and a young antelope co-joined in a prancing stance. The idea is to reflect the distinctions in class and status as well as a mutual affectionate bonding.

But, specifically, it metaphorically alludes to the relationship between the novel’s main character Okonkwo and his foster son Ikemefuna. Understandably, the old rugged bull, which symbolises Okonkwo’s bellicose disposition, finds its contrast in the antelope (a metaphorical depiction of the youth Ikemefuna), which exposes the soft underbelly of his fatherly love. The work, also a call to true humanity, urges affectionate bonding across artificial class distinctions. This is in reference to the love Okonkwo, a respected figure of Umuofia, had for a slave boy Ikemefuna, which he did not show to his own biological son, Nwoye.

Conversely, the photographer, Emezie Asogwa, with his body of works, titled “Wet Dreams”, makes no obvious reference to the novel. Rather, he expresses his thoughts about the power of the mind. Through blurry images hinting at motion, he tells the story of his dreams and the intrinsic energies of what he calls a “conscious unconsciousness” in a suite of miniature photographs. Thus, he guides the audience beyond the carnal imagery of his bodily experience and urges them to consider wet dreams as expressions of mental images in dense gross-materiality.

In the same vein, Obi Nwaegbe only tangentially references the novel in his acrylic on paper work, “The Protest”, but extends his musings beyond the obvious with his other similarly-rendered works: “Hangout at the Lounge”, “Women on a March”, “The Essence of Friendship” and “The Hawkers”. The Abuja-based artist seems rather more concerned about keeping a visual diary of the contemporary realities of his environment.

Similarly, Iyke Okenyi’s wooden sculptural offerings – “Dancer”, “Group Photograph”, “Heavy Rain”, and “Before I Die” – make no obvious references to the novel’s content. Yet, it leaves so much to the viewers’ conjectures.

This was not so the case with Tobenna Okwuosa’s paintings. For the Niger Delta University lecturer’s three oil on canvas works seem to be patently tied to the novel’s content. Yet, he lashes out through them at the mental slavery of the post-colonial African (in “Black Man, White Mask”); places the novel on a pedestal not just for its entertainment value, but also its possible use as a guide and text for mental liberation of the African (in “The Beginning of a Great Narrative”); and romanticises the heroism of its protagonist in the tradition of the Negritude writers (“Okonkwo”).

Nonetheless, not even the exhibition’s eclectic and impersonal attributes could have diminished its synergistic visual harmony. Hats off, therefore, to Ikwuemesi’s curatorial dexterity for the unobtrusive blending of the forms and the media.

Previously, the travelling exhibition – which featured a maximum of five works from each of the participating artists – had first held in October last year in the Anambra State capital Awka. This was before it held, more recently, in Abuja this year. And the Centre Refuses to Hold…,as a title, lends wings to the artists’ musings. It evokes a Tower of Babel scenario, in reference to the economic, political and social crises, which continually plague the continent. Thus, the novel’s account of the cultural conflicts between the colonial masters and their colonised subjects in the late 19th century echoes with relevance in the present. Beaming the spotlight on Unoka (Okonkwo’s father in the novel), it drew parallels between this character and the artist in the context of the contemporary Nigerian society.

SOURCE: THIS DAY

Global Celebration For Achebe’s Things Fall Apart 60 Years After

BY FLORENCE UTOR

THE GUARDIAN

FEBRUARY 18, 2018

Chinua Achebe

The year 2018 marks the Diamond anniversary of the publication of the 1958 novel, Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. The story’s main preoccupation concerns pre- and post-colonial life in late 19th century Nigeria. It is seen as the archetypal modern African novel in English, one of the first to receive global, critical acclaim. It is a staple book in schools throughout Africa and is widely read and studied in English-speaking countries around the world. It was first published in 1958 by William Heinemann Ltd in the U.K. In 1962, it was also the first work published in Heinemann’s African Writers Series. The title of the novel comes from a line in W. B. Yeats’ poem “The Second Coming”.

The celebration of the 60th anniversary of Things Fall Apart is a global affair, with activities taking place in the U.S., U.K., Canada, and nine other African countries including South Africa, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Togo, Uganda, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Cameroon and Togo between February and December 2018. Past fellows of Ebedi International Writers Residency will help organise events in the other African countries.

There will be a five-city transnational event in Nigeria, with activities ranging from Symposia to Children’s Carnival, Writing Competition, Stage Presentations of Things Fall Apart, as well as a Grand Finale with a Night of Tributes. In Nigeria, the activities above will be held in Lagos, Ibadan, Abuja, Sokoto with the grand finale at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.
A literary competition among secondary school students in the five centres will be organised. The competition will be organised with the provision of copies of Things Fall Apart for the students to read for one month before the day of the competition, which will be in the form of a quiz, reading comprehension and one act dramatic enactment of any part of the book by participating schools.

Apart from foreign writers and scholars, notable Africa-based writers and scholars will also be invited to present papers and talks.

A five-man Africa Organizing Committee to be headed by former National President, Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), Dr. Wale Okediran, will oversee the organisation of the event in Nigeria and 10 other African countries while Local Organising Committees in the five centres in Nigeria and other African countries will also be constituted.

In Nigeria, the colloquium has been slated from February to August 2018 while other African countries will fix their own celebration between January and December 2018.

In Nigeria, collaborations will be done with the ANA at the national level and through its state chapters, where the events are billed to hold as well as tertiary institutions such as University of Lagos, University of Ibadan, University of Abuja, Othma Dan Fodiyo University, Sokoto as well as the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) will also support in the area of publicity and the use of the NTA Arena in Abuja for the Children’s Carnival.

