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Chinua Achebe

113 quotesEssayist · Born Nov 16, 1930 · Died Mar 21, 2013 · Nigeria · Male

Chinua Achebe (/ˈtʃɪnwɑː əˈtʃɛbɛ/, born Albert Chinụalụmọgụ Achebe; 16 November 1930 – 21 March 2013) was a Nigerian novelist, poet, professor, and critic. His first novel Things Fall Apart (1958), often considered his best, is the most widely read book in modern African literature. Raised by his parents in the Igbo town of Ogidi in South-Eastern Nigeria, Achebe excelled at school and won a scholarship to study medicine, but changed his studies to English literature at University College (now the University of Ibadan). He became fascinated with world religions and traditional African cultures, and began writing stories as a university student. After graduation, he worked for the Nigerian Broadcasting Service (NBS) and soon moved to the metropolis of Lagos. He gained worldwide attention for his novel, Things Fall Apart in the late 1950s; his later novels include No Longer at Ease (1960), Arrow of God (1964), A Man of the People (1966), and Anthills of the Savannah (1987). Achebe wrote his novels in English and defended the use of English, a "language of colonisers", in African literature. In 1975, his lecture An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" featured a famous criticism of Joseph Conrad as "a thoroughgoing racist"; it was later published in The Massachusetts Review amid some controversy. When the region of Biafra broke away from Nigeria in 1967, Achebe became a supporter of Biafran independence and acted as ambassador for the people of the new nation. The war ravaged the populace, and as starvation and violence took its toll, he appealed to the people of Europe and the Americas for ai

All Igbo (7)Nigeria (6)Privilege (4)Joseph Conrad (4)Peace (3)Fear (3)Power (3)Writers (3)Missionaries (3)Corruption (3)prosperous (3)humanity (3)strength (3)Inheritance (2)Totalitarian Regimes (2)

From “Arrow of God”

What kind of power was it if everybody knew that it would never be used? Better to say that it was not there, that it was no more than the power in the anus of the proud dog who tried to put out a furnace with his puny fart....He turned the yam with a stick.

Power Anus Fart

From “An Image of Africa/ The Trouble with Nigeria”

A Conrad student informed me in Scotland that Africa is merely a setting for the disintegration of the mind of Mr. Kurtz. Which is partly the point. Africa as setting and backdrop which eliminates the African as human factor. Africa as a metaphysical battlefield devoid of all recognizable humanity,…

Joseph Conrad Africa Heart of Darkness Colonel Kurtz Dehumanization

From “The African Trilogy: Things Fall Apart; Arrow of God; No Longer at Ease”

What was missing in all of them, he thought, was a recognition of Africans as people with projects—lives they were leading, aspirations they were striving for—and a rich existing culture, exemplified in the proverbs and the religious traditions that are threaded through these novels. He was writing,…

Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad Religion Tradition African People

She believed because it was that faith alone that gave her own life any kind of meaning.

Belief Faith Meaning

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.

Extreme Poverty

We do not seek to hurt any man, but if any man seeks to hurt us may he break his neck.

Pacifism Threats

His mind, never content with shallow satisfactions, crept to the brink of knowing. What kind of power was it if it would never be used?

Contentment Power

Its body was carved with men and pythons and little steps were cut on one side; without these the drummer could not climb to the top to beat it. When the Ikolo was beaten for war it was decorated with skulls won in past wars. But now it sang of peace.

War Peace Brutality Drummer

When you have paid a hundred and thirty pounds bride-price and you are only a second-class clerk, you find you haven’t got any more to spare on other women.

Dowry Working Class

Real tragedy is never resolved. It goes on hopelessly forever. Conventional tragedy is too easy. The hero dies and we feel a purging of the emotions. A real tragedy takes place in a corner, in an untidy spot, to quote W. H. Auden. The rest of the world is unaware of it.

Tragedy Hero W.H. Auden

Living fire begets cold, impotent ash.

Fire Ash Death Impotent

From “A Man of the People by Chinua Achebe”

In such a regime, I say you died a good death if your life had inspired someone to come forward and shoot your murderer in the chest—without asking to be paid.

Murder Vigilantism

From “Africa's Tarnished Name”

Our humanity is contingent on the humanity of our fellows. No person or group can be human alone. We rise above the animal together, or not at all. If we learned that lesson even this late in the day, we would have taken a truly millennial step forward.

humanity Solipsism forward

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