1. Achebe’s attack on Conrad:
On the 18 February 1975, Achebe presented a Chancellor’s Lecture at Amherst, titled “An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness”. In that presentation, he criticized Joseph Conrad, the tradition of racism in the west and pointed out that racism was the core of Conrad’s critical book “The Heart of Darkness”, asserting that the book more than any other work displays that Western desire “to set up Africa as a foil to Europe, as a place of negations at once remote and vaguely familiar, in comparison with which Europe’s own state of spiritual grace will be manifest”.

To Achebe, “Heart of Darkness projects the image of Africa as “the other world,” the antithesis of Europe and therefore of civilization, a place where man’s vaunted intelligence and refinement are finally mocked by triumphant bestiality”.

Achebe further asserted that Conrad’s famous novel dehumanized Africans, rendering Africa as “a metaphysical battlefield devoid of all recognisable humanity, into which the wandering European enters at his peril.” It was in that lecture that he described Conrad as “a bloody racist”. Before this lecture, Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness” had become a household property in the west.

It is strongly believed that the Nobel Committee in particular and the west in general had a tough time to swallow that “truth-is-bitter” pill.

2. His criticism of Schweitzer:
Achebe made a critical remark on Albert Schweitzer, a German-French theologian who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1952. He spent a great deal of his life bringing the Christian gospel to the people of Gabon. He died in 1965 at the age of 90 (He is well-known for saying that the Christianization of Africans was a historical burden that Europeans must shoulder to atone for the sins of slavery and colonialism).

Schweitzer was quoted as saying, “The African is indeed my brother but my junior brother.” Achebe was piqued by all these, and accused him of racist paternalism and condescension toward Africans. Let us hear Achebe, “That extraordinary missionary, Albert Schweitzer, who sacrificed brilliant careers in music and theology in Europe for a life of service to Africans in much the same area as Conrad writes about, epitomizes the ambivalence. In a comment which has often been quoted, Schweitzer says: ‘The African is indeed my brother but my junior brother.’ And so he proceeded to build a hospital appropriate to the needs of junior brothers with standards of hygiene reminiscent of medical practice in the days before the germ theory of disease came into being.”

This came as a ‘shock’ to westerners: how could Achebe challenge a man honoured in the West for his “reverence for life”, and recognized as a paragon of Western liberalism? Of course, Achebe cannot get away with this and the Nobel Committee took note of it in their “Nobel diary”

3. Ezenwa-Ohaeto (Achebe’s biographer) suggests another possible reason why the Stockholm academy shunned Achebe: Achebe once refused to attend a Conference on African literature in Stockholm, Sweden. With his characteristic humility he explained that he considered it
inappropriate for African writers to assemble in Europe in 1986 to discuss the future of their literature. Ezenwa-Ohaeto implies that in all likelihood the act was perceived as a snub by the Nobel committee, who assumed that this refusal was an indicator that Achebe would refuse the Prize itself if awarded.


4. But perhaps Achebe’s more obvious “sin” (according to Kperogi) was that in 1985, a year before Wole Soyinka was given the Nobel Prize in Literature, he characterized the Indian-Trinidadian writer V.S. Naipaul as “a brilliant writer who sold himself to the West.” Then he added: “And one day he’ll be ‘rewarded’ with maybe a Nobel Prize or something.” This came to pass. Achebe was prophetic. In 1990, Naipaul was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II and in 2001 he was “rewarded” with a Nobel Prize in Literature. Many people say Achebe would have been announced as the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1985 but for this brutally frank barb at the West— and the Nobel Prize.


It is also worthy of note that Chinua Achebe is not the only writer that has beencontroversially omitted from the Nobel Literature Prize. The Wikipedia encyclopedia noted some other writers (apart from Achebe) that have been ‘overlooked’ for the Literature Prize. Some of these writers include Leo Tolstoy, Anton Chekhov, Émile Zola, Jorge Luis Borges, Marcel Proust, Vladimir Nabokov, Ezra Pound, James Joyce, August Strindberg, Simon Vestdijk, John Updike, Arthur Miller, Mark Twain.

He died without the prize...... PERIOD!!!

What's all this long epistles for??

The next line will be "Marginalization of Ibos"..

Allow the old man rest in peace.....abegi??

so wole soyinka should just shut his mouth up!!....chinua achebe was more of a man and writer than him...and achebe should have rejected the nobel prize anyway....soyinka was just a compensation

What is/are reason(s) for this post?...small time now it will generate into something else...mt chew

Larryfly: so wole soyinka should just shut his mouth up!!....chinua achebe was more of a man and writer than him...and achebe should have rejected the nobel prize anyway....soyinka was just a compensation

Are you ok??

Larryfly: so wole soyinka should just shut his mouth up!!....chinua achebe was more of a man and writer than him...and achebe should have rejected the nobel prize anyway....soyinka was just a compensation

You know, no one deserves anything in the world except an igbo man. If everyone else gets recognized then it is because the igbo man was denied unjustly...bla bla bla.

