The Achebe I Knew -Ex-Classmate Published on April 2, 2013 by · 1 Comment
Mabel Segun, a writer, apart from being born the same year as the late Professor Chinua Achebe, was in the same class with him at the University College, (now University of) Ibadan. In this interview with ADEMOLA ADEGBAMIGBE, Segun, author of Conflict and Other Poems, My Father’s Daughter, Under theMango Tree, Olu and the Broken Statue, The Twins and the Tree Spirits, and Sorry, No Vacancy, speaks about her university days with Achebe and what made Achebe tick
•Mabel Segun. Photo: Emmanuel Osodi
You were with Chinua Achebe at the University of Ibadan; could you recall your days with him?
That was a class of 25 or so. I can’t remember anybody on the first day or even week. You know we all came for enrolment process for the first time and we went our different ways. But we later did many things together. He loved dancing and we used to go to the dancing club together. We were taught different steps – not the lazy dancing you young people do nowadays that you don’t learn anything and you just throw your arms and legs up! Ours was a properly structured kind of dancing, where you had topay attention and learn where to put your feet. So, Achebe and I became close through that.
What really brought us together was writing because he became the editor of our magazine and I was the advertisement manager. It was a student magazine.
What’s the name of the publication?
The University Herald. Then, Achebe found out that he needed help for the editing so he made me a sort of unofficial assistant editor. We worked together but there was no room or space designated as an office. So we used his room. And that meant me and him in his room alone. We gave some people who were not too enlightened reasons to be suspiciousabout us. The notion was that if a man and a woman were in the room alone, what else could they be doing? It was foolish! They insinuated all kinds of things but we just ignored them.
Achebe was a very self-respecting person who respected other people. I know of men who went to the point of trying to rape women 20 years older than them. But Achebecomposed himself well. He was a perfect gentleman. We would do the editing and all the work together alone in the room. Of course people wrote all sorts of things in their stupid magazine – a weekly bug – insinuating many funny things. They even corrupted our names to read Nuachi (insteadof Chinua) and Lemba (instead of Mabel). But we just ignored them and went on with our work.
Did you notice certain traits in Achebe that showed that he would later become a great writer?
One thing I noticed about him later in life – because you learn about people as you go along – was that he was older than his years. I learnt that when he was young, he associated a lot with elders in his hometown,Ogidi. So he acquired this sort of elderly behaviour. He was very sensible and behavedmore like an elderly person who could comport himself in the society.
That was how I saw him at the time. He had avery good sense of humour that I admired very much. It was not the kind of stupid humour that you see nowadays being displayed by the so-called comedians! Achebehad a sort of subtle humour which showed his deep knowledge of the English language. I enjoyed it so much. He even tried it on me sometimes. He used to say I spoke with an Ijebu accent. But I am Edo, not Ijebu, so I took it as one of his jokes. I never lived in Edoland; I lived in Yorubaland, but certainly not in the Ijebu area. I am from Edo.
I read it somewhere that you hailed from Ondo town…
I am from the family of Aig-Imoukuede. I am from Sabon-Gida Ora, Edo State. My father was the first archdeacon there. I am not fromOndo, as some people like to say (I am currently writing my memoirs. I’ll put all of this in it). Some people once came from Ondoand said they wanted to honour me. It is a good thing to want to associate with success. I know that if I were a bandit, no group would wish to do that. It was a compliment.
Unfortunately nowadays, there are societies that honour robbers! That shows a different value system!
Apart from your working together on the student magazine, how else did you know that Achebe was going to be a good writer in future?
I wasn’t trying to assess him really. He wrote in the paper. Where else would I assess him? There was nothing else to indicate he would turn out great, except that he spoke very good English. Once you had that kind of subtle humour, you most likely would have a good knowledge of English. Today, you find professors who don’t even understand what a satire is. When you say something, they don’t know it’s a tongue-in-cheek expression– that you don’t mean it the way you said it. And then they take you up on why are you supporting that character, whereas you are actually condemning the character.