Okediran, a former House of Representatives’ member, explained that organising activities for the celebration of Things Fall Apart 60 years after would be keeping the literary achievement of the iconic novel aglow. As he put it, “Too many things keeping people gloomy in Nigeria. Literature is as important as politics or even more important. Don’t forget, the best literature comes out of the time of great distress. We should not allow whatever is happening to dampen our enthusiasm for literature, as it has its own impetus. We will also use the celebration to immense our children in the literary tradition. We are using it to celebrate our pioneers of literature.


“Penguin is doing another edition of Things Fall Apart; so, the economics is another aspect of the celebration. As you can also see, through Achebe’s iconic offerings we’re uniting Nigeria (with the five-city celebration of activities) where others are dividing the country.”

Tentative venues and dates for the Nigerian celebration are Lagos – Tuesday, July 10, 2018 – Symposium, Literary Competition and Stage Adaptation of Things Fall Apart (TFA). In Ibadan – Tuesday, July 17, 2018 – Symposium, Literary Competition and Stage Adaptation of TFA. Abuja (University) – Tuesday, July 24, 2018 – Symposium, Literary Competition and Stage Adaptation of TFA. Abuja (City) – Saturday, July 28, 2018 – Children’s Carnival and Stage Play by Secondary School Students. In Sokoto – Thursday, August 2, 2018 – Symposium, Literary Competition and Stage Play of TFA; and Nsukka – Saturday, August 11, 2018 – Symposium, Literary Competition and Night of Tributes and Dinner.

In view of the above, The Christie and Chinua Achebe Foundation invites abstracts for 15 – 20-minute presentations during the International Conference to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the iconic book. The conference will hold in five cities as indicated above. In so doing, the conference will also be celebrating the works of one of Africa’s most outstanding writers as well as the achievements, friendships, partnerships and challenges of African literature in the past 60 years. The conference will be a platform for students, writers, scholars, literary critics and other interested parties to engage, rethink and propose possible new directions for African literature after 60 years of Things Fall Apart.

Scholars have been enjoined to submit abstracts, not exceeding 200 words, on any of the sub-themes below ‘Conflict Generation and Resolution in Achebe’s Things Fall Apart,’ ‘African Literature after Achebe’s Things Fall Apart,’ ‘The Achebe Spirit in the Emergence of Modern African Literature,’ ‘Managing Changes and Transitions in a Pluralized Society: Achebe’s Things Fall Apart in Reference,’ ‘Africa at the Crossroads of Development and Good Governance: What Has Literature Got To Do With It?’ ‘Traditionalism versus modernism in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart,’ ‘Sexualities and subjectivities: Women in Achebe’s Novels,’ ‘Imagining a New Africa: The Rhetoric of Transformation in Literature and Oratory,’ ‘The Dialectics and Symbolism of Things Fall Apart,’ ‘Prophesy and Poetry in the works of Chinua Achebe,’ ‘Culture, Nationalism and the African Writer,’ and ‘Literary Influences, Impacts and Imitations across Generations.’

All abstracts should be submitted electronically to: ThingsFallApart60@yahoo.com and copied to waleokediran@yahoo.co.uk. Deadline for submission of abstracts is March 15, 2018. Notification for abstracts acceptance is March 30, 2018 while full paper submission deadline is May 30, 2018.

Things Fall Apart follows the life of Okonkwo, an Igbo (‘Ibo’ in the novel) leader and local wrestling champion in the fictional Nigerian village of Umuofia. The work is split into three parts, with the first describing his family, personal history, and the customs and society of the Igbo, and the second and third sections introducing the influence of British colonialism and Christian missionaries on the Igbo community.

Things Fall Apart was followed by a sequel, No Longer at Ease (1960), originally written as the second part of a larger work along with Arrow of God (1964). Achebe states that his two later novels A Man of the People (1966) and Anthills of the Savannah (1987), while not featuring Okonkwo’s descendants, are spiritual successors to the previous novels in chronicling African history.

10 Questions With Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

BY SARAH BEGLEY

MOTTO-TIME

IMAGE: DIMITRIOS KAMBOURIS/GETTY

TIME: This is a book about how to raise a feminist. Now that you’re a mother of a girl yourself, what has surprised you?

Adichie: How different and encompassing my love for her is, how I’ve never loved like this, and how fiercely protective I am — sometimes I think unreasonably so. It’s also made me see clearly how life is messy, how ideology doesn’t neatly match real life. There’s a certain amount of flexibility that’s important to have. Here’s an example: I don’t particularly like the idea of girls wearing pink, and I don’t find pink very attractive. When my child is old enough to negotiate with me, if she wants everything in pink, I will let her have it — but I’ll have conversations with her about why the pink/blue binary is a problem.

What has been your biggest pet peeve about parenting advice?

Probably my family and Nigerian friends making comments about my daughter’s hair. ‘Oh, it’s tangled,’ ‘Oh, she’s getting dreadlocks.’ My daughter has a head full of very beautiful curly hair, and she hates to have her hair touched — she cries. She’s so young, I just don’t think it’s worth it to have her go through the pain of combing her hair. I wash her hair and I use a natural conditioner, I put some natural oils in it and I let it be. She’s going to be old enough at some point to decide what she wants to do.

Why did you decide to keep you pregnancy quiet?

