{"id":4551,"date":"2015-11-15T01:11:41","date_gmt":"2015-11-15T01:11:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/repeatright.com\/engine\/?p=4551"},"modified":"2018-10-07T17:49:28","modified_gmt":"2018-10-07T17:49:28","slug":"achebe-chinua","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.repeatright.com\/engine\/achebe-chinua\/","title":{"rendered":"ACHEBE, Chinua"},"content":{"rendered":"
[vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1453315804311{margin-top: -40px !important;border-top-width: 0px !important;padding-top: 0px !important;}”][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_tta_tabs style=”modern” shape=”square” active_section=”1″][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-book” add_icon=”true” title=”Citation” tab_id=”1453315828001-b5e2e52e-ea1ee032-3804″][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

\u201cA debt may get moldy, but it never decays.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

~Chinua Achebe<\/strong>, Nigerian author<\/p>\n

No Longer at Ease<\/em> (1960) New York: Anchor Books, 1994 edition, p. 93<\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-plus-circle” add_icon=”true” title=”Context” tab_id=”1453315828385-86abfac4-79bfe032-3804″][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]Extended excerpt <\/em><\/strong>[Fictional dialogue]: \u201cThat is a small matter,\u201d said someone. \u201cFour months is a short time. A debt may get moldy, but it never decays.<\/span>\u201d (p. 93)[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-search” add_icon=”true” title=”Source ISBN” tab_id=”1453315828572-dac97b48-68e0e032-3804″][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

Source<\/em><\/strong><\/span>: Library – No Longer at Ease<\/em> (1960 \u2013 1994 edition) International Standard Book Number (ISBN):0-385-47455-5[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][\/vc_tta_tabs][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_tta_tabs style=”modern” shape=”square” active_section=”1″][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-book” add_icon=”true” title=”Citation” tab_id=”1449531588223-e020d87d-f7dd094f-cf63e032-3804″][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

\u201cAmong the Ibo the art of conversation is regarded very highly, and proverbs are the palm-oil with which words are eaten.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

~Chinua Achebe<\/strong>, Nigerian author<\/p>\n

Things Fall Apart <\/em> (1958) London: Heinemann, 2000 edition, p. 5<\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-plus-circle” add_icon=”true” title=”Context” tab_id=”1449531588755-96303790-852e094f-cf63e032-3804″][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]Extended excerpt<\/em><\/strong> [Fiction]:<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving spoken plainly so far, Okoye said the next half a dozen sentences in proverbs. Among the Ibo the art of conversation is regarded very highly, and proverbs are the palm-oil with which words are eaten<\/span>. Okoye was a great talker and he spoke for a long time, skirting round the subject and then hitting it finally.\u201d (p.5)[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-search” add_icon=”true” title=”Source ISBN” tab_id=”1449531589797-29580b31-8c50094f-cf63e032-3804″][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

Source<\/em><\/strong><\/span>: Library – Things Fall Apart<\/em> (1958|2000 Heinemann edition) International Standard Book Number (ISBN) 978-0-435905-25-5[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][\/vc_tta_tabs][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1453316221301{margin-top: 0px !important;border-top-width: 0px !important;padding-top: 0px !important;}”][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_tta_tabs style=”modern” shape=”square” active_section=”1″][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-book” add_icon=”true” title=”Citation” tab_id=”1449531591105-7edf5f39-feaa094f-cf63e032-3804″][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

\u201cCharity\u2026is the opium of the privileged.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

~Chinua Achebe<\/strong>, Nigerian author<\/p>\n

Anthills of the Savannah<\/em> (1987) London: Heinemann, 1988 edition, p. 155<\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-plus-circle” add_icon=”true” title=”Context” tab_id=”1449531591631-43861bc7-da28094f-cf63e032-3804″][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]Extended excerpt<\/em><\/strong>: [Fictional dialogue] \u201cWell, as usual, he left what he should have told them and launched into something quite unexpected. Charity<\/span>, he thundered, is the opium of the privileged<\/span>; from the good citizen who habitually drops ten kobo from his loose change and from a safe height above the bowl of the leper outside the supermarket; to the group of good citizens like yourselves who donate water so that some Lazarus in the slums can have a syringe boiled clean as a whistle for his jab and his sores dressed more hygienically than the rest of him; to the Band Aid stars that lit up so dramatically the dark Christmas skies of Ethiopia.\u201d (pp. 154-155)[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-search” add_icon=”true” title=”Source ISBN” tab_id=”1449531592891-f39e055b-a66e094f-cf63e032-3804″][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

Source<\/em><\/strong><\/span>: Library – Anthills of the Savannah<\/em> (1987) International Standard Book Number (ISBN): 0-435905-38-4[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][\/vc_tta_tabs][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_tta_tabs style=”modern” shape=”square” active_section=”1″][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-book” add_icon=”true” title=”Citation” tab_id=”1453315829087-ce67c619-0fbce032-3804″][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

