opokonwa:

Mahatma Gandhi never won the Nobel Prize for Peace despite being the strongest symbol of non-violence in the 20th century. This omission or commission by the Nobel Committee haunts their coveted reputation till this day.

Things Fall Apart's continuous accolade and rating till today is a spite on the nose of the Nobel Committee and the Nobel Prize for Literature.

But if you read about Nobel prize, even on the Nobel website, he was already penciled for the award before he died. That alone explained that he was considered worthy of the prize. But Achebe is still living and this so called mistake of identity as some people called it has been on for almost twenty six years? When do you think they will correct it? I laugh no be small.

bayooooooo:

I am happy we are moving away from insults and now discussing the real issue, the artistic value of the book, what makes it appealing amd what's there for all or others to assess or learn.

There is nothing wrong in saying you are the best if you are truly the best.It's not arrogance, it's not pride. Let other come forward and dispute it. But everything is wrong if you claim to be the best while you are not and as such I give it to him for keeping mute. He is not the best but one of the very best.

Now the Quaran is as nearly translated as the Bible, does that mean the artistic value of the two books are great? If someone writes a chemistry textbook that all students are willing to buy and read, does that make the professor an accomplished one or deserving of being the best chemistry professor? [/b]It takes much more than that and we all know it.

The hype of the book is based on the number of languages it has been translated to and I mentioned speeches that can get translated within minutes without having any artistic value to correct the erroneous impression that translation depicts the strength of the novel. Same thing is applicable to the bible, it gets translated not because of it's artistic or literary excellence but primarily driven by the content, [b]the so called message from God. Achebe's book translation is driven by the content or the so called story of colonialism in Africa not as a result of it being a literary excellence piece that must be read by all aspiring potential literary minds.

I don't write books, there is no point to proof to anyone. If Things Fall Apart had been written in Igbo, obscurity would have masked it as well. So it's not a big deal.

To the first bolded statement, who is the best? No idea? Hater
To the second, their artistic value are excellent despite the religious following. I have read both.
To the Chemistry comparison, yes, it will really count to making the Prof, the best. Do u read yr arguments at all. Yr hating has depth.
You mentioned speeches that will be translated by TV, BlackBerries, internet, social networks. See how you lie to yourself
Please the Bible is not a 'so called message from God'. It is the message from God.

Try writing a book in English. I bet you will not sell enough to pay your Publisher. And yes, Things Fall Apart is written in Igbo. The hard part was translating the scores of Igbo proverbs, riddles and hyperboles to English.

I am sure no writer has ever emerged from your genealogy. You can redeem that image by putting your energy used in discrediting masterpieces to writing a 3-page literary piece.
Classic case of bad belle

PHIPEX:

you have not answered my questions

WHAT CRITERIA SHOULD BE USED IN JUDGING GREATEST BOOKS AROUND?

On the bolded, Things Fall Apart is in America's curriculum.

I still dey laugh.

[color=#990000][/color]

kayusfit: What is with this over hyped Achebe sef? I know all the bloody igbos will be worshiping him now that their coward ojukwu is rotting in hell presently. Things fall apart ko, things fall for ground ni. Many great scholars in yoruba land and yet we no dey make noise. his books should be burnt and he should be tied and shot dead.

U b F.O.O.L o! Cant you shut d fcku up if u've got nathing to contribut? u tribless Ma.ggot. Because u ar prevelaged to own a china phone with MTN cheat thats y u post anything that pops up to your brainle.ss Head. Learn to make contibutions, if you must, without insulting anybody or tribe. grow up and get a job.
for asking, Im not an Ibo.

