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Chinua Achebe Dies…
Posted On 22 Mar 2013
Chinua Achebe dies.
UPDATE 22/March 2013
Herewith some quotes by the Godfather of African writing, Chinua Achebe who died yesterday March 21 2013 in Boston, Massachusetts USA. He was 82. See brief Biography below.
“While we do our good works let us not forget that the real solution lies in a world in which charity will have become unnecessary.”
― Chinua Achebe, Anthills of the Savannah
― Chinua Achebe, Anthills of the Savannah
“If you don’t like someone’s story, write your own.”
― Chinua Achebe
― Chinua 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.”
― Chinua Achebe
― Chinua Achebe
“To me, being an intellectual doesn’t mean knowing about intellectual issues; it means taking pleasure in them.”
― Chinua Achebe
― Chinua 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.”
― Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart
― Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart
“We cannot trample upon the humanity of others without devaluing our own. The Igbo, always practical, put it concretely in their proverb Onye ji onye n’ani ji onwe ya: “He who will hold another down in the mud must stay in the mud to keep him down.”
― Chinua Achebe, The Education of a British-Protected Child: Essays
― Chinua Achebe, The Education of a British-Protected Child: Essays
“One of the truest tests of integrity is its blunt refusal to be compromised. ”
― Chinua Achebe
― Chinua Achebe
“There is no story that is not true, […] The world has no end, and what is good among one people is an abomination with others.”
― Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart
― Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart
“Nobody can teach me who I am.”
― Chinua Achebe
― Chinua Achebe
“Storytellers are a threat. They threaten all champions of control, they frighten usurpers of the right-to-freedom of the human spirit — in state, in church or mosque, in party congress, in the university or wherever.”
― Chinua Achebe, Anthills of the Savannah
“When suffering knocks at your door and you say there is no seat for him, he tells you not to worry because he has brought his own stool.”
― Chinua Achebe
― Chinua Achebe
“People create stories create people; or rather stories create people create stories.”
― Chinua Achebe
― Chinua Achebe
“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
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
“Mr. Brown had thought of nothing but numbers. He should have known that the kingdom of God did not depend on large crowds. Our Lord Himself stressed the importance of fewness. Narrow is the way and few the number. To fill the Lord’s holy temple with an idolatrous crowd clamoring for signs was a folly of everlasting consequence. Our Lord used the whip only once in His life – to drive the crowd away from His church.”
― Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart
― Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart
“Oh, the most important thing about myself is that my life has been full of changes. Therefore, when I observe the world, I don’t expect to see it just like I was seeing the fellow who lives in the next room. There is this complexity which seems to me to be part of the meaning of existence and everything we value.”
― Chinua Achebe
― Chinua Achebe
“…when we are comfortable and inattentive, we run the risk of committing grave injustices absentmindedly.”
― Chinua Achebe, The Education of a British-Protected Child: Essays
“Then listen to me,’ he said and cleared his throat. ‘It’s true that a child belongs to its father. But when a father beats his child, it seeks sympathy in its mother’s hut. A man belongs to his fatherland when things are good and life is sweet. But when there is sorrow and bitterness he finds refuge in his motherland. Your mother is there to protect you. She is buried there. And that is why we say that mother is supreme. Is it right that you, Okonkwo, should bring your mother a heavy face and refuse to be comforted? Be careful or you may displease the dead. Your duty is to comfort your wives and children and take them back to your fatherland after seven years. But if you allow sorrow to weigh you down and kill you, they will all die in exile.”
― Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart
― Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart
“Perhaps down in his heart Okonkwo was not a cruel man. But his whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and of weakness.It was deeper and more intimate that the fear of evil and capricious gods and of magic, the fear of the forest, and of the forces of nature, malevolent, red in tooth and claw.
Okonkwo’s fear was greater than these. It was not external but lay deep within himself.”
― Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart
“Privilege, you see, is one of the great adversaries of the imagination; it spreads a thick layer of adipose tissue over our sensitivity.”