You guys from that erosion-prone part of the world are just impossible people. Why don't you just organize your own nobel laureate and award to your hero - Chinua Achebe who himself died in agony and with a burden of hatred pressing him down six feet? He sowed that same seed of hatred in you all.

Watch it that thou may not end up dying prematurely when that hatred burgeons and consume you!

ACM10: Nobel prize is for the Europeans -period!
It is coveted because of the money that comes with it. As part of Albert Einstein divorce settlement with his wife, he agreed to let his wife have the Nobel money if the Nobel committee decides to award him one. Nobel prize is tainted by politics.

Yes, especially since no Igbo man has won it!

LWTMB! You mean igbbos are still crying for the Nobel Prize, which their best Achebe could not win but the eminent Professor Wole Soyinka won since 1986!?? Well, igbos are spare parts business men anyway, and there is no nobel prize for that! I think the $ 1 M dollars that could have accrued is one of the most painful aspects of not even getting close to the prize!

Larryfly: so wole soyinka should just shut his mouth up!!....chinua achebe was more of a man and writer than him...and achebe should have rejected the nobel prize anyway....soyinka was just a compensation

Since 1986 people are still crying over this award, even d person that won it has moved on but some people still live in this i am soppose to be the winner thing.
The matter has been settled long ago about why Wole won and Achebe did not. It is based on concept originality simple as ABC.

.

So this Nobel pain this people like this?

Shebi he won Booker T award and Father of modern literature award given to him by Clifford Orji?

Why do you want Nobel again

In 1988 Achebe was asked by a reporter for Quality Weekly how he felt about never winning a Nobel Prize;
he replied: “My position is that the Nobel Prize is important. But it is a European prize. It’s not an African prize.
Literature is not a heavyweight championship. Nigerians may think, you know, this man has been knocked out. It’s nothing to do with that.

The real significance of Achebe was captured by that announcement in London in 2000, when he, Wole Soyinka and Derek Walcott were invited to a special program. The announcement read:
‘Two Nobel Laureates and a Legend’.
There is no greater honour than such a very true legendary recognition.

rhymz: The real significance of Achebe was captured by that announcement in London in 2000, when he, Wole Soyinka and Derek Walcott were invited to a special program. The announcement read:
‘Two Nobel Laureates and a Legend’.
There is no greater honour than such a very true legendary recognition.

Being called a "Legend" is a great achievement according to you abi??

Kai!! This people sha....

Grandeur of Delusion (abi na how dem speak dat grammar again)

The post is educating, just that the puerile comments are characteristic of people who do not appreciate literature. I'm an Igbo, but I know enough not to hurl tribal peebles all over the place. WS and CA are like twin gods to me, though their style differs.
CA uses the simple style because he writes with the common people in mind. WS, on the other hand, uses what we call the Grand Style in Stylistics. This is because, as he is widely-known to posit, literature should not be for the uninitiated. That said, I believe that Achebe and Soyinka would be ashamed of those who trade insults on their behalf.

Chimamanda is 'my sister' and Zadie Smith is a British writer. I love Chimamanda's works, but Zadie Smith is in a class of her own; an effortless and ''pre-naturally gifted writer''. Adichie has more awards than Zadie Smith, but it doesn't make her better than Zadie Smith. Zadie Smith's White Teeth is one of the most arresting books I've read. So, don't start fighting over writers, they are not your regular politicians.

Garri the 1st:

Being called a "Legend" is a great achievement according to you abi??

Kai!! This people sha....

Grandeur of Delusion (abi na how dem speak dat grammar again)

Petty minded fellow, I know you are looking for some ignoramus like yourself to indulge you, sorry I am not interested, especially when your pointless retorts have nothing to do with what is written, can you point to where I pretended to infer that being called a Legend is a great achievement?
What an ignorant fellow trying so hard to sound smart and hip. . .scheeeew!

slap1: Chimamanda is 'my sister' and Zadie Smith is a British writer. I love Chimamanda's works, but Zadie Smith is in a class of her own; an effortless and ''pre-naturally gifted writer''. Adichie has more awards than Zadie Smith, but it doesn't make her better than Zadie Smith. Zadie Smith's White Teeth is one of the most arresting books I've read. So, don't start fighting over writers, they are not your regular politicians.

Well, this is purely subjective to individual opinion and not a statement of fact! But the Fact there is that one of the two writers' work is more celebrated, has more influence, has inspired more readership and has won more awards than the other, that to me is the true measure of who is a better writer, at least, the process is not subjected to the elitist opinion of an "elitist few" or the "litrary initiated" like you said Wole likes to put it, how the work does outside the confines of its litrary comfort zone is a way better and more thorough process of scrutiny, dont you think?

slap1: Chimamanda is 'my sister' and Zadie Smith is a British writer. I love Chimamanda's works, but Zadie Smith is in a class of her own; an effortless and ''pre-naturally gifted writer''. Adichie has more awards than Zadie Smith, but it doesn't make her better than Zadie Smith. Zadie Smith's White Teeth is one of the most arresting books I've read. So, don't start fighting over writers, they are not your regular politicians.

