Chinua Achebe was born and raised in Nigeria by a couple of devote Christians. Shortly after his education he published many works of all types including short stories, novels, and even children books. For Achebe it was not the gratifying feeling of completing a novel or the praise he got for his work, but rather the attempt to accurately portray African and Nigerian culture. He noticed, in his youth, that the first books written about the African culture were by the British and to him were very “inaccurate and insulting” (Chinua Achebe Biography). This sparked Achebe to write about true African culture and portray it as accurately as possible. With this dream in mind Achebe graduated from University College at Ibadan in Nigeria. Shortly after his graduation (1954) Achebe published his first groundbreaking novel in 1959, Things Fall Apart, about a proud man apart of a small village (Chinua Achebe). Throughout the story Achebe comments on numerous struggles the protagonist comes by daily in a Nigerian village. He touches a bit on every aspect of society including religion, social status, and “the white man.” This was unlike the British stories that talked only about Christianity and anything to make the nation of Britain look better, where we can only imagine the heavy biased included.
It is interesting that Chinua Achebe was raised a devote Christian and both of his parents were likewise strict Christian as he writes about real Nigerian culture (Ayandele 1967). This is somewhat ironic but by reading one of his stories we would never guess it how he was raised. Achebe does a good job in keeping any Christian bias out of his work because he knows that it is not true African culture (Ayandele 1967). However we do see many instances where he talks about “the white man” and his attempt to convert Nigeria. Mostly Achebe writes about everyday life in Nigeria and the struggles that people often have. In “Civil Peace” he tells of a man coming home from war trying to rebuild his life with his family. They work diligently to earn money any way he can. This is typical of a Nigerian family; according to UNICEF nearly 64 percent of the population was under the international poverty line from 2000 to 2009 (At a Glance: Nigeria). This is a strong indicator because if this statistic is high in recent years past than we can assume in the 70s the problem was only worse. So it is not hard to picture Achebe’s story being very close to reality, a feat that many authors stride towards.
“Civil Peace” ended with the man earning a little bit of money and beginning to get his life back. It was at that moment late into the night that, a group of robbers came to his house and demanded money. Although he did not have much, he was forced to give everything he had. Since Nigeria had just gotten out of a civil war many people had to return home with nothing. Unfortunately not everyone was as honest as the protagonist in “Civil Peace” and crime is always an issue. So it makes sense that Achebe added in this part for many reasons. First, it was a part of everyday life in Nigeria and accuracy was the main goal of the writing. Also it is the perfect ironic struggle to encounter after working so hard to earn the money and makes for good story telling. Finally, he uses this opportunity to throw in a bit of religion into the story. Achebe says “Nothing puzzles God”. It is interesting to see how Achebe can integrate so many aspects of society into a short story. In “Civil Peace” Achebe manages to touch on post war economic status, family struggles, crime, and even religion.
Is it appropriate for an author to throw out the culture in which he was raised, in order to more accuratly portray the culture of his writings?
Works Cited
Ayandele, E. A. "Christianity in Nigeria." The Journal of African History 8.2 (1967): 362-64. Print
“At a Glance: Nigeria." UNICEF. Web. 25 Apr. 2012.
<http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/nigeria_statistics.html>.
"Chinua Achebe." Africana Studies. Web. 25 Apr. 2012. <http://brown.edu/Departments/Africana_Studies/people/achebe_chinua.html>.
"Chinua Achebe Biography." Encyclopedia of World Biographies. Advameg, Inc., 2012. Web. 25 Apr. 2012. <http://www.notablebiographies.com/A-An/Achebe-Chinua.html>.
I find it interesting that Achebe would latch onto the idea of attempting the accurate portrayal of Nigerian and African culture. You raise interesting points about how the author was raised by Christian parents (very much an remnant of European imperialism in Africa), but attempted to write realistic narratives about the African culture. I believe that the violence he viewed/heard about in Nigeria and in other African countries must have played a vital role in the author's motives.
ReplyDeleteI think it's interesting that Achebe was raised in such a religious household, but yet makes sure to point out that faith alone is not going to get you out of all your problems. It seems that humans often rely completely on relgion, so I like the fact that Achebe makes a point to show that human effort also has a powerful affect on a person's circumstances.
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