\u201cContradictions if well understood and managed can spark off the fires of invention. Orthodoxy whether of the right or of the left is the graveyard of creativity.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

~Chinua Achebe<\/strong>, Nigerian author<\/p>\n

Anthills of the Savannah<\/em> (1987) London: Heinemann, 1988 edition, p. 100<\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-plus-circle” add_icon=”true” title=”Context” tab_id=”1453315829475-7c82a017-1e62e032-3804″][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]Extended excerpt <\/em><\/strong>[Fictional dialogue]:<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the vocabulary of certain radical theorists contradictions are given the status of some deadly disease to which their opponents alone can succumb. But contradictions are the very stuff of life. If there had been a little dash of contradiction among the Gadarene swine some of them might have been saved from drowning.<\/p>\n

\u201cContradictions if well understood and managed can spark off the fires of invention. Orthodoxy whether of the right or of the left is the graveyard of creativity.<\/span>\u201d (p. 100)[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-search” add_icon=”true” title=”Source ISBN” tab_id=”1453315829682-63e8fade-cf4ce032-3804″][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

Source<\/em><\/strong><\/span>: Library – Anthills of the Savannah<\/em> (1987) International Standard Book Number (ISBN): 0-435905-38-4[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][\/vc_tta_tabs][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1453316221301{margin-top: 0px !important;border-top-width: 0px !important;padding-top: 0px !important;}”][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_tta_tabs style=”modern” shape=”square” active_section=”1″][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-book” add_icon=”true” title=”Citation” tab_id=”1453315828001-b5e2e52e-ea1ee032-3804″][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

\u201cT<\/strong>he most awful thing about power is not that it corrupts absolutely but that it makes people so utterly boring, so predictable and\u2026just plain uninteresting\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

~Chinua Achebe<\/strong>, Nigerian author<\/p>\n

Anthills of the Savannah<\/em> (1987) London: Heinemann, 1988 edition, p. 56<\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-plus-circle” add_icon=”true” title=”Context” tab_id=”1449531591631-43861bc7-da28094f-cf63e032-3804″][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]Extended excerpt <\/em><\/strong>[Fictional dialogue \u2013 Achebe is referencing John Acton\u2019s<\/strong><\/a> famous statement \u201cPower tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely<\/em>.\u201d Ellipsis original to Achebe text]:<\/p>\n

\u201cHe did? How boring,\u201d said Mad Medico. \u201cYou know something, Dick, the most awful thing about power is not that it corrupts absolutely but that it corrupts absolutely but that it makes people so utterly boring, so predictable and\u2026just plain uninteresting.<\/span>\u201d (p. 56)[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-search” add_icon=”true” title=”Source ISBN” tab_id=”1449531592891-f39e055b-a66e094f-cf63e032-3804″][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

Source<\/em><\/strong><\/span>: Library – Anthills of the Savannah<\/em> (1987) International Standard Book Number (ISBN): 0-435905-38-4[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][\/vc_tta_tabs][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_tta_tabs style=”modern” shape=”square” active_section=”1″][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-book” add_icon=”true” title=”Citation” tab_id=”1449531591105-7edf5f39-feaa094f-cf63bd17-d65d”][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

“T<\/strong>hose who tell you ‘Do not put too much politics into your art’ are not being honest. If you look very carefully you will see that they are the same people who are quite happy with the situation as it is…What they are saying is don’t upset the system.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

~Chinua Achebe<\/strong>, Nigerian author<\/p>\n

On-stage dialogue with author James Baldwin, \u201cDefining an African Aesthetic\u201d (11 April 1980) Annual meeting of the African Literature Association, closing session, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL; in \u201cIn Dialogue to Define Aesthetics: James Baldwin and Chinua Achebe,\u201d Dorothy Randall-Tsuruta, The Black Scholar<\/em>, March-April 1981; reprint in Conversations with James Baldwin<\/em>, Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 1992 \u2018Print on demand\u2019 ed., p. 213<\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-plus-circle” add_icon=”true” title=”Context” tab_id=”1449531591631-43861bc7-da28094f-cf63bd17-d65d”][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]Extended excerpt <\/em><\/strong>[Conversation with American author James Baldwin]: \u201cThe total life of man is reflected in his art. And so when people come to us and say, \u201cWhy are you…you artist so political? I don\u2019t know what they are talking about. Because art is political. And further more I\u2019d say this, that those who tell you \u2018Do not put too much politics into your art\u2019 are not being honest. If you look very carefully you will see that they are the same people who are quite happy with the situation as it is.<\/span><\/p>\n