Though I totally agree that the phenomenal 'Things Fall Apart' will make any list of world's most influential books at any given day, yet, I must say this particular list is soo over-rated! Obviously coming from supposed academicians who are KFC chicken-fed Americans with their analytical minds and well ironed shirts. Two free slots (for the 9/11 attack and the fact that the American mind is closing up [#who cares?]) for their country's interest. I mean even Wikipedia was less bias at compiling a list similar to this!

bayooooooo:

You keep confusing issue. I have not said Things Fall Apart is not a masterpiece, for your information, I have read the book about twenty time. but my contention is the fact that the book is being exaggerated and the author overrated. Bible is translated to Chinese but how many chinese are christians, how many chinese read bible?

That a book is translated to another language does not depict wide acceptance in such a language. I can write a nonsense book and called a group of language experts to translate same to other languages so far as I am able to foot the bill.That's all. In how many of such countries is Things Fall Apart on the school curriculum to help us measure the depth of the so called appreciation and acceptability?

That Achebe is great is obviously not in question. But the line between great and greatest in this case is not blur, it's well defined and as such Achebe is not the greatest.

Try writing a book. Talk is cheap.

Bayo why are u laughing? Does it mean you don't know what makes a book great but knows that Things Fall Apart is not one of the greatest?

Bayoooo u have made ur point, can u now answer my question. How many books have had the honour of translation into 60 langs?

Hon. Chinua Achebe and Nobel Prize committee: The brewing and unending cold war
Written by Emeka Chiakwelu

Achebe and Nobel Prize

Whenever you have time to visit Nobel Prize website, do click to page for Nobel prize winners for literature. You come to notice that of all the important literature of 20th century and emerging 21st century winners of the prize; that the greatest literature of all time that elucidated and clarified the position of Africans on meeting of the West and Africa is missing. The book is Chinua Achebe's "Things Fall Apart" which is based on the crash of civilizations. To say that "Things Fall Apart" is just a literature is a sophomoric understatement. The book is a historical analogy and the psychoanalogy of the antecedent and contemporary Africans as they struggle to confront the history, encroachment and interference of an outside culture that left an undeniable and indelible mark on the body, soul and psyche of the African. The meeting brought mixed basket of modernity, exploitation, slavery, colonialism and Christianity - a total transformation of Africa.

The ramification and the osmosis of the great meeting of the cultures is exactly the picture our Honorable Achebe captured and portrayed vividly in "Things Fall Apart". The book is bigger than a great story and history because it becomes the first attempt by an African to define what it means to be an African within the context of the introduction of the Western culture without undermining African sense and sensibility. Africa from the prism of history is the great loser but the complete ramification have not fully emerged. It will take centuries to say for sure what the great crashed of civilizations meant to the both parties. The great loser of today might tomorrow inherit the mundane earth.

Let's deal with this without mincing words. Why did the Nobel Award committee deny Chinua Achebe the literature prize? Simple and direct: They are afraid of the truth, the intellectual honesty that the committee is devoted to pursue and propagate have eluded them because the acceptance of the truth and reality comes with a cost and reparation. Reparation and acknowledgment of the truth does not necessarily have to be material or monetary gain but it can come as way of intellectual reparation and the readjustment of the status quo from intellectual guilt. The intellectual gatekeepers of the Nobel committee might see the acknowledgment of this reality abounded by "Things Fall Apart" as making them vulnerable to those that desire to be atone for the past mistakes and injustices.

Nobel Prize committee has given every Tom, Dick and Harry from all the corners of our globe literature prize. But when they come to Honorable Chinua Achebe they skipped him because "Things Fall Apart" is not your father's literature, for it is a missive of rugged individualism, pride, heart break and mistreatment written by an African to the world that oppressed them and dislodged them from their humanity.

THE COLD WAR

What is this cold war between these two institutions - Achebe and Nobel? First and foremost Chinua Achebe is an institution, he might be one man but he represents a side of Africa that dare to speak, seek, pursue and ask question that must be asked. So ask he did and when two titans meet for a wrestling match the ground quivers. Chinua Achebe is bigger than Nobel prize because the question or the quest for liberty he tendered cannot be satiated with a Nobel prize. The committee of Nobel prize comprehended that the only way they chose to answer Things Fall Apart‘s question is with mute. For if they award the prize they have accepted the argument of the book. If they deny it with a loud voice then they have acknowledged their vulnerability and insecurity.

