While the shocking news of d death of Prof. Chinualumogu Achebe- a veteran writer whose works in all aspects of life are legendary, is still latest trend, I have sat down to look at some of his words that touch(ed) and influenced my reasoning.

"While we do our good works let us not forget that the real solution lies in a world in which charity will have become unnecessary.”
― Chinua Achebe, Anthills of the Savannah

“If you don't like someone's story, write your own.”
― Chinua Achebe

“To me, being an intellectual doesn't mean knowing about intellectual issues; it means taking pleasure in them.”
― Chinua Achebe

“The white man is very clever. He came quietly and peaceably with his religion. We were amused at his foolishness and allowed him to stay. Now he has won our brothers, and our clan can no longer act like one. He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart.”
― Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart

“Nobody can teach me who I am. You can describe parts of me, but who I am - and what I need - is something I have to find out myself.”
― Chinua Achebe

“ONE OF THE TRUEST TESTS OF INTEGRITY IS ITS BLUNT REFUSAL TO BE COMPROMISED ”
― Chinua Achebe

“We cannot trample upon the humanity of others without devaluing our own. The Igbo, always practical, put it concretely in their proverb Onye ji onye n'ani ji onwe ya: "He who will hold another down in the mud must stay in the mud to keep him down.”
― Chinua Achebe, The Education of a British-Protected Child: Essays

Charity . . . is the opium of the privileged.”
― Chinua Achebe, Anthills of the Savannah

“There is no story that is not true, [...] The world has no end, and what is good among one people is an abomination with others.”
― Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart

“Nobody can teach me who I am.”
― Chinua Achebe

" MY WEAPON IS LITERATURE” ― Chinua Achebe

“People create stories create people; or rather stories create people create stories.”
― Chinua Achebe

“When suffering knocks at your door and you say there is no seat for him, he tells you not to worry because he has brought his own stool.”
― Chinua Achebe

“Mr. Brown had thought of nothing but numbers. He should have known that the kingdom of God did not depend on large crowds. Our Lord Himself stressed the importance of fewness. Narrow is the way and few the number. To fill the Lord's holy temple with an idolatrous crowd clamoring for signs was a folly of everlasting consequence. Our Lord used the whip only once in His life - to drive the crowd away from His church.”
― Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart

“Storytellers are a threat. They threaten all champions of control, they frighten usurpers of the right-to-freedom of the human spirit -- in state, in church or mosque, in party congress, in the university or wherever.”
― Chinua Achebe, Anthills of the Savannah

“If I hold her hand she says, ‘Don’t touch!’
If I hold her foot she says ‘Don’t touch!’
But when I hold her waist-beads she pretends not to know.”
― Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart

“Oh, the most important thing about myself is that my life has been full of changes. Therefore, when I observe the world, I don’t expect to see it just like I was seeing the fellow who lives in the next room. There is this complexity which seems to me to be part of the meaning of existence and everything we value.”
― Chinua Achebe

“...when we are comfortable and inattentive, we run the risk of committing grave injustices absentmindedly.”
― Chinua Achebe, The Education of a British-Protected Child: Essays

“Writers don't give prescriptions. They give headaches!”
― Chinua Achebe, Anthills of the Savannah


“When the moon is shining the cripple becomes hungry for a walk”
― Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart

“Perhaps down in his heart Okonkwo was not a cruel man. But his whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and of weakness.
It was deeper and more intimate that the fear of evil and capricious gods and of magic, the fear of the forest, and of the forces of nature, malevolent, red in tooth and claw.
Okonkwo’s fear was greater than these. It was not external but lay deep within himself.”
― Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart

“Privilege, you see, is one of the great adversaries of the imagination; it spreads a thick layer of adipose tissue over our sensitivity.”
― Chinua Achebe, Hopes and Impediments: Selected Essays


“Then listen to me,' he said and cleared his throat. 'It's true that a child belongs to its father. But when a father beats his child, it seeks sympathy in its mother's hut. A man belongs to his fatherland when things are good and life is sweet. But when there is sorrow and bitterness he finds refuge in his motherland. Your mother is there to protect you. She is buried there. And that is why we say that mother is supreme. Is it right that you, Okonkwo, should bring your mother a heavy face and refuse to be comforted? Be careful or you may displease the dead. Your duty is to comfort your wives and children and take them back to your fatherland after seven years. But if you allow sorrow to weigh you down and kill you, they will all die in exile.”
― Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart

“When Suffering knocks at your door and you say there is no seat left for him, he tells you not to worry because he has brought his own stool.”
― Chinua Achebe

“It is only the story...that saves our progeny from blundering like blind beggars into the spikes of the cactus fence.The story is our escort;without it,we are blind.Does the blind man own his escort?No,neither do we the story;rather,it is the story that owns us.
”
― Chinua Achebe, Anthills of the Savannah


“Do not despair. I know you will not despair. You have a manly and a proud heart. A proud heart can survive a general failure because such a failure does not prick its pride. It is more difficult and more bitter when a man fails alone.”
― Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart


“There is no story that is not true.”
― Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart

“A man who calls his kinsmen to a feast does not do so to save them from starving. They all have food in their own homes. When we gather together in the moonlit village ground it is not because of the moon. Every man can see it in his own compound. We come together because it is good for kinsmen to do so.”
― Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart


“The impatient idealist says: 'Give me a place to stand and I shall move the earth.' But such a place does not exist. We all have to stand on the earth itself and go with her at her pace.”
― Chinua Achebe, No Longer at Ease

@Op..Thank you so much. The death of Prof Achebe marked the end of an era. If it were possible for some select human beings to live forever, Achebe would have been in that category.