And what they are saying is not don\u2019t introduce politics. What they are saying is don\u2019t upset the system.<\/span> They are just as political as any of us. It\u2019s only that they are on the other side.\u201d (p. 213)[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-search” add_icon=”true” title=”Source ISBN” tab_id=”1449531592891-f39e055b-a66e094f-cf63bd17-d65d”][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]Source<\/em><\/strong><\/span>: Editor\u2019s copy \u2013 Conversations with James Baldwin<\/em> (1989|1992 \u2018Print on Demand\u2019 edition) International Standard Book Number (ISBN) 0-87805-388-3[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][\/vc_tta_tabs][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1453316221301{margin-top: 0px !important;border-top-width: 0px !important;padding-top: 0px !important;}”][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_tta_tabs style=”modern” shape=”square” active_section=”1″][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-book” add_icon=”true” title=”Citation” tab_id=”1453315828001-b5e2e52e-ea1ee032-3804″][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

\u201cWhile we do our good works let us not forget that the real solution lies in a world in which charity will have become unnecessary.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

~Chinua Achebe<\/strong>, Nigerian author<\/p>\n

Anthills of the Savannah<\/em> (1987) London: Heinemann, 1988 edition, p. 155<\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-plus-circle” add_icon=”true” title=”Context” tab_id=”1449531591631-43861bc7-da28094f-cf63e032-3804″][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]Extended excerpt <\/em><\/strong>[Fiction]:<\/p>\n

“Charity, he thundered, is the opium of the privileged; from the good citizen who habitually drops ten kobo from his loose change and from a safe height above the bowl of the leper outside the supermarket; to the group of good citizens like yourselves who donate water so that some Lazarus in the slums can have a syringe boiled clean as a whistle for his jab and his sores dressed more hygienically than the rest of him; to the Band Aid stars that lit up so dramatically the dark Christmas skies of Ethiopia. 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.<\/span>\u201d (p. 155)[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-search” add_icon=”true” title=”Source ISBN” tab_id=”1449531592891-f39e055b-a66e094f-cf63e032-3804″][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

Source<\/em><\/strong><\/span>: Library – Anthills of the Savannah<\/em> (1987) International Standard Book Number (ISBN): 0-435905-38-4[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][\/vc_tta_tabs][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_tta_tabs style=”modern” shape=”square” active_section=”1″][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-book” add_icon=”true” title=”Citation” tab_id=”1449531591105-7edf5f39-feaa094f-cf63bd17-d65d”][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]Misattributed to Chinua Achebe<\/em><\/strong><\/span>:<\/p>\n

“He who will hold another down in the mud must stay in the mud to keep him down.<\/span>“<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

~Igbo Proverb<\/strong><\/span>, original author not known. The origin of the proverb has been incorrectly cited to Nigerian author Chinua Achebe<\/span>, after he cited it in his January 1992 speech, “Martin Luther King and Africa.”<\/p>\n

Achebe’s speech: \u201cMartin Luther King and Africa\u201d (20 January 1992) Martin Luther King Holiday Celebration address, Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History, Washington, DC.; text in The Education of a British-<\/em>Protected<\/em> Child: Essays<\/em>, Toronto, Ontario: Bond Street Books<\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-ban” add_icon=”true” title=”Misquotes” tab_id=”1449531592148-05fdd3db-5676094f-cf63bd17-d65d”][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]Misattribution notes<\/em><\/strong><\/span>:<\/p>\n

The origin of the proverb has been incorrectly cited to Nigerian author Chinua Achebe<\/span>, after he cited it in his January 1992 speech, “Martin Luther King and Africa.”\u00a0 Please see source notes for more information on the Achebe speech.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-plus-circle” add_icon=”true” title=”Context” tab_id=”1449531591631-43861bc7-da28094f-cf63bd17-d65d”][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]Extended excerpt<\/em><\/strong> [Achebe\u2019s speech\/essay.]:<\/p>\n

\u201cWe 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\u2019ani ji onwe ya<\/em>: \u201cHe who will hold another down in the mud must stay in the mud to keep him down.<\/span>\u201d<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-search” add_icon=”true” title=”Source eISBN” tab_id=”1449531592891-f39e055b-a66e094f-cf63bd17-d65d”][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]Source <\/em><\/strong>[Acebe’s speech citing Igbo proverb]<\/span>: Library – Education of a British-Protected Child: Essays<\/em> (1992 \u2013 reprint 2009) Electronic International Standard Book Number (eISBN): 978-0-307-37267-3[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][\/vc_tta_tabs][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]\n

Resources<\/h4>\n[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css_animation=”none” el_class=”Wrapper-Author-Resources”]Learn more about Chinua Achebe <\/span><\/b>| Here are a few good places to start:<\/p>\n