The inactive observers who have not comprehend this delicate game of chicken and hen, fail to appreciate the brewing and continuous cold war: Since Honorable Chinua Achebe refused to apologize for the book instead he challenged another great western writer the Conrad's Heart of Darkness dehumanization of Africans. In the paper "An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's 'Heart of Darkness'" he presented at University of Massachusetts in 1977. He reiterated and rebutted the content of the book with clarity and intellectual vim:

"Heart of Darkness projects the image of Africa as "the other world," the antithesis of Europe and therefore of civili zation, a place where man's vaunted intelligence and refine ment are finally mocked by triumphant bestiality. The book opens on the River Thames, tranquil, resting peacefully "at the decline of day after ages of good service done to the race that peopled its banks."2 But the actual story will take place on the River Congo, the very antithesis of the Thames. The River Congo is quite decidedly not a River Emeritus. It has rendered no service and enjoys no old-age pension. We are told that "going up that river was like travelling back to the earliest beginning of the world." Is Conrad saying then that these two rivers are very differ ent, one good, the other bad? Yes, but that is not the real point. It is not the differentness that worries Conrad but the lurking hint of kinship, of common ancestry. For the Thames too "has been one of the dark places of the earth." It conquered its darkness, of course, and is now in daylight and at peace. But if it were to visit its primordial relative, the Congo, it would run the terrible risk of hearing grotesque echoes of its own forgotten darkness, and falling victim to an avenging recrudescence of the mindless frenzy of the first beginnings."

The Nobel Prize Committee and its intellectual hamlet have not forgiven Chinua Achebe for equating his book as the antithesis of Conrad's Heart of darkness. Those that witnessed the event and others misunderstood "Things Fall Apart" and Chinua Achebe - for all he was exposing were the sins of Heart of Darkness which makes the book fundamentally flawed from African perspective. These ivory tower intellectuals that claimed paragon of excellence have cultivated a mindset that negate anything African and absolutely diverged from the African point of view.



THE GREAT ACHEBE

"Men become might not by what they achieved but for the task they set for themselves"

- Henry Kissinger

What really made Hon. Chinua Achebe the greatest writer of our time is not just about writing one of the most significant book of all time but for the task he set for himself and his people. The great task was to tell the world that in spite of the tribulations and destruction of the African body that the spirit - the African spirit is still vibrant and very much alive. If the thesis of "Things Fall Apart" can be summon and summarize in one line: Africa is living.

Emeka Chiakwelu is the Principal Policy Strategist at Afripol Organization. Africa Political and Economic Strategic Center (Afripol) is foremost a public policy center whose fundamental objective is to broaden the parameters of public policy debates in Africa. To advocate, promote and encourage free enterprise, democracy, sustainable green environment, human rights, conflict resolutions, transparency and probity in Africa.

opokonwa:

To the first bolded statement, who is the best? No idea? Hater
To the second, their artistic value are excellent despite the religious following. I have read both.
To the Chemistry comparison, yes, it will really count to making the Prof, the best. Do u read yr arguments at all. Yr hating has depth.
You mentioned speeches that will be translated by TV, BlackBerries, internet, social networks. See how you lie to yourself
Please the Bible is not a 'so called message from God'. It is the message from God.

Try writing a book in English. I bet you will not sell enough to pay your Publisher. And yes, Things Fall Apart is written in Igbo. The hard part was translating the scores of Igbo proverbs, riddles and hyperboles to English.

I am sure no writer has ever emerged from your genealogy. You can redeem that image by putting your energy used in discrediting masterpieces to writing a 3-page literary piece.
Classic case of bad belle

No, the chemistry professor with the best selling book is not considered the best by the chemists! It is the chemistry professor with novel discoveries in research that's considered the best, the brilliant, the most accomplished. Anybody can write a book that catches the fancy of everyone, but originality, brilliance, great innovative minds that provide consistency in novel discoveries are not the inherent property of all. If you can write very well but brings no novel ways of doing it, you have not done anything special. That's the synopsis of that to say about Achebe.