I wanted it to be something I shared with people who actually knew me, people who I love and people who love me. In the past 10, 15 years, I think maybe with the rise of social media, there’s a kind of performance of pregnancy that women are expected to engage in. Particularly if you’re in the public eye. And I want to say that women who make the choice to do that, that’s fine. But I find it problematic because it trivializes the complexity of pregnancy.

Why do you think it’s good for a mother to have a job, even if it isn’t a job she loves?

Because one of my favorite sayings in Igbo translates very loosely to ‘A woman must have her own.’ And that’s why. I think of course the ideal is you love your job, but the reality is that many people don’t. But I also don’t think that that’s a reason not to have a job, particularly if you’re a woman. I think to be female is often to be encouraged to measure your worth based on how much of yourself you’re able to sacrifice. A woman having a job is kind a pushback to that idea. It’s the idea of a woman being her full, separate self.

You write that you are angrier about sexism than racism. Why?

It’s not a suggestion somehow that sexism is worse than racism, because I don’t think so. But I have often felt lonely in my anger about sexism. I felt lonely because the people I love, the people I spend time with, are mostly — and these are people who are not just black, so people from different parts of the world, different races — people who get anti-black racism. People who just never ask me to prove that anti-black racism exists. But when it comes to sexism, I find that kind, intelligent, loving people often want me to prove that gender injustice exists.

You had a showdown with a Donald Trump supporter on BBC Newsnight over race in the election. How should people engage with those who don’t share their views?

I’m interested in people who don’t share my political opinions, because I want to understand their thinking, and also obviously because I want to change their opinions, I want to convince. So even before Donald Trump I subscribed to right-wing publications. And I don’t consider myself right-wing, I consider myself left-leaning. I also don’t really consider myself ultra-left. It’s hard to be raised in an Igbo household and be extremely left in the Western sense. But anyway, if I had been told that I would be having a conversation with a Trump supporter, I would not have come. But, if I had been told that a conservative Republican was coming on to debate, I probably would have gone, because I’m quite willing to debate competing ideas about how the government should function — should we have a welfare state? Should education be for profit? But I’m just unwilling to debate the humanity of groups of people. And that for me is what Donald Trump represents.

You write, “In teaching [girls] about oppression, be careful not to turn the oppressed into saints.” What do you mean by that?

I think sometimes in discourse around people who have been oppressed, there’s a need to put this halo around their heads and make them seem perfect, because then they’re more deserving of our sympathy or empathy. I think it happens a lot with black people in this country. So if a black person has experienced racism, God save that black person if that black person has also done something not-so-great in their past, because somehow it then becomes a reason why they deserve the racist act. Perfection shouldn’t be a condition for justice, or even for empathy and sympathy.

How did it feel to have your book We Should All Be Feminists given to every 16-year-old in Sweden?

I felt bad for the poor kids! No, I was pleasantly surprised. I got a report recently with feedback after the kids had read it, and I was really pleased at some of the letters — boys who said, ‘Now I know that a feminist isn’t somebody who hates men, and now I’m going to call myself a feminist and I’m going to try to change my society.’

Is it overall a good thing or a bad thing for feminism to have pop culture prominence?

I think it’s a good thing. I want a world in which we no longer need feminism, because men and women will be equal. And if we’re going to get that world, we need to have as many people as possible on board.

What turns do you think literature will take in the next four years?

What I would like to see is more politically present writing, if that makes sense. I remember thinking, for example, that the U.S. was at war in Iraq and Afghanistan for quite a while, and it just felt to me odd that a lot of the literature didn’t reflect that. There’s a sense in which literature in the U.S. has always sort of prided itself on being quite apart form political realities.

You famously grew up in a house where Chinua Achebe once lived. What are the odds that some future great novelist is growing up there now?

Who knows? I know there’s a family there, although I was heartbroken that they cut down the beautiful frangipani trees. Chinua Achebe’s spirit is, I’m sure, still hovering around.

A version of this article appeared in the Mar. 13, 2017 issue of TIME Magazine.

