TheBookWorm: I shall reiterate you cannot COMPARE Chinua Achebe with Wole Soyinka.

Their prose are different and the fact that some of you are arguing about this simply show you do not understand literature.

How can you compare novels with drama?

Or should I say how can you compare a novelist with a playwright? It cannot be done.

Azzin ehn!!!


We are an amazing people.

ajanaku2:

Ogbeni, nobody's saying Achebe's "Things fall apart" is not a good book and has not been translated into several languages....

As a matter of fact, that book is his only noteworthy book, the rest are just average...Should he be informally crowned as the "Father of modern African literature" just 'cos of one remarkable book?

What a tool
All of Wole Soyinka's books put together may not have sold more than no longer at ease
Please tell us which of WOle's books compares in sales to any of Achebe's
You are too blinded by tribalism dear

Things fall apart was his most successful work
Many of his other works are also very successful

Olololo!

Had to get my dictionary out for this one!

WS showing characteristic wisdom & intelligence. Totally loved this interview.

My comment on this over-indulged thread serves the dual purpose of homage to two of Nigeria's greatest sons, and a convenient bookmark for future reference.

Dr. Seuss pass Soyinka self and he only used 3 letter words in his books.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_books

List of best selling books of all times,all genres
I see Chinua Achebe's there

Crayola1:

This is the white flag of defeat boys and girls

Check your comment and make the necessary correction, then I will reply you. You meant '. . .defeated boys and girls,' not '. . . defeat boys and girls. Right?

TouchDown:

Sigh.

Afam, you hear of this, you hear of that.... Which one have you read?

Achebe could never pen poems or plays like Soyinka while Soyinka can't dream of writing fictional prose as well or as intriguing to the vast majority like Achebe. Its simple really.

With due respect to Rotimi and Ekwensi, WS' body of work is superior to theirs.

What i said is my personal opinion so is yours, your own opinion. Aren't we entitled to our opinions anymore?

Crayola1:

If that's the case then thank God for Soyinka's nobel because no one even remembers the book that won him the damn thing.

...so bad you think Literature is all about Novels. If that's the case, I think J.K Rowling, John Grisham and Dan Brown should have won the coveted Nobel award...As a matter of fact, Dan Brown's "Da Vinci code" has sold more than 100 million copies, belittling Achebe's "Things fall apart"...

Guy, Literature wide no be small...Prose, Poetry, Drama, Biographies. Soyinka is a master of all...His versatility is the reason he was awarded the Nobel prize...

Go and get a copy of Soyinka's "Ake: The years of Childhood" and get a glimpse of what it his to be a Writer!

patrick89: This is a very intelligent response! But then I don't see anything wrong in making achebe the father of African literature he deserves it, owing to the fact that he popularized African literature through his work, I have few questions here to ask who is the Queen of nollywood? Who is the father of nollywood? what criteria were used in given them the title? Now let me chip in one thing more, those so called *first to do that and do this in Nigeria how did they get to be the first? He(soyinka) clearly stated that in the field like this, even in the music industry there must be this kind of tussle, so Achebe is the father of literature and so what? He is a "storyteller" he (soyinka)used there to me is absurd! I rest my case here

Achebe rejects endorsement as 'father of modern African literature'
Nigerian novelist says he resists the tag 'very, very strongly' because it obscures the role of many other writers

'I don't want to be singled out as the one behind it' ... Chinua Achebe. Photograph: Axel Seidemann/AP
Alison Flood
Nigerian author Chinua Achebe has spoken out about his dislike at being labelled "the father of modern African literature".
The author of the multi-million bestseller Things Fall Apart, Achebe was given the label by Nadine Gordimer as he was awarded the Man Booker International prize two years ago; it has been frequently used both before and since. But the author said yesterday that he "resisted that very, very strongly".
"It's really a serious belief of mine that it's risky for anyone to lay claim to something as huge and important as African literature ... the contribution made down the ages. I don't want to be singled out as the one behind it because there were many of us – many, many of us," he said when asked about the title.
Achebe was speaking to the student newspaper of Brown University, the Brown Daily Herald, before a welcome event at the university as he joined the faculty as professor of Africana studies. He will be overseeing a new initiative at Brown, the Chinua Achebe Colloquium on Africa, which the university said would be developed "in keeping with his life's work to foster greater knowledge of Africa".
Achebe said that the idea of the colloquium would be "to take issues that come up". "Today Africa is a continent of issues wherever you look, and so I thought the best thing to do now is not to limit ourselves to one or two or even three issues, but to look at Africa bursting with problems and find out what we can do in each case," he told the student paper.
"For instance, the issue of governance, which is a major problem – presidents that do not want to retire when their terms are up, elections that are rigged, violence at elections ... Whatever we are doing, we're not doing right. Nigeria has been independent for nearly 50 years and look where we are."
Achebe, 78, is the author of numerous novels, including Arrow of God, A Man of the People and Anthills of the Savannah as well as his 1958 debut, Things Fall Apart, and a wide range of short stories and poetry. He is also known for his essays, with his 1975 piece An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness savaging Joseph
Conrad's novel as "thoroughgoingly racist".
His new book, The Education of a British-Protected Child, is a collection of autobiographical essays reflecting on his upbringing in Nigeria, and is due out from Allen Lane in January in the UK. The publisher described it as "a vivid, ironic and delicately nuanced portrait of growing up in colonial Nigeria and inhabiting its 'middle ground', examining both his happy memories of reading English adventure stories in secondary school and also the harsher truths of colonial rule". Its contents "span reflections on personal and collective identity, on home and family, on literature, language and politics, and on Achebe's lifelong attempt to reclaim the definition of 'Africa' for its own authorship".

ajanaku2:


...so bad you think Literature is all about Novels. If that's the case, I think J.K Rowling, John Grisham and Dan Brown should have won the coveted Nobel award...As a matter of fact, Dan Brown's "Da Vinci code" has sold more than 100 million copies, belittling Achebe's "Things fall apart"...