(Continued) Can you remember some of your other mates in school then?
I remember some of them quite well, even though I was not the clubbing type. I remember Grace Alele-Williams, Akin Mabogunje, Ufot, who was in WAEC at a time; Oforiokuma and, I almost forgot, Bola Ige. I remember there was a big clash sometime between Bola Ige and Achebe.
What caused the clash?
You know Bola Ige had a big mouth and could say anything! He attacked me too. It was later we made up and he started calling me the Matriarch of Literature and so on.
It was an incident in the university which involved Achebe and Chukwuemeka Ike and some other people. It was like an ethnic clashbut it was settled. It was the bitter rivalry over which ethnic group, between the Yoruba and Igbo, should be the representative of our halls of residence. Giventhat they were the ones who arrived first in school, the Yoruba students believed they should head the students’ representatives and not the Igbo, who had gone behind to constitute a few of them as representatives. The quarrel was eventually settled.
But Bola Ige now went and bought a notice board which had a glass case and padlock sothat nobody would be able to remove anything from it. He then wrote nasty things about the other camp. Both sides were in thewrong; but Bola Ige went too far. He wrote a piece and put it in the glass case and locked it up, so no one could tear it. He said something like: ‘There were some small fry who had just come to the university and thought that they were the lord and master of the place.’
It was at that point that Achebe, (and I believe I saw Chukwuemeka Ike, too), went into the kitchen hall, got hold of an axe, and made for the glass notice board and broke it. That was the only action of Achebe that I sawwhich I wasn’t too happy about. Bola Ige shouldn’t have stoked the fire after the matter had been settled. But that was his style. He was one of my greatest enemies in the university but he repented later. And when people repent, you have to forgive them.
From your interactions, did Achebe strike youat any time as a tribalist? There is the notion that Achebe tried to whip up tribal sentiments with his last work, There Was A Country.
There was the incident at the university where he had to break a notice board. But I don’t think we can refer to him as a tribalist for doing that because of the circumstances that led to that. Bola Ige provoked him to take such action.
Many people refer to Achebe as the ‘father of African literature’. What do you think?
Yes. Some even say it’s Amos Tutuola.
What is your position on Achebe’s memoirs on Biafra, There Was A Country?
I have not seen the book, I only saw extracts. So I cannot judge the work based on the extracts. But I worked closely with people likeObafemi Awolowo on those things. I was in charge of the Hansard in the Western House of Assembly. So I was the one who produced the record log, even for the House of Chiefs as well. It was a tedious job because I had a new baby then and I was working for almost24 hours.
Given the animosity the memoirs generated between the Igbo and Yoruba, what’s your advice to both ethnic groups for them to forget the past and preserve the handshake across the Niger?
I don’t think people should make that much of it. All the protagonists of the whole thing are dead now. I think we should just move on. I viewed Achebe as larger than life. That he was immortal. That we would keep on hearing from him again and again. But he died. http://pmnewsnigeria.com/2013/04/02/the-achebe-i-knew-ex-classmate/

....

@Akin Mabogunje,my famous Geographer! I used his textbooks back then in the university. Lord knows where he is now.

So e don tae wei Bola don dey annoy people, thats why dem kill am.

I wonder the kyn dance this woman is refering to, which songs r they dancing to sef. Maybe they using beethoveen musical note to dance. This old people always think they lived a better life. When people like Beef too grow old they would start lying to the young ones.

Mama, abeg there's still time for you to dance Azonto, kukere n Alanta.

Policewoman: (Continued)
What caused the clash?
You know Bola Ige had a big mouth and could say anything! He attacked me too. It was later we made up and he started calling me the Matriarch of Literature and so on.
It was an incident in the university which involved Achebe and Chukwuemeka Ike and some other people.[b] It was like an ethnic clashbut it was settled. It was the bitter rivalry over which ethnic group, between the Yoruba and Igbo, should be the representative of our halls of residence. [/b]Given that they were the ones who arrived first in school, the Yoruba students believed they should head the students’ representatives and not the Igbo, who had gone behind to constitute a few of them as representatives. The quarrel was eventually settled.
But Bola Ige now went and bought a notice board which had a glass case and padlock sothat nobody would be able to remove anything from it. He then wrote nasty things about the other camp. Both sides were in thewrong; but Bola Ige went too far. He wrote a piece and put it in the glass case and locked it up, so no one could tear it. He said something like: ‘There were some small fry who had just come to the university and thought that they were the lord and master http://pmnewsnigeria.com/2013/04/02/the-achebe-i-knew-ex-classmate/