Where We Met

BY AMBROSE EHIRIM

Image courtesy of Jungle Red Writers

I walked in, located a spot and pulled my backpack off my shoulders. The place looked worry free and I had assumed it was good timing for the brief moment I would stay. I walked up to the cashier and grabbed a mixed blend of smoothies, which had been my favorite refreshment nowadays, and I then walked back to the desk where I had placed my backpack. Inside my backpack, I took out my laptop and a note book for what may pop up in my thoughts and for what I may jot down going through the news and views on the web. I hooked up the networks and shuttled to a number of websites and kept browsing to check related news and happenings around my neck of the woods. Then, I shoveled and located African related news and clicked on Nigeria to see if Boko Haram has thrown a bomb somewhere in the multitude of people. As I opened up a news related article on Nigeria, he glanced from the next desk where he sat and carrying with him papers he had come to grade from where he teaches Western History at a college just miles away from where we were. Upon noticing my outfit, a black fedora hat, blue jeans, a pair of bally shoes, and a Brazilian number 10 yellow jersey and, my sunglasses sitting on the desk, he concluded I must be one of the beat makers who uses protool, the digital audio workstation for Microsoft windows to generate varieties of musical genres. But seeing a Nigeria headline on my screen it then occurred to him I must either be a Nigerian or perhaps a curious minded fellow who is reading to find out about the notorious Boko Haram, if they have captured more of their victims, or if there's an ongoing battle between the insurgents and the nation's security forces. Elevating my head up and starring at each other, I told him I was Igbo and upon hearing that he seized the moment and started telling me about his Igbo connection. First, he asked if I knew one Ifeanyi Aniebo, that they all were at UCLA in the early 1970s, and that Aniebo wrote a book very powerful in lyrics, books powerful by its theme titled "Anonymity of Sacrifice" and "Talisman." He also told me that Aniebo in the 1970s while they attended classes at UCLA was one of the brightest African minds of the time and that he always argued and compared what had happened to his kins to the Jews. He said while he was almost done obtaining his teaching credentials, Aniebo left for Nigeria to teach at the University of Port Harcourt. Then he asked if I knew Comfort Akwaq whom he met at the UCLA campus. When I told him I knew Aniebo, he sent me on assignment to locate Aniebo for him. I did not know Comfort and never met her. He said Aniebo mentioned nothing else but Biafra and the consequences he had bore after its collapse. Aniebo had returned from the United States in 1966 from some military briefings and training courses. Upon return, what confronted him was the war which he fought on the Biafran side and after the war he returned back to the United States and enrolled for classes at UCLA on the counsel of the late Professor Boniface Obichere who was already teaching African American Studies at the campus. So while he took a breath, I seized the moment to ask my own questions to find out  what he really was getting into. Telling me he was already retired from teaching history classes at UCLA and currently teaching Western History for transfer and honor students at the Santa Monica College to meet up with today's high demands in our society, and an extra change that wouldn't hurt. Then he said he would give it all up so he could have time to travel the world and see what differences it made from different locations and what areas of improvement are required to be attended. While I was trying to think and see what areas of discipline I'd asked my questions he jumped in and asked if I knew Chinua Achebe or have heard about him. I told him where I come from, if you don't know Achebe, then you have no story to tell. He said Achebe use to visit the UCLA campus every now and then when his daughter, Nwando, was attending classes, and that he was Nwando's history professor. He said each time Achebe was in town, that him and some of his like-minded colleagues would spend time together with the ode mkpishi, the novelist, and they would discuss relative issues into the night. That Achebe never stopped short of the tragedy that befell his people and that he always put the narratives into perspective. He asked me about my experience during the pogrom and I told him I was not there which still pains me because the tragic event denied me the privilege to have seen my relatives--cousins, uncles, aunts, grand parents, distant cousins and other kinsfolk--who had perished under the Yakubu Gowon's-led genocidal campaign against the Igbo nation. While I was telling him about my concerns, I took the advantage to draw him closer to the Ehirim Files and reached the gallery of the Igbo massacre where I pulled out hundreds of disturbing images never released on the Pogrom. He thought he had known a little bit from what the sectional press had shown to them at the time, and looking through these images, he lost his breath and began to shed a little bit of some tears. I told him I have spent an entire life trying to figure out why the tragic event took place and why him and his Western philosophers stood by, kept quiet and watched such atrocities unfold. He was speechless while we exchanged information for, hopefully, another future chit-chat at a neighborhood cafe.

War, Biafra Genocide and the Missing Facts in that Soyinka Interview

By Nkem Ekeopara

nkem360@googlemail.com

1968 NAF Napalm air raid on Aba General Hospital

On May 18, 2013, the US-based online media outfit Sahara Reporters granted an interview to the Nobel laureate Professor Wole Soyinka. The interview was done a few days to the burial date of the late legendary writer, Professor Chinua Achebe, who passed on on March 21, 2013 in the US. Apparently, it was scheduled to provide Professor Soyinka an opportunity to offer his thoughts on the stature of Professor Achebe, recently reckoned by the US President Barack Obama as somebody who “shattered the conventions of literature”. Aside from Soyinka speaking on Achebe’s place in his calling, Soyinka also made statements on the late Biafran leader Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu and the Nigeria-Biafra War and, of course, the genocide visited on the Igbo people before and during that war under Yakubu Gowon’s watch.

Reaching a decision on the appropriate time to write this piece delayed the article from being written until now. One did not want one’s thoughts to divert attention from the literary duels which Professor Soyinka’s controversial interview provoked between some of the ‘successor writers’ on the social media. Having read views on the interview such as one adduced by Mr. Ikhide R. Ikheola, someone I have come to regard as a master of witticism, I did not feel any pressure in getting it out there, which would have necessitated at least a passing comment on Soyinka’s perception of who Achebe is. Besides, my hands were full at that time. So, why waste time on such words likened to what Igbo elders would say is water poured on a spherical grindstone when it comes to Professor Soyinka’s perception and the global perception of the departed Achebe and Achebe’s art?

Therefore, statements like, “Yes, there was only one word for it- genocide” and “The Igbo must remember, however, that they were not militarily prepared for that war. I told Ojukwu this...” came with words that deserve one’s attention. These statements deserve one’s attention because there are so many young people in the contraption called Nigeria who were not born before the Nigeria-Biafra War. Some of these young people have not taken time in the past to read books written by unbiased Nigerians and foreign authors about the war. However, with the internet and its social media component, these young people are now interested in reading about the war. Many of them are still not reading books about the war but rely on snippets they get on it through the social media to form their impression about the war. Therefore, it is incumbent on opinion moulders with the stature of Professor Wole Soyinka to inject the critical facts into their thoughts when they talk about the war.