It does not matter how the speeches are translated, what matters is what's is driving the translation which is primarily the content being an interesting story or the message of fear and not necessarily because of artistic relevance?

You talk with an unbelievable authority on the bible. How sure are you about it being a message from the so called God? What would be your response if a Muslim disputes your stand? Shakespearean pieces are better than both the bible and the Quran, so nothing great spectacular about their artistic value.

I am not an Author, or something in that regard and for the umpteenth time, I don't write books. So get me right. You are correct, no writer has emerged from my genealogy. would you be pleased to tell how many you have in yours?

PHIPEX: Hon. Chinua Achebe and Nobel Prize committee: The brewing and unending cold war
Written by Emeka Chiakwelu

Achebe and Nobel Prize

Whenever you have time to visit Nobel Prize website, do click to page for Nobel prize winners for literature. You come to notice that of all the important literature of 20th century and emerging 21st century winners of the prize; that the greatest literature of all time that elucidated and clarified the position of Africans on meeting of the West and Africa is missing. The book is Chinua Achebe's "Things Fall Apart" which is based on the crash of civilizations. To say that "Things Fall Apart" is just a literature is a sophomoric understatement. The book is a historical analogy and the psychoanalogy of the antecedent and contemporary Africans as they struggle to confront the history, encroachment and interference of an outside culture that left an undeniable and indelible mark on the body, soul and psyche of the African. The meeting brought mixed basket of modernity, exploitation, slavery, colonialism and Christianity - a total transformation of Africa.

The ramification and the osmosis of the great meeting of the cultures is exactly the picture our Honorable Achebe captured and portrayed vividly in "Things Fall Apart". The book is bigger than a great story and history because it becomes the first attempt by an African to define what it means to be an African within the context of the introduction of the Western culture without undermining African sense and sensibility. Africa from the prism of history is the great loser but the complete ramification have not fully emerged. It will take centuries to say for sure what the great crashed of civilizations meant to the both parties. The great loser of today might tomorrow inherit the mundane earth.

Let's deal with this without mincing words. Why did the Nobel Award committee deny Chinua Achebe the literature prize? Simple and direct: They are afraid of the truth, the intellectual honesty that the committee is devoted to pursue and propagate have eluded them because the acceptance of the truth and reality comes with a cost and reparation. Reparation and acknowledgment of the truth does not necessarily have to be material or monetary gain but it can come as way of intellectual reparation and the readjustment of the status quo from intellectual guilt. The intellectual gatekeepers of the Nobel committee might see the acknowledgment of this reality abounded by "Things Fall Apart" as making them vulnerable to those that desire to be atone for the past mistakes and injustices.

Nobel Prize committee has given every Tom, Dick and Harry from all the corners of our globe literature prize. But when they come to Honorable Chinua Achebe they skipped him because "Things Fall Apart" is not your father's literature, for it is a missive of rugged individualism, pride, heart break and mistreatment written by an African to the world that oppressed them and dislodged them from their humanity.

THE COLD WAR

What is this cold war between these two institutions - Achebe and Nobel? First and foremost Chinua Achebe is an institution, he might be one man but he represents a side of Africa that dare to speak, seek, pursue and ask question that must be asked. So ask he did and when two titans meet for a wrestling match the ground quivers. Chinua Achebe is bigger than Nobel prize because the question or the quest for liberty he tendered cannot be satiated with a Nobel prize. The committee of Nobel prize comprehended that the only way they chose to answer Things Fall Apart‘s question is with mute. For if they award the prize they have accepted the argument of the book. If they deny it with a loud voice then they have acknowledged their vulnerability and insecurity.