Guy, Literature wide no be small...Prose, Poetry, Drama, Biographies. Soyinka is a master of all...His versatility is the reason he was awarded the Nobel prize...

Go and get a copy of Soyinka's "Ake: The years of Childhood" and get a glimpse of what it his to be a Writer!

If Da Vinci code belittles things fall apart then what does that say about wole's books that have only sold a fraction of what Chinua's have
You are scoring own goals here in your bid to discredit a great writer
Wole is a good writer yes
But na who dey buy am?
That is the question
Na who here wey sabi book called aki na Ukwa
E dey for amazon books
Abi na Ifa divinators dey carry am for shrine



Na joke abeg
But we never hear am b4
His work is not popular

ajanaku2:


...so bad you think Literature is all about Novels. If that's the case, I think J.K Rowling, John Grisham and Dan Brown should have won the coveted Nobel award...As a matter of fact, Dan Brown's "Da Vinci code" has sold more than 100 million copies, belittling Achebe's "Things fall apart"...

Guy, Literature wide no be small...Prose, Poetry, Drama, Biographies. Soyinka is a master of all...His versatility is the reason he was awarded the Nobel prize...

Go and get a copy of Soyinka's "Ake: The years of Childhood" and get a glimpse of what it his to be a Writer!

Yes, but Achebe is an African writer so the fact he sold as many as he did is proof of the novel's value to people.

Yet no one reads Soyinka's books in the US despite his jack of all trades skill. I guess we are all uncultured


No thank you, I read for pleasure and enjoyment not for grammar and diction.

why all this noise? Must one be a nobel laureate before being legendary? Does a nobel prize make one legendary even? Its a prestigious european prize, yes, but it's NEVER the ultimate prize. The cultural, social, aesthetic, moral, and political relevance of a literary work are proven with time, thus making it legendary. Achebe's works did just that. Soyinka joins a long nobel list of geniuses, yet, a genius dosent necessarily make one legendary, like i said earlier, a legend is time-proven with multiple dimension of relevance.

Son-Of-El:
why all this noise? [b]Must one be a nobel laureate before being legendary? [/b]Does a nobel prize make one legendary even? Its a prestigious european prize, yes, but it's NEVER the ultimate prize. The cultural, social, aesthetic, moral, and political relevance of a literary work are proven with time, thus making it legendary. Achebe's works did just that. Soyinka joins a long nobel list of geniuses, yet, a genius dosent necessarily make one legendary, like i said earlier, a legend is time-proven with multiple dimension of relevance.

See me see motorcycle o
Chinua is/was proof that one can achieve fame and fortune in spite of the Nobel and people are still arguing

babyosisi:


If Da Vinci code belittles things fall apart then what does that say about wole's books that have only sold a fraction of what Chinua's have
You are scoring own goals here in your bid to discredit a great writer
Wole is a good writer yes
But na who dey buy am?
That is the question
Na who here wey sabi book called aki na Ukwa
E dey for amazon books
Abi na Ifa divinators dey carry am for shrine



Na joke abeg
But we never hear am b4
His work is not popular

The guy's books sit on the shelves in my school's library with dust on them. Achebe's books are always in rotation because one class or another has them listed as required reading.

No disrespect to Soyinka but his books are not hot anywhere in the states at least.

babyosisi:


If Da Vinci code belittles things fall apart then what does that say about wole's books that have only sold a fraction of what Chinua's have
You are scoring own goals here in your bid to discredit a great writer
Wole is a good write yes
But na who dey buy am?
That is the question
Na who here wey sabi book called aki na Ukwa
E dey for amazon books
Abi na Ifa divinators dey carry a for shrine

Na joke abeg
But we never hear am b4
His work is not popular

Olamide definitely sells more than Asa. Does that make him a better Musician?

You know, the esoteric nature of Soyinka's works endears me to that Dude! His works are not for all and sundry!...

ajanaku2:

Olamide definitely sells more than Asa. Does that make him a better Musician?

You know, the esoteric nature of Soyinka's works endears me to that Dude! His works are not for all and sundry!...

If he sells more that is because the people love his work more
It is just as simple as that
If you are that good,the sales will show that you are
What good is a good album that doesn't make the charts?

ajanaku2:

Olamide definitely sells more than Asa. Does that make him a better Musician?

You know, the esoteric nature of Soyinka's works endears me to that Dude! His works are not for all and sundry!...

Clearly. Which is why they collect dust at the local library. You can consider that as keeping them in mint condition

ajanaku2:

Olamide definitely sells more than Asa. Does that make him a better Musician?

You know, the esoteric nature of Soyinka's works endears me to that Dude! His works are not for all and sundry!...

I'm hearing this for the first time.