To begin with, the decision to declare the former Eastern Region a sovereign state to be known and called the Republic of Biafra was not single-handedly made by Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu. The weighty decision to pick up arms to defend the declared republic, the only secure space Easterners had at the time, after being hounded out of other parts of Nigeria and still being hunted down across Nigeria, was not single-handedly made by Dim Ojukwu. Dim Odumegwu-Ojukwu did not make the decision for the uncritical-minded Yakubu Gowon to repudiate the landmark Aburi Accord and engage in other untoward acts that led to the war, including the unilateral creation of states and declaration of war against the young republic. Our young people need to know about the Aburi Accord. They need to know that at Aburi an all-embracing agreement was reached and signed by representatives of all the components of the crisis-ridden Nigeria to restore normalcy in the country, after Gowon failed to keep his word as Ojukwu bowed to persuasion and asked Easterners to go back to their former stations only to be cut down in a second wave of killings, all in a bid to stave off war. Yakubu Gowon quite dishonourably abandoned the all important Aburi agreement on the advice of his foreign masters and some ‘super’ permanent secretaries in Nigeria. The greatest burden Dim Ojukwu bore till his death was caving in to that persuasion and allowing his people who miraculously escaped the first wave of massacre to return to their stations only to be so gruesomely killed.

There are five possible reasons why this sort of reductionist mindset of blaming Dim Ojukwu for the war persists, in spite of the facts that abound. These are ignorance; deliberate attempts to malign the leaders of Eastern Nigeria made up of some of the best brains of their time; convenient amnesia; living in denial, and deliberate attempt to hide the real issues from our young people.

On ignorance, anyone with the basic knowledge of who the Easterners are, especially the Igbo people, knows that they are neither feudal nor monarchical and therefore not servile to the extent of one individual enjoying a central authority. Perhaps, nothing captures the essence of who they are than what the Igbo elders say: Otu onye adighi a bu nna mu oha/An individual can never be everyone. According to Professor Aluko, whom Soyinka also cites, Ojukwu had been asked by his Igbo people to choose between leading them or bowing out. It is well recorded how a student of University of Nigeria, Nsukka set himself ablaze over Ojukwu’s reluctance to secede. Ojukwu admitted that one of his greatest mistakes was delay in declaring Biafra. Everything paints a picture of what played out in the case of the declaration of Biafra and implicitly the decision to defend Biafran territorial integrity after Yakubu Gowon ordered his military to proceed to the next phase of the genocide through the attack at Gakem on July 6, 1967.

The fact remains that there were bodies, the Eastern Region Consultative Assembly and the Advisory Committee of Chiefs and Elders, representing all the peoples of Eastern Nigeria that mandated the then young military governor of Eastern Nigeria, Lt. Col. Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, to declare Eastern Nigeria a sovereign state, the Republic of Biafra. Our young people need to know this. They should be informed that the Ijaws, according to Chief Melford Okilo, would have sided with Biafra, if Ojukwu had requested for a referendum. But would Gowon let that kind of process take place when he had already repudiated the Aburi Accord and unilaterally restructured Nigeria into 12 states? The youth need to know that a 67-year-old Dr. Alvan Ikoku whose wisdom and erudition was widely known, was the chairman of the Eastern Nigeria Consultative Assembly.

If it is not ignorance that is responsible for the sort of mindset that fuels this ‘blame Ojukwu for the war,’ then, it is a clear case of deliberate attempt to malign the leaders of Eastern Nigeria, consisting of dogged nationalists who were in the forefront of the struggle to free Nigeria from British colonialism. There were world-class academics cum astute university administrators, prudent and meticulous civil servants, brilliant unionists and notable chiefs. People must understand that when they engage in ‘blame Ojukwu for the war’ reductionist approach to the genocidal war, they are maligning outstanding individuals like Dr. Alvan Ikoku, Dr. M. I. Okpara, Dr. Akanu Ibian, Chief M. T. Mbu, Chief Eyo Bassey Ndem, Chief Jereton Mariere, Dr. K. O. Dike, Professor Eni Njoku, Mr. N. U. Akpan, I. S. Kogbara etc. for a thoughtful decision they reached, having weighed the options - extermination or slavery.

We are dealing with those struck with convenient amnesia, remembering only what they choose to remember, a choice, which is quite prevalent in Nigeria. Of course, there are those living in denial, and others making deliberate attempts to hide the real issues from our young people. Anyone who is willing to talk about advising Dim Ojukwu against the war, and willing to talk about the genocide should have known the importance of bringing the Aburi Accord into that mix as well as mentioning the indifference of Yakubu Gowon’s government to the first and second phases of the genocide, especially in Northern Nigeria that left 50,000 Easterners mainly Igbo people dead. Bringing the Aburi Accord into that mix has become quite important particularly now there seems to be intensification of the calls for a Sovereign National Conference, for obvious reasons.

Perhaps, it is this reductionist approach that made Professor Soyinka to believe that the elimination of Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu and Yakubu Gowon by the so-called Third Force scheme was the best way of solving the Nigerian crisis at the time rather than mobilizing for the implementation of the Aburi Accord. In a 4-part article written by Dr. M. O. Ene titled, ‘Who is the brain behind January 15?’ that was published on www.kwenu.com on January 15, 2007, Dr. Ene tried to probe and locate the proverbial route through which water entered the pipe of the pumpkin-leaf. Dr. Ene states thus, “From his own words and writings, on [one] can deduce that Soyinka was in the midst of pro-Awolowo and anti-Akintola forces in the ‘wild, wild West’ era and he was in Banjo-Ifeajuna Third Force scheme that tried to eliminate both Odumegwu-Ojukwu and Gowon.”

We should not forget that Pepper Clark, Wole Soyinka, Christopher Okigbo, Segun Awolowo, Victor Banjo and Emmanuel Ifeajuana were part of an Ibadan circle of young hot heads who were aggrieved by what was happening in Ibadan. This led Soyinka to occupy the Western Broadcasting Corporation in 1965, to prevent the airing of a speech by Prime Minister Tafawa Balewa. In effect, Soyinka’s action and the January 15, 1966 coup plot and the killing of Balewa weren’t unconnected.