. No be today Yoruba vs Igbo tribal war start. Only that now, it has turned to an e-war a' la Nairaland

Achebe has always been a trouble maker with a pint of uncommon bigotry.

Policewoman: It was an incident in the university which involved Achebe and Chukwuemeka Ike and some other people. It was like an ethnic clashbut it was settled. It was the bitter rivalry over which ethnic group, between the Yoruba and Igbo, should be the representative of our halls of residence. Giventhat they were the ones who arrived first in school, the Yoruba students believed they should head the students’ representatives and not the Igbo, who had gone behind to constitute a few of them as representatives. The quarrel was eventually settled.
/

It was in his DNA. Deep-rooted bigotry and arrogance. What a sad man to death!

So no be today Achebe start

Ashebe the pathetic bigot

Eko Atlantic: Ashebe the pathetic bigot

And Bola Ige and fellow instigators are....

That whole tale of the hall of residence reps, the rivalry, and the "small fry" analogy doesn't say much about anyone being hospitable and accommodating, does it?

Younger people are supposed to learn from the mistakes of their forefathers. Many of the youths on this thread are hell bent on carrying on with the mistake of bigotry, reportedly exhibited by their predecessors. SMH

dayokanu: So no be today Achebe start

Bitterness and anger troubled the man all his life...

nnenna.1:


And Bola Ige and fellow instigators are....

Definitely not enough excuse for violence and destruction of property..

Policewoman: . No be today Yoruba vs Igbo tribal war start. Only that now, it has turned to an e-war a' la Nairaland

This story, I wonder what anyone would make out of it. Let me get something straight from that portion you brought out policewoman. So the Igbo created a representative. The Yoruba claimed they should be the representative because they were in the school first. Disregard as whether the representative was meant for just Igbo community in the school or the entire school. No regard as to whose more qualified to lead (i.e: based on grades, school activities, etc) like most organization in schools today. Interesting. Okay from that interaction, both sides were wrong. Now after the whole quarrel and the problem fixed. The Yoruba still went ahead and created a board, stamping that board in front of the school and write insulting things about the opposing side (i.e: Igbo) after the whole thing have been squashed.
If we talk dem own tribalism in Nigeria. We'll get banned and called bigots. Sanusi said it in politics and he was accused as a tribalist. Achebe said it and he was equally accused of tribalism. Na wa ooo!! You learn about the people you are forced to share a nation with everyday. oya next story I'm getting interested now.

Eko Ile:



Definitely not enough excuse for violence and destruction of property..

Property that depicted what?

nnenna.1:


Property that depicted what?

Does it matter what it depicted? We have a million and 1 things around us that we don't like, but we don't go around destroying everything. Who does that? Insane and and people with anger management issues of course.

Eko Ile:


Does it matter what it depicted? We have a million and 1 things around us that we don't like, but we don't go around destroying everything. Who does that? Insane and and people with anger management issues of course.

In other words, the message should have been left alone to be displayed.

Gotcha.

If such a message was written and posted by White British bigots at a university in England and a Black student broke the display box, such a student would have been hailed as a hero and fighter against racism.


But Achebe is labeled a bigot for this.

nnenna.1:
If such a message was written and posted by White British bigots at a university in England and a Black student broke the display box, such a student would have been hailed as a hero and fighter against racism.


But Achebe is labeled a bigot for this.

Call your kinsman hero or whatever floats your boat in Nigeria, but in Britain, he'll definitively either get suspended or kicked out. What is tribally heroic to you in Nigeria is called hooliganism in Britain.

