Ada Nri1: when you want to talk fair, also mention some of the things that are utterly disgusting that some yourubas have said here. Don't be a 1 sided umpire, your partiality can be smelt from miles away. Btw, this happens only on nl so it'll do you well to totally ignore them. Some even have yoruba fathers and igbo mothers and vice versa, I know 4 of them here

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

“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

bittyend:

Those who rejected those honours didn't do it because they don't like England. They did it because they don't like the monarchy and what it represents. Stop comparing apples to oranges.

EzeUche:

I thought I was the only person who noticed that.

He notices Wole Soyinka and Fela Kuti's name being mentioned, even though no Igbo has insulted them because we have respect for them.

But skips all the bigotry that is being spewed by some Yoruba posters about Chinua Achebe.

Tijay90: As a doctor,you don't only diagnose...you also prescribe...unfortunately,Achebe didn't do much in the way of prescription...his last book obviously was an effort 2whip up separitist sentiments...You all know dat(if ur brains still work)...so pls stop ur tribalistic mud-slinging & think abt ways to make the country better...

Area-Fada:
.
Where did Achebe ever say that he hated Nigeria? Have you ever read his book " The problem with Nigeria"? I guess not. He has always said our problem is mainly problem of leadership.

Achebe had a severe accident in in Naija in 1990, and paralysed from waist down. Going to live in America mainly for his health does not equate to hating nigeria.

~Bluetooth:


Did fela or Soyinka ever sing/write about iboes ? No

Did they ever say bad about oju-iku or Ashebe ? No

Did Ashebe ever say anything bad about Awo/yoruba ? Yes


You are free to decide if to hate fela or soyinka !

~Bluetooth:


Why did he not reject obj's award ?

Was he broke then ?

Ada Nri1: I promise you your sons will marry igbo girls and your daughters, igbo men. I wonder what you'll do

ekwah:

wow you don't get the point do you? What is Yourba? What is Igbo? What's Hausa? What's Igala?

These are just names representing a cultural group, with individuals who have VERY different qualities/ways of doing things.

The stupidity of the posts made here are a function of the author's qualities and NOT his/her tribe! shikena!

I only highlighted some of the foolish statements one of my friends made in the past as an example of how stupid people can be! I am not an ethnic bigot= God forbid. Focus on the main point I am trying to make and not on the least important things like the examples that I chose to highlight; whether it was made by an Igbo or Yoruba is NOT of any importance to me.

bittyend:

I don't care about what the man liked or what he was bitter about; that's his prerogative.

I just want the monster called Nigeria to let my people go.

One_Naira: I'm actually shocked some Igbo pay mind to a group of men that at their age have not grown up yet. a fool at 40, 50, 70 and up will forever be a fool and that discribes most of the Yoruba's on this forum excluding few. why una still argue with grown men with brains like that of a teenager is a mystery. As for those doubting the loyalty to soyinka, soyinka is a good man. he's not and have never been like them thus do not use his tribes to judge him. He's nothing like this set we see on this forum. spit on the floor. most tribalistic ppl in the entire Nigerian populace. tufiakwa. move on and Join the world in morning this man. stop wasting una time with the disgrace of Africa.

Prof Corruption: Achebe achieved a lot for himself and helped promote the cause of black race by attacking the image of Africa solidly embossed on the world's bressplate by the West. This he achieved in two ways. One by providing a counter narrative in form of Things Fall Apart and two, by attacking Conrad's Heart of Darkness, a Western novel that portrays African as sub-human. Achebe's contributions in that light are quite imperishable. Any argument to the contrary is more or less a personal opinion that's not rooted in logic or logicality. Infact, that contribution is the sole reason why he's highly celebrated.

However, that does not mean Achebe is a kind of God whose actions are infallible. He can not write on Biafran war, a war in which he was an active participant and indeed a propagandist mouthpiece of the secessionist Biafra state and expect everybody to take him by his word even when the book is full of secondary sources as references and indeed when preponderances of neutral/external work are against his views. He can not write a political opinion as a fact. The entire book was looking for evidence to make a point, his "impressions", "there are people who believe that" etc. Quite frankly, it was wrong to extend his hatred for Awolowo to the whole Yorubas. Because slice anyhow, Yorubas were not in anyway responsible for the civil war, had no joint destiny with Igbo and had no obligation to neither dictate nor subsist to Igbo agenda.

The issue of supremacy in African literature is at times laughable. Achebe was not an all rounder! He was a good novelist, period. He wouldn't in any way even come to close to 100th position to Soyinka in Drama and Soyinka won Nobel Prize as a Dramatist not novelist. Also, Achebe's strength was closer to zero in poetry. So when people say, the great Iroko has fallen, yes as a pioneer true. But when folks start describing him in the superlative, the best, the best of best, it's not rooted at best in literary wisdom or logic. Being the first to publish a great book does not in anyway make you the best, automatically, in everything. To a common man, it's confusing but to folks who eat, drink and fck literature, the difference is glaringly clear.

~Bluetooth:



Exactly by writing a book in his senile age to plant the seed of hatred into the minds of you and your kinsmen.Why did the I'd'I'o'T have wait for over 40 years before writing "there was a country " ? 40 years of accumulated lies !

EzeUche: This thread should be known as a jealousy thread.

Supporters of Chinua Achebe should see this as flattery.

All the tributes from around the world that they had to read and see yesterday must had been painful for them.

Negro_Ntns:

please enumerate his contributions to Africa beginning with Nigeria.

Achebe was an ingrate! Twice conferred with national awards and he turned it down each time citing corruption. You should share with us how, sitting in US, he contributed at home to remove the very ill he vehemently opposed. The truth is Achebe remained bitter to his death and he never brought himself around to accept and reconcile the biafran defeat in his own spirit. By accepting a Nigerian honorary award would be an acceptance that his biafran identity is defeated and lost forever. He ended up personifying the Okonkwo of Things Fall Apart.