The inactive observers who have not comprehend this delicate game of chicken and hen, fail to appreciate the brewing and continuous cold war: Since Honorable Chinua Achebe refused to apologize for the book instead he challenged another great western writer the Conrad's Heart of Darkness dehumanization of Africans. In the paper "An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's 'Heart of Darkness'" he presented at University of Massachusetts in 1977. He reiterated and rebutted the content of the book with clarity and intellectual vim:

"Heart of Darkness projects the image of Africa as "the other world," the antithesis of Europe and therefore of civili zation, a place where man's vaunted intelligence and refine ment are finally mocked by triumphant bestiality. The book opens on the River Thames, tranquil, resting peacefully "at the decline of day after ages of good service done to the race that peopled its banks."2 But the actual story will take place on the River Congo, the very antithesis of the Thames. The River Congo is quite decidedly not a River Emeritus. It has rendered no service and enjoys no old-age pension. We are told that "going up that river was like travelling back to the earliest beginning of the world." Is Conrad saying then that these two rivers are very differ ent, one good, the other bad? Yes, but that is not the real point. It is not the differentness that worries Conrad but the lurking hint of kinship, of common ancestry. For the Thames too "has been one of the dark places of the earth." It conquered its darkness, of course, and is now in daylight and at peace. But if it were to visit its primordial relative, the Congo, it would run the terrible risk of hearing grotesque echoes of its own forgotten darkness, and falling victim to an avenging recrudescence of the mindless frenzy of the first beginnings."

The Nobel Prize Committee and its intellectual hamlet have not forgiven Chinua Achebe for equating his book as the antithesis of Conrad's Heart of darkness. Those that witnessed the event and others misunderstood "Things Fall Apart" and Chinua Achebe - for all he was exposing were the sins of Heart of Darkness which makes the book fundamentally flawed from African perspective. These ivory tower intellectuals that claimed paragon of excellence have cultivated a mindset that negate anything African and absolutely diverged from the African point of view.



THE GREAT ACHEBE

"Men become might not by what they achieved but for the task they set for themselves"

- Henry Kissinger

What really made Hon. Chinua Achebe the greatest writer of our time is not just about writing one of the most significant book of all time but for the task he set for himself and his people. The great task was to tell the world that in spite of the tribulations and destruction of the African body that the spirit - the African spirit is still vibrant and very much alive. If the thesis of "Things Fall Apart" can be summon and summarize in one line: Africa is living.

Emeka Chiakwelu is the Principal Policy Strategist at Afripol Organization. Africa Political and Economic Strategic Center (Afripol) is foremost a public policy center whose fundamental objective is to broaden the parameters of public policy debates in Africa. To advocate, promote and encourage free enterprise, democracy, sustainable green environment, human rights, conflict resolutions, transparency and probity in Africa.

I laugh no be small.

PHIPEX: Bayo why are u laughing? Does it mean you don't know what makes a book great but knows that Things Fall Apart is not one of the greatest?

kutchs: Bayoooo u have made ur point, can u now answer my question. How many books have had the honour of translation into 60 langs?

www.google.com will be of help.

The biggest fear of the Nobel Prize Committee is not in awarding the Nobel Prize for Literature to Prof. Chinua Achebe.
One can sense that their biggest fear is the Prof. Achebe is quite renowned for his unpredictability as much as his Things Fall Apart.

I am sure the Nobel Prize Committee sense that if ever the Prize is awarded to Prof. Achebe, there is a 50-50 chance that he will snub the award, just to spite the committee.

So, it's better to bear the ignominy of not recognizing and rewarding Prof. Achebe's work than the discredit that a snub from Prof. Achebe will do to the Nobel Prize Committee.

Prof. Chinua Achebe is a very stubborn, self-content man who is never swayed by public recognition, thus his refusal to associate with successive Nigerian governments despite several nominations of honour and his penchant of rebuking any perceived slight to African heritage by his foreign counterparts

@bayooooo, u can laugh in swahili for all I care.