― Chinua Achebe, Hopes and Impediments: Selected Essays
― Chinua Achebe, Hopes and Impediments: Selected Essays
“It is only the story…that saves our progeny from blundering like blind beggars into the spikes of the cactus fence.The story is our escort;without it,we are blind.Does the blind man own his escort?No,neither do we the story;rather,it is the story that owns us”.
― Chinua Achebe, Anthills of the Savannah
“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.”
― Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart
― Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart
“Do not despair. I know you will not despair. You have a manly and a proud heart. A proud heart can survive a general failure because such a failure does not prick its pride. It is more difficult and more bitter when a man fails alone.”
― Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart
― Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart
“When Suffering knocks at your door and you say there is no seat left for him, he tells you not to worry because he has brought his own stool.”
― Chinua Achebe
― Chinua Achebe
“Among the Igbo the art of conversation is regarded very highly, and proverbs are the palm-oil with which words are eaten.”
― Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart
― Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart
“Age was respected among his people, but achievement was revered. As the elders said, if a child washed his hands he could eat with kings.”
― Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart
― Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart
OBITUARY. Chinua Achebe 1930-2013
Author Chinua Achebe 82, one of the best Known literary minds from Africa, died yesterday in an undisclosed hospital in Boston, Massachusetts (USA) after a long illness. He is best known for his novel “Things Fall Apart” which was first published in 1958 and is now regarded as the most widely read novel in African litearture. He also wrote other great novels including “No Longer at Ease”, “Arrow of God”, “A man of the People”, and “Anthills of the Savannah”.
Before his death, he was a Professor at the David and Mariana Fisher University and Professor of African studies at Brown.
A family source revealed Mr Achebe had been ill for sometime and was hospitalized. The family will release a statement later today concerning his death.
A young Chinua Achebe
Born in Ogodi Anambra State in Nigeria on November 16, 1930. After his primary education in St Philips Central School, he moved to Government College, Umuahia for his secondary Education.
He gained admission into the University College (Now University) in Ibadan in 1948 initially to read medicine. He however changed and read English, History and theology a year later. While at Ibadan University, he was disillusined with the protrayal of Africa in mostly European literature. This is probably one of the reasons that made his to decide to start writing a couple of yerars alater. He graduated from the University in 1953 with a second class degree.
He met Christie Okoli and later married her in 1961. They had four children.
He joined the Nigerian broadcasting Service in 1954 after teaching for a brief persion
In 196, Achebe joined the breakaway Biafra Republic and acted as Ambassador of the new nation. The Nigerian government fought the breakaway Republic and regained control of the region in 1970. Achebe initially moved to the US in the early seventies. He returned there again in 1990 when a motor accident left him partially paralysed. He was later to say in an interview that he decided to leave in the USA permanently because it was only there that medics could take care of his physically disabilities. He used a wheelchair till his death.
Achebe, Like the other literay luminary from Nigeria Wole Soyinka, was a harsh critic of the various military governments in his country. On two occasions, he refused to be honoured by the governments of his country. “Anthill of the Savannah” one of his lesser known novels recounts the excesses that become apparent when young officers seize power and was a parody of the various military dictatorships that had rulked in his home country.
May his gentle soul rest pi perfect peace.
A good selection of quotes there from Achebe, Francis. Congrats for the service to a fallen hero.
There goes another Africa hero…no, my Africa hero. i love Achebe, I adore Achebe. To me the best Novel by Achebe is Things fall apart. Thank you
Amin Zinka, Namibia. Oh, this news caught me off-guard. long live Achebe. You have immortalize your name not only in Africa but the world over.
Another century to get such a fine writer from mother Africa again. Thank you Nigeria, his mother, but oh, there still is Soyinka
We have lost an African icon, a rare jewel indeed. His books.. Things Fall Apart, No Longer at Ease.. give us some insight into the brilliant mind of this African geius. His succint description of the Whiteman’s arrival and encroachment in Africa has never been replicated.
May he take a well deserved rest. Long Live Achebe!!!
He might be dead in body but his spirit and writings forever lives with us. Long live Achebe.
He remains forever in our hearts.