Definition of HOOLIGANISM

: rowdy, violent, or destructive behavior

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hooliganism

My sister, ike gwuru o. People being hypocrites and speaking from both sides of their mouth is to me, the lowest a person of no self value can go. x is good or bad, depending on who does X.

They will rush into Biafra threads and celebrate the death of women, children and defenceless civilians, saying that "action and reaction is not the same."
The way someone who says this can come now on this thread (on this same nairaland) and say that you dont like this or that doesnt mean one should break property etc... one will be shocked to see the same poster taking a complete 180 with absolutely no shame.

They can shout bigot bigot bigot all they want, other Nigerians knows which ethnic group introduced bigotry into Nigerian politics. Sanusi couldnt have been more apt. Thank heavens Chinua wrote it in a golden pen for our future generations to read and forever watch their backs from backstabbers.
Hate eats people up from the inside, little wonder different vices devoour their land and people sleep with their daughters-in law, drink rat poison, generals weeping like babies, taking a dump in water-proof and use the same water-proof, unwashed to pack their food to eat the next day ... living lives of complete and utter shamelessness.

Till love is embraced, and tribalism shunned, but rather have people treated with respect and dignity irrespective of tribe or race, but with the same manner one would want others to treat him or her ... until then... may God have mercy.

nnenna.1:


In other words, the message should have been left alone to be displayed.

Gotcha.

Eko Ile:



Call your kinsman hero or whatever floats your boat in Nigeria, but in Britain, he'll definitively either get suspended or kicked out. What is tribally heroic to you in Nigeria is called hooliganism in Britain.

Not if there is a justifiable cause.

nnenna.1:



Not if there is a justifiable cause.

Only crude and barbaric people go on a rampage over such issues and manufacture silly excuses to justify their violent behavior.

Thank God ashebe's insane, violent, destructive, medieval and animalistic behavior was an aberration and not the societal norm.

Eko Ile:


Only crude and barbaric people go on a rampage over such issues and manufacture silly excuses to justify their violent behavior.

Thank God ashebe's insane, violent, destructive, medieval and animalistic behavior was an aberration and not the societal norm.

It wasn't exactly crude, destructive or barbaric.

He just broke a display box.

Which happened to display a crass and divisive message.

We can go in circles with this, but I'll stop here since I made my point.

Good day to you.

*un-follows thread*

nnenna.1:


It wasn't exactly crude, destructive or barbaric.

He just broke a display box.

Which happened to display a crass and divisive message.

Based on the highlighted, your understanding of the word destructive is very very poor.

You mean the traits that make the yourba members of the Axis of Evil are not new? They have been like that all along? What a shame, what a people!!!

Wow! He was a raging vandal as well!

But Bola Ige now went and bought a notice board which had a glass case and padlock sothat nobody would be able to remove anything from it. He then wrote nasty things about the other camp. Both sides were in thewrong; but Bola Ige went too far. He wrote a piece and put it in the glass case and locked it up, so no one could tear it. He said something like: ‘There were some small fry who had just come to the university and thought that they were the lord and master of the place.

Bola Ige was one man i previously admired but thank Goodness he has been exposed here , Bola ige like his type did not go beyond the South West they were born lived and died known only in the South west like Awolowo , Bola also happens to be the first minister (minister of Justice ) to be assassinated in Nigeria under a yoruba leader Obasanjo with no arrest and no body to hold responsible till date. Yet people will go about whining about Jonathan for not arresting and bringing to Justice the sponsor of Boko Haram

It was at that point that Achebe, (and I believe I saw Chukwuemeka Ike, too), went into the kitchen hall, got hold of an axe, and made for the glass notice board and broke it. That was the only action of Achebe that I sawwhich I wasn’t too happy about. Bola Ige shouldn’t have stoked the fire after the matter had been settled. But that was his style. He was one of my greatest enemies in the university but he repented later. And when people repent, you have to forgive them.

Achebe's Reaction was prompt and resolute to Bola Ige's misadventure. Notice here that this Edo lady descirbed this misdventure as Bola ige's style or way , what a way of life.