Your hating of African best is so glaring obvious simply because he is not Yoruba. kai!

@ Bayooooo

idk if u are really interested in knowing how Achebe`s Things Fall Apart has influenced the world
u may get facts from these links. Let me know if u need more to get to the real facts of this great book that continues to inspire

http://www.bard.edu/mat/fieldnotes/archive.php?aid=805&pid=67
http://edsitement.neh.gov/lesson-plan/ua-achebes-things-fall-apart-teaching-through-novel
http://users.ipfw.edu/ruflethe/Chinua%20Achebe%20and%20the%20Invention%20of%20African%20Culture.pdf
http://thadra-petkus.suite101.com/literary-elements-in-achebes-things-fall-apart-a121075
http://www.enotes.com/things-fall-apart/discuss/achebes-things-fall-apart-101-117969

opokonwa: The biggest fear of the Nobel Prize Committee is not in awarding the Nobel Prize for Literature to Prof. Chinua Achebe.
One can sense that their biggest fear is the Prof. Achebe is quite renowned for his unpredictability as much as his Things Fall Apart.

I am sure the Nobel Prize Committee sense that if ever the Prize is awarded to Prof. Achebe, there is a 50-50 chance that he snub the award, just to spite the committee.

So, it's better to bear the ignominy of not recognizing and rewarding Prof. Achebe's work than the discredit that a snub from Prof. Achebe will do to the Nobel Prize Committee.

Prof. Chinua Achebe is a very stubborn, self-content man who is never swayed by public recognition, thus his refusal to associate with successive Nigerian governments despite several nominations of honour and his penchant of rebuking any perceived slight to African heritage by his foreign counterparts

No, you are wrong. others have rejected the award before, so that can't be the point. Jean-Paul Sartre rejected the literature prize. So what else? Why are they afraid?

nsiadi: @ Bayooooo

idk if u are really interested in knowing how Achebe`s Things Fall Apart has influenced the world
u may get facts from these links. Let me know if u need more to get to the real facts of this great book that continues to inspire

http://www.bard.edu/mat/fieldnotes/archive.php?aid=805&pid=67
http://edsitement.neh.gov/lesson-plan/ua-achebes-things-fall-apart-teaching-through-novel
http://users.ipfw.edu/ruflethe/Chinua%20Achebe%20and%20the%20Invention%20of%20African%20Culture.pdf
http://thadra-petkus.suite101.com/literary-elements-in-achebes-things-fall-apart-a121075
http://www.enotes.com/things-fall-apart/discuss/achebes-things-fall-apart-101-117969

No point educating someone who deliberately became unteachable because of muted tribal sentiments.
@bayooooo cannot see beyond his tribal glasses.

opokonwa: @bayooooo, u can laugh in swahili for all I care.

Your hating of African best is so glaring obvious simply because he is not Yoruba. kai!

You called him africa's best simply because he's Igbo. Kai

opokonwa:

No point educating someone who deliberately became unteachable because of muted tribal sentiments.
@bayooooo cannot see beyond his tribal glasses.

If that makes you happy, no problem.

bayooooooo:

No, you are wrong. others have rejected the award before, so that can't be the point. Jean-Paul Sartre rejected the literature prize. So what else? Why are they afraid?

Nobody likes rejection, not even you. Jean-Paul Sartre's rejection was unexpected.
Prof. Chinua Achebe's penchant for rejecting recognitions and awards have become quite prredictable.

bayooooooo:

You called him africa's best simply because he's Igbo. Kai

I am sure you're not blind, if your two eyes were functioning properly as I presume, you will agree with me that of all the international ratings listed here, non is from the Igbo.

opokonwa:
I am sure you're not blind, if your two eyes were functioning properly as I presume, you will agree with me that of all the international ratings listed here, non is from the Igbo.

