Lessons from the work and life of Chinua Achebe

Achebe's work showed how so called Western civilisation  reduced Africa to a horrifyingly barren land. Africans who are owners  of the land are  exhausted by years of backbreaking work, work that is heavy and repetitive, This was because Africans have been taught by Western values that their rural cultures are backward and their tradition bad, many young Africans leave their villages behind. Yet they discover that the city, with its inherently rapid changes and isolation, all the hallmarks of modernity, provides no stability either. In essence, Africans are trapped between rural and urban poverty. Achebe however by embracing modernity showed  that modernity and tradition are complementary, not warring opposites. He believed that the technological aspects of modernity, such as books, television and radio, could be used to promote traditional values, rather like an updated version of the oral tradition as seen in the poetry and stories of the native African tribes like the Khoi and Vai peoples.  

Achebe shows how Africa is caught in a cultural crisis created by centuries of European colonisation and imperialism. Imperialism can be defined briefly as the extension of rule over one nation by another. He denounced imperialist domination by European countries and blames such policies for the situation in which modern-day Africans find itself.

Achebe had the privilege of  arguing from a historical perspective and his work showed that rural peasants, fed up with their primitive existence, were forced to flee to towns, where they became even more controlled by the "bourgeoisie," or wealthy middle class. As has been seen in  many movies and stories that you can think of about small-town heroes who travel to the big city and are corrupted or destroyed, or at least have to fight off such forces.  In real life, Achebe argues, such heroes do not prevail. Instead, they become the inhabitants of third-world nations, poor developing countries that were created by European colonisers and have been exploited by such powers for centuries. Such exploitation is not only economic, Achebe stresses, but also cultural. The only way to subjugate a native people is to control their minds. To do that, the imperialist destroys native religion, ritual, and language and replaces it with his own. This domination is what resulted in the rising native African political parties and the calls for economic freedom and political independence, which have now reached a crisis point.  Achebe's work is not favourable to capitalism or to Western nations as a whole, so at first reading, it may be difficult for a Western audience or that of Africans taught Western values to appreciate. His words speak to an underlying dissatisfaction and anger that many Africans hold toward the West as witnessed by  the demolishing of apartheid in South Africa during the 1990s, in which native Africans overthrew an Afrikaner government comprised of whites with European-Dutch backgrounds. Native Africans have suffered much under European powers in the past. They are only now coming to terms with their place in the world as independent nations and people.

Like many other African writers, Achebe believed that artistic and literary works must deal primarily with the problems of society and should have a message that speaks toward those problems. He has written extensively about Nigerian problems of corruption, and lack of leadership. His greatest work Things Fall Apart, showed a world in which all order and stability collapses into anarchy because of an internal flaw in humanity. Achebe helped us  see the disintegration of the complex Igbo (and by extension African) society under the intrusion of European governments, religion, and technology.

Aside from  being a classic example of a tragedy, Things Fall Apart also has a social purpose. Achebe has argued that European novels have treated Africa as a dark, savage continent, and little else. Africans are reduced to primitive, mysterious creatures, which in Achebe's opinion is racist stereotyping. Even "good" African characters are flat and non-developed and are often portrayed as "noble savages," which is no better than any other stereotype. According to Achebe, colonialism'the forceful impression of one culture's beliefs onto another culture'leads to this kind of thinking. As Achebe himself has put it, Europeans portray Africa as having experienced "one long night of savagery, from which the first Europeans, acting on God's behalf, delivered them." Achebe is extremely opposed to this vision, which he says is enforced by such novels as Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, and he has said that his role as an author is, in part, to teach fellow Africans and others that this "one long night of savagery" is an inaccurate depiction of a tribal past that denigrates the rich and sophisticated cultural traditions and values of the Igbo people and other Africans.

Others might ask themselves why Achebe wrote in English, the reasons he gave are as follows. First is practicality as  there are far more readers of English than there are readers of Igbo. Another is that English enables Achebe to reach a world community with his message. A third is that, by using English, Achebe uses the very language that others have employed to portray Africa in racist terms, resulting in a sort of poetic justice. However, Achebe is strongly committed to portraying his Igbo culture accurately and powerfully, so he uses several Igbo words and phrases within Things Fall Apart, until those words and phrases no longer need to be defined. After reading the novel, for instance, a reader is much more familiar with terms and concepts like chi, egwugwu, and ogbanje than before reading the novel. Also, the novel preserves several Igbo tales and proverbs throughout, such as the tale of the tortoise. All of this helps to bridge the cultural divide between the Igbo and Western readers, revealing an African culture to readers who in all likelihood know little, if anything, about Africans, apart from stereotypes in movies, print, and television.

Any reader of Achebe's work is struck by the complexity of rituals in African society. Consider the wedding ceremonies,  or the trials at which the Chiefs  preside over legal disputes, preparation of food is also quite important, and specific foods have specific values we learn for example that yams are the most difficult crop to harvest and therefore are considered the King crop, while cassava and beans are easier to harvest and thus less worthy than yams. Yams are the centrepiece of important feasts, furthering their cultural significance. We also learn that greetings between hosts and visitors centre around the breaking of a koala nut, revealing the hospitality of the African people.

The religion of African, while considered heathen and backward  by the inflexible missionaries , is also extraordinary for its complexity. Consider the conversation in Things Fall Apart  between Mr. Brown, the first Christian missionary, and one of Umuofia's leaders, Akunna. Akunna claims that the Igbo do believe in one all-mighty God, and have given Him the name Chukwu. Mr. Brown objects, however, to the Igbo practice of polytheism (the belief in more than one deity) and points to an idol carved of wood hanging from Akunna's rafter. But Akunna explains patiently that the Igbo do not wish to disturb Chukwu out of respect for His power and greatness, so they approach Him through subordinate gods, as a man would approach a powerful landlord through his servants. Such a religious concepts Achebe shows us could not come from ignorant, barbaric people.

Perhaps the most noteworthy in Achebe's work is the idea that every man in Igbo society has an equal chance to rise within that society and gain success through his own efforts. While Okonkwo's father Unoka was widely regarded as lazy and weak, the people of Umuofia do not regard Okonkwo in the same fashion. As the narrator tells us, "among these people a man was judged according to his worth and not according to the worth of his father". In African society, worth is based on individual accomplishment and hard work, not on class systems or connections with powerful figures. Okonkwo achieved his powerful status in Umuofia because of his relentless work on his farm.

As we say goodbye to Chinua Achebe the founding father of African fiction the lessons of his works teach will forever remain with us.