In the same vein, Pepper Clark’s name comes up in discussions on the coup, as Clark it was who smuggled a helpless Ifeajuna out of Nigeria when the Lagos operation of the January 15, 1966 coup failed. To blame Ojukwu on whose laps this misconduct was thrown, and who was more cautious than the Soyinkas, who were playing ideological games, is quite puzzling.

Reading through Dr. Ene’s interrogatory piece one is left with the impression that there might have been a force or forces outside the military that consciously or unconsciously provided the poetic and militant spark that lit up the night of January 15, 1966. Young people need to explore this side of the war narration too to understand fully the events that led to the Biafra genocide.

Professor Soyinka in the past did acknowledge the inevitability of the war and did underscore the fact that what was going on was the implementation of, as he puts it on pages 21 to 22 of his book The Man Died “the doctrine of justifiable genocide”. In the same book, he expresses the fear that the situation may degenerate into “downright genocidal epidemic”. 

Now, if someone, due to his human instinct could be moved to write the above haunting expressions, pray, why should the leaders of the former Eastern Region and later Biafra, fold their arms and wait for their people to be murdered en mass without making any attempt to defend themselves in their own homeland?

In relating the story of one Ibo [Igbo] photographer, Emmanuel Ogbona [Ogbonna], who was brutally murdered and thrown into the bush around September 1966, after being abducted from his studio at Odo Ona, Ibadan, with his known killers not being brought to book, and contrasting this with the sentencing to death of one man and giving various terms of imprisonment to eight others in Sokoto for mistakenly murdering Ojibo Uche asleep, a little brother of Mr. Joseph Uche, an Igala, thinking he was Igbo, after raiding his home and not finding him, Professor Soyinka had no problem in reaching the right conclusion and stating that:

The juxtaposition of these two sample events, even without the reminder of its large-scale horror context, the most comprehensive, undiscriminating savaging of a people within memory on the black continent, destroys the hypocritical disclaimers of the regime. It states one simple truth: that at the very least the machinery of justice existed all through and after the Northern massacres and that lack of the prevention of their exercise was a deliberate, selective decision of Yakubu Gowon’s government (The Man Died , 24).

The questions that should agitate the mind of anyone reading this at this point is, why do people always find it convenient not to blame Yakubu Gowon for the war, seeing this kind of fact and Gowon’s disavowal of the Aburi Accord? Why are people in the habit of exonerating the thief by blaming the victim for not securing his door properly when it comes to the Nigeria-Biafra War, as Olayinka Sule would ask? As our Igbo elders say, it is only a tree that will be told that it is going to be cut down and it will remain where it is.

It is worth quoting Professor Soyinka’s The Man Died elaborately here to present the deepness of the scar Easterners, especially the Igbo people, bore and still bear, which made them to feel secure only in the East and believe in Aburi, the only instrument that could keep them in their region at least for a period of time. I am quoting Soyinka elaborately so that people, especially young people, can appreciate why our parents needn’t have to have loads of arsenal before deciding to defend their right and those of their offspring to exist. Professor Soyinka writes:

The following fact is therefore stated merely as a matter of record: in September/October 1966, another ATROCITIES did take place all over Nigeria including Lagos, the seat of Yakubu’s government. But where it really manifested in grand style was in the North. The ATROCITIES were so public even in the South (Lagos) that delegates to a Constitutional Conference which had been launched by Yakubu Gowon were physically man-handled by Gowon’s Army right in view of the House of Assembly buildings where these constitutional talks did take place. Man-hunts publicized by machine-gun stutters, took place around Ikoyi where Gowon lived, and the executions and torture games that went on in his official residence, Dodan Barracks, on civilians who were simply arrested on the public road- Ikorodu checkpoint was the favourite kidnap point- were common daylight occurrences known to Yakubu Gowon. As for the events in the North- let us simply sum it up and say that ATROCITIES did take place on a scale so vast and so thorough, and so well-organized that it was variously referred to as the Major Massacres (as distinct from the May rehearsals), genocide and sometimes only as disturbances and this gem is by Ukpabi Asika- a state of anomy! Yakubu Gowon himself went far enough to put it under the broad sphere of ATROCITIES in his appeal. The word itself, appeal, is significant. It tells much about Mr. Gowon (119-120).

The appeal Professor Soyinka is referring to here was a short unserious speech Gowon made to fellow Northerners in which Gowon never failed to mention that ‘God in his power has entrusted the responsibility of this great country of ours, Nigeria, to the hands of another Northerner...’             

In the interview referred to earlier, Professor Soyinka agreed that genocide was committed against the Igbo before the war. He said that genocide was committed on both sides during the war; he also said that the scale was more on the Nigerian side. I know that during the war, the Nigerian Air Force strafed markets in full session, sometimes killing up to 500 people in just one raid. I know that the Nigerian Air Force and their Egyptian collaborators strafed churches and schools that became refugee centres in Biafra. I know they flew so low and targeted homes; they bombed hungry refugees clogging main roads and moving wearily to the next town, which was yet to fall into the hands of the Nigerian forces. I know that the Nigerian Army summoned all males in Asaba and adjoining towns, and massacred them in cold blood.

I know that the Nigerian government used starvation as a weapon of war to send millions of children, women and the aged to a slow and pitiable death. I know that the Nigerian military shot down Red Cross and other relief airplanes bringing food and medicines to Biafran babies. And all these were directed at an ethnic group, the Igbo people.