Sure! I am not blind. All the guys giving the nobel prize are also not from Yoruba.

bayooooooo:

If that makes you happy, no problem.

Truth is a bitter pill to swallow, even though your actions affirm it.
It neither makes me happy nor sad. It is quite unfortunate that all the energy you devoted here to discredit Prof. Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart and the Bible could not be devoted to writing a 1-page story book.

This is understandable though as it is easier to destroy than to create. Loser!

opokonwa:
Truth is a bitter pill to swallow, even though your actions affirm it.
It neither makes me happy nor sad. It is quite unfortunate that all the energy you devoted here to discredit Prof. Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart and the Bible could not be devoted to writing a 1-page story book.

This is understandable though as it is easier to destroy than to create. Loser!

bayooooooo:

Sure! I am not blind. All the guys giving the nobel prize are also not from Yoruba.

Prof. Chinua Achebe's non-appeal to the Nobel Prize Committee is well-documented above, so making it a Yoruba issue says so much where your resentment stems from.

bayooooooo:

opokonwa:
Prof. Chinua Achebe's non-appeal to the Nobel Prize Committee is well-documented above, so making it a Yoruba issue says so much where your resentment stems from.

Re read the posts above. You started the tribal stuff first before I responded in kind. See below:

opokonwa: @bayooooo, u can laugh in swahili for all I care.

Your hating of African best is so glaring obvious simply because he is not Yoruba. kai!

Just because okocha had been a very prolific striker and was the best footballer in one year that everyone kept referring to that year as the africa finest moment in football would not make Okocha the best more so that he did not even have any continental awards to his name. That also does not take anything away from Okocha's greatness as well. That's the heart of the matter.

@ Bayoooo
Snobbery, @ times, speaks as loudly as dignified/well applied silence
Achebe comes out smoking each time he snobs in order to correct
What else do you need from the sage? Grow-up & denounce ill tendencies

semid4lyfe: So there's no place for Alexandre Dumas' - The Count of Monte Cristo, George Owell's - Animal Farm, Bram Stoker's - Dracula and Robert Louis Stevenson's - Treasure Island?. . . .hmmmmmm

That least is trash (with some exceptions: the first 30).
No Alice in Wonderland, 1984?

Soccer is quite distinct from literature
Luck plays heightened part in soccer
That Chelsea won the CL doesnt necessarily mean that Bayern didnt outclass them
No one perfects the art of scoring penalties. World`s great footballers miss penalties
Messi, Ronaldo, Rooney nd even Drogba missed. Literary art is different

nsiadi: @ Bayoooo
Snobbery, @ times, speaks as loudly as dignified/well applied silence
Achebe comes out smoking each time he snobs in order to correct
What else do you need from the sage? Grow-up & denounce ill tendencies

Snobbery? Guy leave matter and let's move on. Achebe is great, no doubt, but certainly not the africa's greatest.
Winning small awards here and there does not compare to the main thing. Okocha won BBC's African Footballer of the Year but we all know who won the main prize. Same is applicable to Nobel Prize. Deifying Achebe and glorifying Wikipedia lists will not bring Achebe the much desired Prize. That does not add anything to what's already known.

You need to grow up and assess issue objectively without bias. If Nobel prize will be given to an African tomorrow, it's most likely not going to be Achebe. Why? There are several better authors in East Africa who on comparative basis are more deserving than this overrated, the so called finest, so called greatest, so called best known, so called genius. So it's not a Yoruba vs Igbo thing as some have erroneously labelled it. I am not a tribalist for all who cares to listen. my analysis or belief is purely from the point of what I have read, Africa wide, and the literary perceptions beyond Africa.

If we ask some of you to explain what you mean by Achebe being the Africa best, you, no doubt, have no fact or any shred of evidence to substantiate such a position. Why? No one, except people within your circle, would believe the so called best has not be able to win the best award why four other personalities have won such? No body in Europe, Asia, America, S America would believe your stories of a book being translated to a thousand languages. So try and be objective.