It has been a sad moment in jukistopia as iconic Novelist Prof. Chinua Achebe dies at 82. I believe Achebe was a great author because I read some of his books when they were not my genre of choice. But some how they were unavoidabe. It was he who said that “It is impossible for an iroko tree to fall and the forest to remain quiet” So it then that as the world mourns one of Africa’s greatest, jukistopia has not been left out.
It surprises me that I read no longer at ease at a Nick Carter age (form two) while hoarding a borrowed James Hadley Chase. Such was the pull of that book on me. I particularly liked the scene where Obi Okonkwo’s financial status was taking a downward spiral and he comes up with the rule of “one switch one bulb” for his house. According to this rule all rooms that opened to the corridor had to share the lighting from the corridor bulb. Meanwhile Sebastian, the house boy, and Clara, the girlfriend, were taking the blunt of his financial frustration. For example one day Clara had just ………
Let me not spoil the mood for those who are yet to read the book by telling the story. Instead let me share a few quotes from Achebe
“We do not seek to hurt any man, but if any man seeks to hurt us may he break his neck.”
The African Trilogy
“There is such a thing as absolute power. Those who secure this privilege for themselves can arrange stories about others pretty much as they like. They can bring out crowds of demonstrators whenever they need them.”
― Chinua Achebe, Home and Exile
“A fox must be chased away first; after that the hen might be warned against wandering into the bush.”
― Chinua Achebe, No Longer at Ease
“ Eneke the bird asked why he was always on the wing replied: ‘Men have learnt to shoot without missing. I have learnt to fly without perching.’ ”
― Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart
“A man’s life from birth to death was a series of transition rites which brought him nearer and nearer to his ancestors.”
― Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart
“Clearly there is no moral obligation to write in any particular way. But there is a moral obligation, I think, not to ally oneself with power against the powerless.”
― Chinua Achebe, There Was a Country: A Personal History of Biafra
“Chief Nanga was a born politician; he could get away with almost anything he said or did. And as long as men are swayed by their hearts and stomachs and not their heads the Chief Nangas of the world will continue to get away with anything. He had that rare gift of making people feel – even while he was saying harsh things to them – that there was not a drop of ill will in his entire frame. I remember the day he was telling his ministerial colleague over the telephone in my presence that he distrusted our young university people and that he would rather work with a European. I knew I was hearing terrible things but somehow I couldn’t bring myself to take the man seriously. He had been so open and kind to me and not in the least distrustful. The greatest criticism a man like him seemed capable of evoking in our country was an indulgent: ‘Make you no min’ am.”
― Chinua Achebe, A Man of the People
tags: african-literature, politics, postcolonialism
“لا أستطيع أن أعيش على شط نهر وأغسل يدي بالبصاق”
― Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart
“the sun will shine on those who stand before it shines on those who kneel under them.”
― Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart
“We shall live. We pray for life, children, a good harvest, and happiness. You will have what is good for you and I will have what is good for me. Let the kite perch and let the eagle perch too. If one says no to the other, let his wing break.”
― Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe
tags: balance, fate, prosperity
“Onye nkuzi ewelu itali piagbusie umuaka. One of the ways an emphasis is laid in Ibo is by exaggeration, so that the teacher in the refrain might not actually have flogged the children to death.”
― Chinua Achebe, Girls at War
“If I hold her hand
She says, ‘Don’t touch!’
If I hold her foot
She says, ‘Don’t touch’!
But when I hold her waist-beads
She pretends not to know.”
― Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart
“And how is my daughter, Ezinma?” “She has been very well for some time now. Perhaps she has come to stay.” “I think she has. How old is she now?” “She is about ten years old.” “I think she will stay. They usually stay if they do not die before the age of six.” “I pray she stays,” said Ekwefi with a heavy sigh. The”
― Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart
“Children left their old parents at home and scattered in all directions in search of money. It was hard on an old woman with eight children. It was like having a river and yet washing one’s hands with spittle.”
― Chinua Achebe, The African Trilogy
“The Igbo people of Southern Nigeria are more than ten million strong and must be accounted one of the major peoples of Africa. Conventional practice would call them a tribe, but I no longer follow that convention. I call them a nation.
“Here we go again!,” you might be thinking.
Well, let me explain. My Pocket Oxford Dictionary defines tribe as follows: “group of (esp. primitive) families or communities linked by social, religious or blood ties and usually having a common culture and dialect and a recognized leader.” If we apply the different criteria of this definition to Igbo people we will come up with the following results:
a. Igbo people are not primitive; if we were I would not be offering this distinguished lecture, or would I?;
b. Igbo people are not linked by blood ties; although they may share many cultural traits;
c. Igbo people do not speak one dialect; they speak one language which has scores of major and minor dialects;
d. and as for having one recognized leader, Igbo people would regard the absence of such a recognized leader as the very defining principle of their social and political identity.”
― Chinua Achebe, Home and Exile
tags: chinua-achebe, nonfiction
“The Igbo nation in precolonial times was not quite like any nation most people are familiar with. It did not have the apparatus of centralized government but a conglomeration of hundreds of independent towns and villages each of which shared the running of its affairs among its menfolk according to title, age, occupation, etc.; and its women folk who had domestic responsibilities as well as the management of the scores of four-day and eight-day markets that bound the entire region and its neighbours in a network of daily exchange of goods and news, from far and near.”
― Chinua Achebe, Home and Exile
tags: chinua-achebe, nonfiction
“Those who mismanage our affairs would silence our criticism by pretending they have facts not avaliable to the rest of us. Our best weapon against them is not to marshal facts, of which they are truly managers, but passion. Passion is our hope and strenght.”
”
― Chinua Achebe, Anthills of the Savannah
tags: anthillsofthesavannah, chinuaachebe, postcolonialism, postcolonialliterature
“But let the slave who sees another cast into a shallow grave know that he will be buried in the same way when his day comes.”
― Chinua Achebe, Arrow of God
“The inquisitive monkey gets a bullet in the face.”
― Chinua Achebe, Arrow of God
“stories. One of them went regularly to a market in the neighboring village and helped himself to whatever he liked. He went in full uniform, breaking the earth with his boots, and no one dared touch him. It was said that if you touched a soldier, Government”
― Chinua Achebe, No Longer at Ease
“Among the Ibo the art of conversation is regarded very highly, and proverbs are the palm-oil with which words are eaten. Okoye”
― Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart
“A disease that has never been seen before cannot be cured with everyday herbs.”
― Chinua Achebe, Arrow of God
“My father used to say that it is the fear of causing offense that makes men swallow poison.”
― Chinua Achebe, Arrow of God
“The damage done in one year can sometimes take ten or twenty years to repair.”
― Chinua Achebe
“The dispossession that caused my shrillness is in retreat though the marks of its pillage are still everywhere. I can see, in spite of them, that I have come a long way.”
― Chinua Achebe, Home and Exile
“If my enemy speaks the truth I will not say because it is spoken by my enemy I will not listen.”
― Chinua Achebe, Arrow of God
“I am Fire-that-burns-without-faggots.”
― Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart
“The writer cannot expect to be excused from the task of re-education and re-generation that must be done. In fact, he should march right in front.”
― Chinua Achebe, Hopes and Impediments: Selected Essays
“In such a regime, I say you died a good death if your life had inspired someone to come forward and shoot your murdered in the chest – without asking to be paid.”
― Chinua Achebe, A Man of the People