Also, I know that the Biafran Air Force did successfully bomb power stations, petroleum product storage tanks and several Nigerian Air Force bases and took out some evil birds supplied by the then USSR, thus degrading their air capability for a while. I never knew the Biafran Air Force targeted any concentration of civilian populations. I never knew that the Biafran Army summoned all males in any town or group of towns and massacred them in cold blood.

According to the Encarta Dictionary, “genocide is the systematic killing of all the people from a national, ethnic, or religious group, or an attempt to do this.” Professor Soyinka records several incidents of genocide in his book, The Man Died, which took place under Yakubu Gowon’s watch. On page 23 of the book, Soyinka is of the opinion that those responsible for the genocide “must be named, denounced and forced to stand trial some day”.  

More than four decades after these acts of genocide were committed no one has been brought to book. I think it is about time Professor Wole Soyinka capped his life of activism by calling on the international community to try Yakubu Gowon and his cohorts for genocide. Certainly, bringing the long awaited justice to the victims of Biafra genocide would be more like it for a Nobel laureate than defending and celebrating a mass murderer. 

Mourners Gather To Honor Chinua Achebe At Funeral

 Mourners gathered in Prof. Chinua Achebe's  hometown for a funeral Thursday in Ogidi, a small town in Nigeria's east. Among attendees was Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan, who held up copies of Achebe's books during the service at a local Anglican church _ including his famous essay "The Trouble With Nigeria." Achebe will be buried tonight by his family in a mausoleum next to his home in Ogidi. Images: Sunday Alamba/Associated Press

Pallbearers carry the coffin of late author Chinua Achebe at his funeral service, held at St. Philip's Anglican Church in Ogidi, Nigeria, Thursday, May 23, 2013. Writer Chinua Achebe shunned Nigeria’s corrupt politicians and twice turned down national honors, never fearing to criticizing those he felt ruined a country he once supported breaking away from. On Thursday, however, the lawmakers and the country’s elite came to him. Hundreds attended Achebe’s funeral among the rolling hills of his eastern Nigeria home, a service that saw even President Goodluck Jonathan literally hold up the writer’s books. The gold plaque on his coffin simply called him the “eagle atop the Iroko tree” in his native Igbo language.

Pallbearers carry the coffin of late author Chinua Achebe at his funeral service, held at St. Philip's Anglican Church in Ogidi, Nigeria, Thursday, May 23, 2013.

Family members follow the coffin of late author Chinua Achebe at his funeral service, held at St. Philip's Anglican Church in Ogidi, Nigeria, Thursday, May 23, 2013.

Christie Achebe, the wife of late author Chinua Achebe, at his funeral service, held at St. Philip's Anglican Church in Ogidi, Nigeria, Thursday, May 23, 2013.

Unidentified traditional Igbo chiefs attend an event to celebrate the life of late author Chinua Achebe in Awka, Nigeria.

A woman sells Tell Magazine copies with portrait of Chinua Achebe.

From left, Deputy speaker of the house of representative Emeka Ihedioha, Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan, centre, and Ghanaian President John Mahama, right, attend the funeral of author Chinua Achebe at his funeral service, held at St. Philip's Anglican Church in Ogidi, Nigeria, Thursday, May 23, 2013.

Archbishop Of Canterbury, Others Eulogise Achebe At Service Of Songs

• Academy of Letters, college old boys, others  pay tributes

MOHAMMED ABUBAKAR, NKECHI ONYEDIKA (ABUJA), TUNDE OYEDOYIN (LONDON), LAWRENCE NJOKU (ENUGU) AND ANOTE AJELUOROU (LAGOS)

The Guardian Nigeria, Sunday, May 19, 2013

FRESH tributes came for the late Nigerian novelist, Prof. Chinua Achebe, as the Archbishop of Canterbury – the leader of the Anglican Church Communion worldwide – the Most Rev. Justin Welby, led a full Anglican service of songs for him in London.

The Bishop of Woolich, Rt. Revd. Michael Ipgrave and his Southwark counterpart, Rt. Revd. Christopher Chessun, also eulogised him, so also was the Jamaican High Commissioner to the United Kingdom (UK), Mrs. Aloun Ndombet-Assamba.

Also, the Nigerian Academy of Letters (NAL) and old boys of Government College, Umuahia, Sunday paid tributes to the late literary icon.

In a one-page eulogy read by his representative at the service held  at All Saints Cathedral in New Cross on Saturday evening, Welby said “it is a great privilege to be able to send this tribute to Chinua Achebe as you gather for a service at All Saints in his memory. Chinua Achebe was a wonderful poet and novelist, and one of the most important and influential writers in the history of Literature in English.

“He was a world figure, and played a significant role in shaping my own understanding of Nigeria and of the post-colonial era. In offering my condolences, I would also like to express my admiration for his courage in pursuing justice and integrity. ”

Welby also described Achebe as “a tremendous human being, and also a family man.”

In his own eulogy, Chessun described him as a “novelist of great stature.” The cleric also echoed what Nelson Mandela famously said of Achebe, that he, through his writings, “brought Africa to the world” while remaining rooted as an African.

Continuing, Chessun noted: “Certainly his role in the formation of national identity and consciousness in post-independence Nigeria cannot be under-estimated.”

Eulogising Achebe, Ipgrave said he  was not just “a great teller of stories,” but “a notable academic” who “lived between the worlds of scholarships and of popular culture,  and at times, also of politics and religion.” According to him, that place in-between often proved to be a hard and costly place to be.

