Book

There Was a Country

: A Personal History of Biafra

From the legendary author of Things Fall Apart—a long-awaited memoir of coming of age in a fragile new nation, and its destruction in a tragic civil war For more than forty years, Chinua Achebe maintained a considered silence on the e

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Chinua Achebe (22)

“Even when there was strong disagreement, one had to remember to be discordant with respect.”

— Chinua Achebe, amazon.com

Tagged: Respectful Disagreement

“In the end millions (some state upward of three million, mostly children) had died, mainly from starvation due to the federal government of Nigeria’s blockade policies.”

— Chinua Achebe, amazon.com

Tagged: Starvation, Nigeria, Blockade

“With unparalleled rapidity, the Igbos advanced fastest in the shortest period of time of all Nigeria’s ethnic groups. Like the Jews, to whom they have frequently been likened, they progressed despite being a minority in the country, filling the ranks of the nation’s educated, prosperous upper classe…”

— Chinua Achebe, amazon.com

Tagged: Igbo, Nigeria, Ethnic Groups, Jews, prosperous

“The Igbo culture, being receptive to change, individualistic, and highly competitive, gave the Igbo man an unquestioned advantage over his compatriots in securing credentials for advancement in Nigerian colonial society. Unlike the Hausa/Fulani he was unhindered by a wary religion, and unlike the Yo…”

— Chinua Achebe, amazon.com

Tagged: Igbo, Individualistic, Hausa, Fulani, Yoruba

“And by hearing all the stories we will find points of contact and communication, and the world story, the Great Story, will have a chance to develop. That’s the only precaution I would suggest—that we not rush into announcing the arrival of this international, this great world story, based simply on…”

— Chinua Achebe, amazon.com

Tagged: Stories, Great Story, Traditions

“Today we have a system where only those individuals with the means of capital and who can both pay the exorbitant application fee and fund a political campaign can vie for the presidency. It would not surprise any close observer to discover that in this inane system, the same unsavory characters who…”

— Chinua Achebe, amazon.com

Tagged: Political Campaigns, Politicians, Looting, Corruption

“By the end of World War II Great Britain was financially and politically exhausted. This weakness was exploited by Mohandas Gandhi and his cohorts in India during their own struggle against British rule. Nigerian veterans from different theaters of the war had acquired certain skills—important milit…”

— Chinua Achebe, amazon.com

Tagged: World War II, Great Britain, Gandhi, Nigeria, king

“Nations enshrine mediocrity as their modus operandi, and create the fertile ground for the rise of tyrants and other base elements of the society, by silently assenting to the dismantling of systems of excellence because they do not immediately benefit one specific ethnic, racial, political, or spec…”

— Chinua Achebe, amazon.com

Tagged: mediocrity, Modus Operandi, Tyrants, Ethnic, racial

“That road to a remedy of Nigeria’s political problems will not come easily. The key, as I see it, lies in the manner in which the leadership of the country is selected. When I refer to leadership I am really talking about leaders at every level of government and sphere of society, from the local gov…”

— Chinua Achebe, amazon.com

Tagged: Nigeria, Corruption, Government, Leadership

“Igbo sayings and proverbs are far more valuable to me as a human being in understanding the complexity of the world than the doctrinaire, self-righteous strain of the Christian faith I was taught.”

— Chinua Achebe, amazon.com

Tagged: Igbo, sayings, Proverbs, Christian, self-righteous

“The Igbo are a very democratic people. The Igbo people expressed a strong antimonarchy sentiment—Ezebuilo—which literally means, a king is an enemy. Their culture illustrates a clear-cut opposition to kings, because, I think, the Igbo people had seen what the uncontrolled power of kings could do.”

— Chinua Achebe, amazon.com

Tagged: Igbo, Democratic, Monarchy, kings

“At the end of the thirty-month war Biafra was a vast smoldering rubble. The head count at the end of the war was perhaps three million dead, which was approximately 20 percent of the entire population.”

— Chinua Achebe, amazon.com

Tagged: Biafra, War, Smoldering, Rubble

“Ghana was a particularly relevant example for us subjects in the remaining colonies and dominions of the British Empire. There was a growing confidence, not just a feeling, that we would do just as well parting ways with Her Majesty’s empire. If Ghana seemed more effective, as some of our people lik…”

— Chinua Achebe, amazon.com

Tagged: Ghana, British Empire, Colonialism, Her Majesty

“There was another epidemic that was not talked about much, a silent scourge—the explosion of mental illness: major depression, psychosis, schizophrenia, manic-depression, personality disorders, grief response, post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety disorders, etc.—on a scale none of us had ever wit…”

— Chinua Achebe, amazon.com

Tagged: Epidemic, Mental Illness, Depression, Psychosis, Schizophrenia

“Most writers who are beginners, if they are honest with themselves, will admit that they are praying for a readership as they begin to write. But it should be the quality of the craft not the audience, that should be the greatest motivating factor. For me, at least, I can declare that when I wrote T…”

— Chinua Achebe, amazon.com

Tagged: Writers, Honesty, Readers, literary

“In my definition I am a protest writer, with restraint.”

— Chinua Achebe, amazon.com

Tagged: protest, Writing, Restraint

“What I can say is that it was clear to many of us that an indigenous African literary renaissance was overdue. A major objective was to challenge stereotypes, myths, and the image of ourselves and our continent, and to recast them through stories—prose, poetry, essays, and books for our children. Th…”

— Chinua Achebe, amazon.com

Tagged: African Literary Renaissance, stereotypes, Myths, Poetry, Essays

“The triumph of the written word is often attained when the writer achieves union and trust with the reader, who then becomes ready to be drawn into unfamiliar territory, walking in borrowed literary shoes so to speak, toward a deeper understanding of self or society, or of foreign peoples, cultures,…”

— Chinua Achebe, amazon.com

Tagged: written word, Culture, Awareness

“Writing has always been a serious business for me. I felt it was a moral obligation. A major concern of the time was the absence of the African voice. Being part of that dialogue meant not only sitting at the table but effectively telling the African story from an African perspective—in full earshot…”

— Chinua Achebe, amazon.com

Tagged: Writing, Moral Obligation, African

“Every generation must recognize and embrace the task it is peculiarly designed by history and by providence to perform.”

— Chinua Achebe, amazon.com

Tagged: Generations, History, Providence, Fate