Well, this is purely subjective to individual opinion and not a statement of fact! But the Fact there is that one of the two writers' work is more celebrated, has more influence, has inspired more readership and has won more awards than the other, that to me is the true measure of who is a better writer, at least, the process is not subjected to the elitist opinion of an "elitist few" or the "litrary initiated" like you said Wole likes to put it, how the work does outside the confines of its litrary comfort zone is a way better and more thorough process of scrutiny, dont you think?

rhymz: Well, this is purely subjective to individual opinion and not a statement of fact! But the Fact there is that one of the two writers' work is more celebrated, has more influence, has inspired more readership and has won more awards than the other, that to me is the true measure of who is a better writer, at least, the process is not subjected to the elitist opinion of an "elitist few" or the "litrary initiated" like you said Wole likes to put it, how the work does outside the confines of its litrary comfort zone is a way better and more thorough process of scrutiny, dont you think?

You have a valid point.

rhymz: Petty minded fellow, I know you are looking for some ignoramus like yourself to indulge you, sorry I am not interested, especially when your pointless retorts have nothing to do with what is written, can you point to where I pretended to infer that being called a Legend is a great achievement?
What an ignorant fellow trying so hard to sound smart and hip. . .scheeeew!

Read the last part of ur comment and tell me if you didn't infer that it was a GREAT ACHIEVEMENT..

Prof-Lodo

rhymz: The real significance of Achebe was captured by that announcement in London in 2000, when he, Wole Soyinka and Derek Walcott were invited to a special program. The announcement read:
‘Two Nobel Laureates and a Legend’.
There is no greater honour than such a very true legendary recognition.

Garri the 1st:

Read the last part of ur comment and tell me if you didn't infer that it was a GREAT ACHIEVEMENT..

Prof-Lodo

It is either you have problem with comprehension or you just want to split hair unecessarily. legendary recognition= Great achievement, what a DOLT!

How come Wole Soyinka doesnt lose sleep over Booker T award and Father of Literature award

But na Achebe people wan die because of Nobel.

I thought they said Nobel is irrelevant and substandard, Why una wan kill unaself on irrelevant and substandard Nobel prize?

dayokanu: How come Wole Soyinka doesnt lose sleep over Booker T award and Father of Literature award

But na Achebe people wan die because of Nobel.

I thought they said Nobel is irrelevant and substandard, Why una wan kill unaself on irrelevant and substandard Nobel prize?

. . .lol. . Dayo you be serious Jonsing guy o. .don turn to NL's resident tribalIst abi. Wetin concern the topic with Wole Soyinka now? Nna eh, NL ga gba gi ara. .

Garri the 1st: He died without the prize...... PERIOD!!!

What's all this long epistles for??

The next line will be "Marginalization of Ibos"..

Allow the old man rest in peace.....abegi??

Poor brain. Why not comment on d important issues raised in article rather take on a tribe.

Garri the 1st:

Being called a "Legend" is a great achievement according to you abi??

Kai!! This people sha....

Grandeur of Delusion (abi na how dem speak dat grammar again)

illiterate. Legendary works outlive titles and awards. A legend is a gift to the living and posterity. So, they British were right to call him Legend.

Nobel Prize and Rhode Scholarship are gutter inventions as far as I am concerned. There have been six human beings (five Europeans and one Asian) that rejected the crappy Nobel Prize. Achebe would have been the first African to reject the gutter prize.

dayokanu: How come Wole Soyinka doesnt lose sleep over Booker T award and Father of Literature award

But na Achebe people wan die because of Nobel.

I thought they said Nobel is irrelevant and substandard, Why una wan kill unaself on irrelevant and substandard Nobel prize?

Why is soyika so bitter and frustrated that Achebe is the father of modern African Literature?

EASTSIDAZ:

Why is soyika so bitter and frustrated that Achebe is the father of modern African Literature?

Soyinka Bitter how?

Soyinka said the award makes no sense, Same thing Achebe said

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/nov/12/achebe-rejects-father-modern-african-literature

http://www.punchng.com/news/achebe-and-i-are-not-fathers-of-african-literature-soyinka/

dayokanu:

Soyinka Bitter how?

Soyinka said the award makes no sense, Same thing Achebe said

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/nov/12/achebe-rejects-father-modern-african-literature

http://www.punchng.com/news/achebe-and-i-are-not-fathers-of-african-literature-soyinka/

Dayo, you still have time ni?
The late Prof wasn't title-conscious as what our brethren are calling for. Title or no title, his work will still speak for him anyday.

dayokanu:

Soyinka Bitter how?

Soyinka said the award makes no sense, Same thing Achebe said

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/nov/12/achebe-rejects-father-modern-african-literature

http://www.punchng.com/news/achebe-and-i-are-not-fathers-of-african-literature-soyinka/

It doesn't make sense, but you Yoruba tribe has been rattled and unsettled by the position of Achebe as the father of modern African literature.