The bishop told the congregation of about 200 not to be gloomy, noting that: “What we mark tonight for Chinua Achebe is his journey into a place which is no longer at the centre where things fall apart.”

On her part, Ndombet-Assamba commended Achebe for not only having a “great impact” on her personally and others who read his books in the Caribbean, but that he “gave them dignity as people of colour.” The diplomat thanked Achebe for giving her and millions of others the “wonderful gift of words from an African perspective.”

There were also eulogies from the Chairman of the Central Association of Nigerians in the United Kingdom (CANUK), Chief Bimbo Afoloyan and from the service organiser, Alex Achebe, who was Achebe’s nephew. Alex also read from his uncle’s last work, There was a country.

At the colloquium and night of tributes organised by old boys of Government College, Umuahia, elder statesman, Dr. Arthur Agwuncha Nwankwo, regretted that the societal ills, which made Achebe reject national honours on two occasions, still thrive in the country.

He particularly lamented the state of infrastructure, especially the deplorable Enugu-Onitsha highway, where Achebe sustained the road mishap that condemned him to a wheelchair until his death, stressing that it was unfortunate that Achebe’s remains would be taken through the same road in its poor state.

He said: “He had hoped that in his lifetime, he would see a Nigeria that is truly federal in character and practice; he had hoped that Nigerians would have come to a roundtable to discuss the basis of their continued existence; he had hoped that the leadership would have by now improved infrastructure in the country; repaired the many damaged roads in the country, which, in the first instance, condemned him to a wheelchair till death; rehabilitated our collapsing institutions and given hope to the ordinary Nigerian. That he died without seeing these expectations come to fulfilment is an indictment on Nigeria and her leaders and an indication that all is not well with Nigeria. More than anything else, we should while paying deserved tribute to this literary icon and avatar, give serious thought to the tragedy that Nigeria has turned into if there is going to be a tomorrow for all of us.”

He said it would have been a smear on the reputation of Achebe had he accepted on two occasions national honours based on his belief that the government was notorious for its corruption, ineptitude and economic strangulation of the masses.

Nwankwo, who is the Chancellor of Eastern Mandate Union (EMU) and former presidential candidate, described Achebe as a ‘dictionary’, stressing that he lived in the library at Government College, Umuahia, devouring the writings of such writers as Robert Louis Stevenson, Charles Dickens and Joseph Conrad.

He insisted that the views expressed by Achebe in his last book, There was a country, represented the minds of the Igbo, stressing that the book was outstanding because it was written with pride and not prejudice.

He said the death of Achebe had brought to an end a glorious career that spanned over six decades, adding that he reshaped the English Language to accommodate Igbo voices and concepts.

The Nigerian Academy of Letters (NAL) described Achebe’s death as a great tragedy not only to his immediate family, the country but to the whole world.

In a statement made available to The Guardian in Abuja, the President of the Academy, Prof. Munzali Jubril, said the passage of Achebe, who was a foundation fellow of the organisation, would continue to leave a very deep vacuum in the literary world when taken into account the impact his literary works had had on the world.

According to Munzali, a one-time Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC), “Achebe is universally remembered as the author of Things Fall Apart and Arrow of God, two of the great African novels of the 20th century. Both are stories of the colonial encounters told from the point of view of a post-colonial era. Besides, Achebe had a profound sense of history. For him, the past is the foundation of the present, and that what we do with our past has a consequence for posterity.

“He had always insisted on the need to understand where we are coming from if we are to remain in control of the present and future, and he applied this principle to his creative writing, and he even extended it beyond himself by mentoring the young generation of writers that would succeed an aging generation that includes Profs. Wole Soyinka and J.P. Clark, two other distinguished fellows of the academy.”

The statement continued: “His bequest to the younger generation includes creative writing journal, Okike and the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) that he founded a generation ago. He was a creative intellectual who was politically engaged with the issues of his country. As a spokesman for races, nations, ethnic groups and small communities, he claimed the privilege of the visionary who would not see his people perish by insisting on the right of every community to tell its own story.”

Lamenting the decadence of infrastructure in the country, Munzali said: “It is an irony that such a culturally engaged writer and a nationalist should die in another country seeking medical care for an accident that he sustained through his country’s neglect of its road and infrastructure. It should not be that Achebe, who has written so well about the indigenous civilisation of African peoples and in their defence, should now be diminished by being presented champion of one ethnic group.

“In culture-specific, but politically representative fictions, he wrote about the colonised for a global reading public as no one has written before.”

Meanwhile, at a commendation service organised by the Church of Nigeria, Anglican Communion, in Achebe’s honour in Abuja, the Archbishop Metropolitan and Primate of Anglican All Nigeria, Most Rev. Nicholas Okoh, described the late writer as a great man, pride of Africa, a world-class professor and a gold medallist of African literature.

He noted that Achebe was God’s gift to Africa, Nigeria and Igbo people, adding that he developed African literature and succeeded in spreading the knowledge of African literature to the entire world through his writings.

For the Minister of Finance and the Co-ordinating Minister of the Economy, Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Achebe was a man that brought fame and dignity to Nigeria.

Describing Achebe’s literary works as classic, Okonjo-Iweala noted that he encouraged other young Nigerian writers, adding that his departure had created a vacuum in the literary world.

Also speaking, Minister of Information, Mr. Labaran Maku, described Achebe as one of the most important Nigerians in the last 100 years.

On behalf of the family, the Chairman of the burial committee, Prof. Uzodinma Nwala, noted the family was not mourning but celebrating his transition knowing that Achebe had achieved an immortal place in human civilisation.