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Journalism of Courage
Chinua Achebe,one of the most influential writers of the 20th century,gentle patriarch of modern African literature in English,died in Boston,aged 82. He was such a monumental figure in world literature that it is hard to imagine what his first and most famous book meant at the time. While still a young man,he realised that the story we had to tell could not be told for us by anyone else,no matter how gifted or well-intentioned. Things Fall Apart,written in 1958,was the first novel about an African village,written from an African point of view. His decision to write it in English,in a multilingual Nigeria,mirrors the bind familiar to many Indian writers,but Achebe truly claimed English and used it to his ends. In his short stories and novels,he drew on oral storytelling,conveying the emotional life of his characters without hastening to explain an Igbo formulation to a faraway audience.
Achebe was part of the generation that was to steer the destiny of a newly liberated Nigeria,and his writing speaks on the ruptures of decolonisation,the disillusionment of nation-building,corruption,ethnic conflict and war. When his book,A Man of the People,imagined a military coup that actually later materialised,Achebe found himself suspected of conspiracy. He was a partisan for the Igbo cause,and even helped draft the official Principles of Biafran Revolution for the breakaway Igbo republic that was ultimately defeated. He twice declined state honours from Nigeria,protesting the chaos and corruption in the country.