All these events happened around 1948/1949 12 years before Nigeria's independence , this leaves me wondering what kind of Country and people we have found our selves in.


http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/particles/personal_encounters_with_uncle_b.htm

Let us start on Saturday, May 2, 1998, when Chief Bola Ige was arrested for participating in an Ibadan May Day (May 1) protest against General Abacha that turned violent. According to the then funny Military Governor Colonel Ahmed Usman, Ige was one of several "prisoners of war" of the anti-Abacha NADECO "war" brigade that included present Oyo State Governer Lamidi Adesina

In the second week of May, a broad coalition of 34 eminent citizens known as G-34 (led by Dr. Alex Ekwueme and including detained Chief Bola Ige) released a public letter to General Abacha, urging him to decline his "sole" nomination by his "five fingers (POLITICAL PARTIES) of the same leprous hand (OF ABACHA)
This was a graphic terminology coined earlier by Chief Ige. Several similar letters were released by various groups around the same time. Suddenly, on Monday, June 8, 1998, General Abacha died reportedly in the embrace of unknown female hands, taking his troubles with him. Abdusalami Abubakar took over immediately as the new military dictator in town, and released Chief Ige from detention on Tuesday, June 16, together with pro-democracy Campaign for Democracy leader Dr. Beko Ransome-Kuti, newspaper publisher Mrs. Chris Anyanwu and ex-military-head of state Olusegun Obasanjo. The last three had been in prison since mid 1995, victims of a trumped-up coup charge. On Tuesday, July 7, 1998, June12-protagonist and president-elect Bashorun MKO Abiola, still a prisoner of the military, capitulated to death from tea drinking, victim of a further set of machinations. On Monday, July 20, General Abubakar dissolved all the "five leprous fingers" and the existing National Electoral Commission of Nigeria (NECON), and promised to handover power to a civilian government on May 29, 1999, thereby blowing a whistle for a new political football game. On Monday, August 28, the G-34 transformed into and launched the present ruling party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). On Wednesday, September 2, the All Peoples Party (APP) presented itself to the public in Lagos. The press conference featured eminent politicians such as Mahmud Waziri, Bola Ige, Umaru Shinkafi, Dr. Sola Saraki, Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, Chief Arthur Nzeribe, Alhaji Lamidi Adedibu, Alhaji Isa Mohammed, Dr. Joseph Wayas, Dr. Edet Amana and Dr. Bode Olajumoke. Notice the name "Bola Ige" in the list. On Tuesday, September 8, the day the APP was supposed to present itself to the public in Abuja, Ige dramatically pulled People's Consultative Forum PCF (a.k.a Afenifere) from under the APP umbrella, protesting APP’s "Abachaite" membership, and picked up party registration forms for the Alliance for Democracy (AD).

This time around Bola Ige did not Object to being subservient under an igbo man. [size=15pt]See Hypocrisy in real Life[/size].

@ forum this is both hypocrisy and cowardice

kettykin:



Achebe's Reaction was prompt and resolute to Bola Ige's misadventure. Notice here that this Edo lady descirbed this misdventure as Bola ige's style or way , what a way of life.

It doesn't matter many times you repeat that silly justification for ashebe's violent and destructive behavior, fact remains that his action was pure lunacy, it was violent and destructive, it was a reflection of his own crude ways and barbaric means of conflict resolution. People piss us off everyday, but we don't grab axes or weapons and start destroying things all over the place.


You are basically admitting that ashebe was emotionally unstable and he lacked the capacity to control his emotions (This we know he was incapable of doing especially with his bigoted and hateful book)and he was a ticking and destructive time bomb. Thank God he didn't chop off people's dead with the axe..

Achebe was a very self-respecting person who respected other people. Achebe composed himself well. He was a perfect gentleman. We would do the editing and all the work together alone in the room. Of course people wrote all sorts of things in their silly magazine – a weekly bug – insinuating many funny things. They even corrupted our names to read Nuachi (insteadof Chinua) and Lemba (instead of Mabel). But we just ignored them and went on with our work.

hmm, well i guess this puts paid to the myth there can never be ordinary friendship between a man and a woman.