EzeUche:

I just do not understand how Wole Soyinka and Fela Kuti can be members of the same tribe of those who are disrespecting Chinua Achebe.

Spreading falsehoods about this man when he did so much for Africa. Pathetic.

0lumide: I can't seem to be able to find one thing Achebe achieved as one of "African intellectual".

He had the tool and potential to make people listen to him but he didn't use that tool and potential for nothing but his own literary awards and nothing really educating per se. Except you want to call his style of writing educating. I call his style of writing political and not something that people across the board can really read when they seek guidance in anything.

All the "African" forum he attended were all just noise making forums who just sit and analyze what Africa should be without them following through their conclusions and ensuring that they capture the mind of corrupt African government for a change.

But still Achebe was a creative writer. But to put it beyond that to try and mortally immortalize him as a hero of Africans is just really sentimental. Achebe has contributed nothing to African development, people and spirit.

If we allow Achebe be called a hero, we are leaving space for people like baba suwe and other entertainers to be called Heros. King Sunny Ade as talented as he is in his work, is just a beauty of Africa not an African hero or active contributor to African development.

Achebe is just one of many Africa talents that stood above his peers in his work. Let's not get too sentimental and try to give undue hero worship to him, instead, recognize the creativity of his work which is what his fame is still based not contribution to African people's development. Thanks

Billyonaire: Nigeria needs a Hero, yet, we find no role models for the younger generations. The few ones with lofty legacies adored by the greatest minds world-wide are being ridiculed by tribalists of Nairaland.

0lumide: [s]I can't seem to be able to find one thing Achebe achieved as one of "African intellectual".

He had the tool and potential to make people listen to him but he didn't use that tool and potential for nothing but his own literary awards and nothing really educating per se. Except you want to call his style of writing educating. I call his style of writing political and not something that people across the board can really read when they seek guidance in anything.

All the "African" forum he attended were all just noise making forums who just sit and analyze what Africa should be without them following through their conclusions and ensuring that they capture the mind of corrupt African government for a change.

But still Achebe was a creative writer. But to put it beyond that to try and mortally immortalize him as a hero of Africans is just really sentimental. Achebe has contributed nothing to African development, people and spirit.

If we allow Achebe be called a hero, we are leaving space for people like baba suwe and other entertainers to be called Heros. King Sunny Ade as talented as he is in his work, is just a beauty of Africa not an African hero or active contributor to African development.

Achebe is just one of many Africa talents that stood above his peers in his work. Let's not get too sentimental and try to give undue hero worship to him, instead, recognize the creativity of his work which is what his fame is still based not contribution to African people's development. Thanks[/s]

EzeUche:

I just do not understand how Wole Soyinka and Fela Kuti can be members of the same tribe of those who are disrespecting Chinua Achebe.

Spreading falsehoods about this man when he did so much for Africa. Pathetic.

Eziachi:
I am glad you finally got the gist. I am tired now after all that going round in a circle all night.

bittyend: May God destroy those who amalgamated Nigeria in their graves!!! Amen

May Nigeria break up before 2015!!! Amen


Stone age country!!!

Hahaha... . You must be mad for writing that,dude!

ekwah:


Sir with due respect, I do not understand why you asked this question.
Does disrespect have any correlation with one's tribe? Please see each
poster as an individual and not some representative of a particular tribe! Please. ahn ahn

Eko Ile:

Words and books are very powerful tools that heals, influence and change minds and ashebe used these powerful instrument to divide and spread hate and bigotry. His last book didn't heal, it divided the country and erased all the gains we've made.

That bitter old man was selfish and thoughtless. Who writes dumb stuff like that in 2013 and at 82 years old? Obviously, he was hateful and bitter man to the core and he took all that baggage to the grave with him.

ekwah: wow so many shallow posts on this site.

From the grammatical richness of some of the disappointingly bigoted posts I have seen here, I am assuming the authors are well educated Nigerians, but they also throw tribal stones? WTH?

I am neither Igbo nor Yoruba and I honestly do not understand why these two tribes think Nigeria is just all about them. For heaven's sake there are over 200 other languages in this country! You think those people from those tribes are not also pissed about how badly things have turned out in this country?
See we can all rant about how unfair this country has been to people from tribe A or B but it will definitely take us no where! Many Nigerians are very self-centered and the so-called inter-tribal bashings even exist amongst people from the same tribe; I have heard so many dumb comments where people from Anambra claim to be the 'original Igbos' while the others are not; so how will a republic like Biafra had survived if it had people with such mindset?

Why don't we focus on our similarities rather than our differences?
Why would someone make a post like "My respect for Fela Kuti and Wole Soyinka is being put to the test because of some of these Yoruba bigots speaking ill"? Was the respect you had from them born out of the fact that they were Yoruba's before?

I really don't understand where all these hatred is coming from! Nigerians learn how to listen to people whose opinions differ from yours! absorb what makes sense and move on from those that do not! haba!

bittyend: May God destroy those who amalgamated Nigeria in their graves!!! Amen

May Nigeria break up before 2015!!! Amen


Stone age country!!!

Eko Ile:

Uncles, stop fooling yourself by calling your stupidity gist. foolishly eqauting singers with writers is no gist, its ignorance and idiocy.

bittyend: May God destroy those who amalgamated Nigeria in their graves!!! Amen

May Nigeria break up before 2015!!! Amen


Stone age country!!!

Eko Ile:

Who needs that hate filled people like you and ashebe as compatriots and of what use was ashebe as an elder and a nigerian when all he had was hate and contempt for his country and fellow Nigerians?

Soyinka was jailed in the same Nigeria while fighting for a better Nigeria which he's still doing, not promoting hatred and enmity, not writing hate filled books full of animosity and needless tribal supremacy.

Is this what you call contribution? obviously and war or no war, the man was just personally a hateful and vengeful human being and he let it let it out in his books, actions and utterances.

And you need to shut up about America and American authors because American authors don't write hate books, they are not tribalists, they don't denegrating and insult other people in their books.

What's next? his last book that upset and decided the country was progress too right?

Go and read up the definition of progress.

hurricaneChris: 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

“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