Chinualumogu Achebe (1930-2013)’s contribution to social development

Albert Chinualumogu Achebe was born in Ogidi, Nigeria, in 1930. He was a poet, novelist and political critic. He also authored essays, short stories and children’s books. Throughout his life, he encouraged African authorship, be it books, novels, stories, journal articles and essays. His philosophy was until the lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter. This philosophy applies to social development too, if as Africans we do not write, research and publish, others will tell stories that are not correct about us.

Notable quotes

In fact, I thought that Christianity was very a good and a very valuable thing for us. But after a while, I began to feel that the story that I was told about this religion wasn’t perhaps completely whole, that something was left out.

Achebe

What a country needs to do is be fair to all its citizens – whether people are of a different ethnicity or gender [men or women].

Achebe

When I began going to school and learned to read, I encountered stories of other people and other lands.

Achebe

When the British came to Ibo land, for instance, at the beginning of the 20th century, and defeated the men in pitched battles in different places, and set up their administrations, the men surrendered. And it was the women who led the first revolt.

Achebe

When old people speak it is not because of the sweetness of words in our mouths; it is because we see something which you do not see.

Achebe

Nobody can teach me who I am. You can describe parts of me, but who I am – and what I need – is something I have to find out myself

Achebe

Until the lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.

Achebe

The world is like a Mask dancing. If you want to see it well, you do not stand in one place.

Achebe

A man who calls his kinsmen to a feast does not do so to save them from starving. They all have food in their own homes. When we gather together in the moonlit village ground it is not because of the moon. Every man can see it in his own compound. We come together because it is good for kinsmen to do so.

Achebe

People say that if you find water rising up to your ankle, that’s the time to do something about it, not when it’s around your neck.

Achebe

Become familiar with your home, but know also about your neighbors. The young man who never went anywhere thinks his mother is the greatest cook.

Achebe

If you only hear one side of the story, you have no understanding at all.

Achebe

The white man is very clever. He came quietly and peaceably with his religion. We were amused at his foolishness and allowed him to stay. Now he has won our brothers, and our clan can no longer act like one. He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart.

Achebe

When a mad man walks naked, it is his kinsmen who feel shame, not himself.

Chinua Achebe (1988). “A Man of the People”, p.118.

The trouble with Nigeria is simply and squarely a failure of leadership. There is nothing basically wrong with the Nigerian land or climate or water or air or anything else. The Nigerian problem is the unwillingness or inability of its leaders to rise to the responsibility, to the challenge of personal example which are the hallmarks of true leadership.

Chinua Achebe (1984). “The Trouble with Nigeria”, p.1.

Do not be in a hurry to rush into the pleasures of the world like the young antelope who danced herself lame when the main dance was yet to come.

Chinua Achebe (2011). “No Longer at Ease”, p.16.

I believe in the complexity of the human story, and that there’s no way you can tell that story in one way and say, ‘this is it.’ Always there will be someone who can tell it differently depending on where they are standing … this is the way I think the world’s stories should be told: from many different perspectives.

Achebe

And this is really what I personally wish this century to see—a balance of stories where every people will be able to contribute to a definition of themselves, where we are not victims of other people’s accounts.

Achebe

Excerpts from his well known book – Things fall apart

The arrival of ‘people without toes’, or white colonialists in Nigeria in the 1890s disrupted many facets of life. As Chinua Achebe wrote in his historic novel, things fell apart (Achebe, 1958, Things Fall Apart). The first white Christian missionaries, among them Brown and Smith, did so many new things that paved way for full scale colonization. They denounced people’s ways of life, killed, brought alcohol, brought a new religion, introduced a new educational syllabus, promoted laziness, sowed hostility, broke families and broke cohesion. This led to creation of a new government system and a new legal system. The white people, although they were considered outsiders or lepers, ended up with power to make laws, imprison and hang. They came to dominate, uninvited. “It said (the Oracle), other white men were on their way. They were locusts, it said, and that first man was their harbinger sent to explore the terrain. So, they killed him”, p. 116. This story of the first white men in an Ibo village shows that they were strongly resisted but used religion to divide, weaken and conquer. At that time the Ibo had stories of white men who took people across the sea into slavery. “We have heard stories about white men who made the powerful guns and the strong drinks and took slaves away across the seas, but no one thought the stories were true”, p117. The white men came a few months later and killed everyone at the market in retaliation. Ironically, they had come among the Ibo to start a new religion, Christianity. A conversation between two Ibo men, Obierika and Okonkwo showed clearly the shortcomings of the white people. Okonkwo asked:

“Does the white man understand our custom about land?”

Obierika replied, “How can he when he does not even speak our tongue? But he says that our customs are bad; and our own brothers who have taken up his religion also say that our customs are bad. How do you think we can fight when our own brothers have turned against us? The white man is very clever. He came quietly and peaceably with his religion. We were amused at his foolishness and allowed him to stay. Now he has won our brothers, and our clan can no longer act like one. He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart” (Achebe, p.176 ).

Legacy and recognition

Awards and titles

Achebe is recognised as one of the fathers of African literature. Some of his awards are:

• Received the title “Ugonabo” of Ogidi, a Nigerian chieftain.
• Received over 30 honorary degrees from universities in Nigeria and across the globe.
• Nigerian National Order of Merit, and the Order of the Federal Republic (1979).
• Goodwill Ambassador by the United Nations Population Fund in 1999.
• Commonwealth Poetry Prize (1972).
• Honorary Fellowship of the American Academy of Arts and Letters (1982).
• Man Booker International Prize (2007).
• Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize (2010).
• Main airport in Umueri, Nigeria, named after him.
• Nigerian National Trophy for Literature – Nigeria
• National Creativity Award – Nigeria (1999).
• Chinua Achebe Literary Festival, Anambra State, Nigeria.
• Delivered the third Steve Biko Memorial Lecture at the University of Cape Town, 2022.

Steve Biko Memorial Lecture, University of Cape Town, 2022

Airport named after him

Books

• Things Fall Apart
• A Man of the People
• Anthills of the Savannah
• Arrow of God
• Home and Exile
• Hopes and Impediments
• Morning Yet on Creation Day
• No Longer at Ease
• The Education of a British-Protected Child
• There Was a Country: A Personal History of Biafra

Conclusion

Literature like Chinua Achebe’, hardly used in African social and development work, offers powerful insider perspectives of Africans when they first had contacts with whites, and at the start of colonization. The contribution of Achebe in social development was in the documentation of colonisation and the mistakes new African industrialists and politicians made after gaining political independence.