Anyway, thank God for he lived a very fruitful life and died at old age.

May his soul rest in perfect peace. Amen.

Nice quotes.

He was a good man. The only thing that will bring both rich and poor, literate and non literate, and make them equal is Death. A puzzle scientist may not be able to solve. We all gonna die. Whether we like it or not.

He is one of the few igbo men who does not worship money...maybe the only one i know

Niz Quotes ...we really lost an icon. May ur soul rest in d bosom of d lord. [color=#006600][/color]

"until Lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter" Chinua Achebe

Things has fallen apart. RIP.

"Chielo, the priestess of Agbala, called the converts the excrement of the clan, and the new faith was a mad dog that had come to eat it up."

"God will laugh at them on the judgment day. Why do the nations rage and the peoples imagine a vain thing? He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh. The Lord shall have them in derision."

"Okonkwo never did things by halves. When his wife Ekwefi protested that two goats where sufficient for the feast he told her that it was not her affair."

"As the years of exile passed one by one it seemed to him that his chi might now be making amends for the past disaster."

"And even in the matter of religion there was a growing feeling that there might be something in it after all, something vaguely akin to method in overwhelming madness."

"He condemned openly Mr. Brown's policy of compromise and accommodation. He saw things as black and white. And black was evil. He saw the world as a battlefield in which the children of light were locked in mortal conflict with the sons of darkness."

"It was the time of the full moon. But that night the voice of children was not heard. The village ilo where they always gathered for moon-play was empty."

"Okonkwo's compound was like a deserted homestead. It was as if cold water had been poured on it."

"Whenever you see a toad jumping in broad daylight, then know that something is after its life."

"It is against our custom, It is an abomination for a man to take his own life. It is an offense against the Earth, and a man who commits it will not be buried by his clansmen. His body is evil, and only strangers may touch it."

"my son even if you want to fall, at least fall where your bones can be gathered" Ezeulu to his stubborn son Obika in 'Arrow of God' the best of his novels by my reckoning.
Because Oyinbo people like 'things fall apart' does not necessarily make it the best!

julioralph: "my son even if you want to fall, at least fall where your bones can be gathered" Ezeulu to his stubborn son Obika in 'Arrow of God' the best of his novels by my reckoning.
Because Oyinbo people like 'things fall apart' does not necessarily make it the best!

Who says that's the reason?

"One of the truest tests of integrity is its blunt refusal to be compromised"

This is why he always rejected awards frm Nigeria govt.

May God grant this icon an eternal repose. I love his "Things Fall Apart - the centre cannot hold and the falcon cannot hear the falconer" quotation so much.
We shouldn't turn his death into an ethnic frenzy as observed in the initial trend, but let us all as One Nigeria reflect on what has befallen us as a nation. This is a time of solemn reflection for us all.
May Almighty God make Nigeria great and may He touch the hearts of our leaders to live exemplary life of service to mankind like the late professor.

“When suffering knocks at your door and you say there is no seat for him, he tells you not to worry because he has brought his own stool.”
― Chinua Achebe


This shot is for believers. Gbam!!!

Only God Knows why he died. I'll never forget that Novel which is the first novel i read... [size=20pt]Things Fall Apart[/size]. Its inspirational to me and its an African Acclaimed Prose.

Prof. Chinua Achebe, May your soul rest in Peace[/b]

"the man who brings home ant infested firewood should not complain when lizards start to visit" Achebe in Arrow of God

A great loss to our dear country. A man who stood his ground and never compromised his stands to receive national awards from a government full of mediocrity. If we have people with such integrity in the corridors of power, Nigeria would be the cynosure of every eyes. RIP Sir, although your last book "there was a great country" might not have been appreciated too well by all but u sir are the greatest literary icon I know. Your Memory will ever be green in our minds.

Good to see I'm not the only one who thinks Arrow of God is superior to Things Fall Apart.

Forever in our hearts!

Afam4eva:
Who says that's the reason?

pls don't get me wrong.
Things fall apart is a fantastic novel but I like the other one more.

Ejiné: Good to see I'm not the only one who thinks Arrow of God is superior to Things Fall Apart.

good one bro.

julioralph:
pls don't get me wrong.
Things fall apart is a fantastic novel but I like the other one more.

Ohh, i get.

You can say that again. I had to smile when I read the quotes cos it reminded me of his books. They are so African and you can feel the characters as if they are alive and real. That's literature.

Chinua Achebe wrote and did great things. One of the greatest: Twice (2004 & 2011) turning down Nigeria's dubious National 'Honours

10 over 10: He is one of the few igbo men who does not worship money...maybe the only one i know

10/10

A man who rejected $1.5million dollars from Jackson Curtis aka "50Cent" when 50cent wanted to produce a film with the title...things fall apart.
This is what he replied 50cent's attorneys

" This book has been existing even before he (50Cent) was born"

50cent had to change d title of that film

Per Chinua Achebe refused to b coopted and celebrated wit d Political thieves in d midst of sufferin Nigerians. He turned down several awards from corrupt leaders, he never minced words wen he criticised d polity, he refrain frm d big circles of celebrities and continued to uphold his moral virtues and dictate of an ideal society,devoid of d stench and rotteness of corruption. He wil forever b remembered.

Adiu Papa..