A Good Month for Nigerian (Igbo) Writers

Two Nigerian writers have garnered major prizes in literature within the past week.

Renowned Nigerian author Chinua Achebe won the 2007 Man Booker International Prize for fiction, which is awarded biannually for a body of work. If you are not familiar with his work here is a little summary from the AP article announcing the prize:

The author began work with the Nigerian Broadcasting Co. in Lagos in 1954 and studied broadcasting at the British Broadcasting Corp. in London.

During Nigeria’s 1967-1970 civil war, Achebe’s Ibo people of the eastern region tried to establish an independent Republic of Biafra, and Achebe tried publicize the plight of his people.

Achebe is currently professor of languages and literature at Bard College, New York, and has lectured in universities around the world.

In 2004, he refused to accept Nigeria’s second highest honor, the Commander of the Federal Republic, to protest the state of affairs in his native country. Nigeria held a presidential election in April that marked the first time one elected leader handed over power to another in a country plagued by military rule and dictators since gaining independence from Britain in 1960.

Achebe, who was paralyzed from the waist down after a 1990 car accident, is married with four children.

“Things Fall Apart” has sold more than 10 million copies around the world and has been translated into 50 languages, making Achebe the most translated African writer of all time.
Achebe was not the only Nigeria write to make news in recent weeks. A writer, much his junior, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie won the Organe Prize, which is given annually for the best full-length novel by a woman author written in English and published in the UK. Here’s a excerpt from a interview with Adichie:

Adichie resists stereotypical views of Africa. “We have a long history of Africa being seen in ways that are not very complimentary, and in America [where she has been studying for the past 10 years] being seen as an African writer comes with baggage that we don’t necessarily care for. Americans think African writers will write about the exotic, about wildlife, poverty, maybe Aids. They come to Africa and African books with certain expectations. I was told by a professor at Johns Hopkins University that he didn’t believe my first book [Purple Hibiscus, published in 2003] because it was too familiar to him. In other words, I was writing about middle-class Africans who had cars and who weren’t starving to death, and therefore to him it wasn’t authentically African.”
Adichie makes several other important points in the interview about race, media coverage of Africa, collective memory, and the middle class in African countries. It’s well worth the read.

I also found it particularly interesting this has been framed as a great success for “African” writers, and it is. But is shouldn’t be lost on people that both writers are Nigerian; they are both from the same ethnic group–Igbos, and they both have similar subject matter in their work.

If anyone has read the works of either of these authors and would like to add any reviews or discussion of the works in the comments section, feel free.



This entry was posted by Rachel S. and is filed under Popular (and unpopular) culture, Race, racism and related issues, Media criticism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

16 Responses to “A Good Month for Nigerian (Igbo) Writers”
Rachel S. Writes:

June 13th, 2007 at 7:25 pm
I knew nobody would comment on this. I get exasperated sometimes.

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Sally Writes:

June 13th, 2007 at 8:04 pm
Well, I read Things Fall Apart in high school, and I’m not sure that I have anything very exciting to say about it. It’s been a long time, and I was not that sophisticated a reader in high school! And I’ve got Purple Hibiscus sitting on my shelf at home, but I haven’t read it yet. I’m not reading much that isn’t work-related or total trash right now.

It’s interesting that both Achebe and Adichie live in the U.S. and are affiliated with American universities. Are there any writers living and working in Africa who are well-known in the U.S.? I can think of a couple of South Africans, but nobody else. I wonder what to make of that.

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Laura Writes:

June 13th, 2007 at 8:36 pm
I actually just read Purple Hibiscus for a literature class–that’s great that Adichie won the award.

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Kelly Writes:

June 13th, 2007 at 9:30 pm
I too read Things Fall Apart in high school. I absolutely loved the book but hadn’t really thought much about it until now. I do agree with those who thought it worth pointing out that both writers honored were Igbo or South American; we need to hear from more writers from Africa.

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Rachel S. Writes:

June 13th, 2007 at 9:35 pm
They are both Nigerian in their origins…I think South American is a typo.

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Sewere Writes:

June 14th, 2007 at 1:23 pm
Rachel said,

I knew nobody would comment on this. I get exasperated sometimes.
My sista, make you no worry, you know say I get you back. You for put am on for your side make we yarn for there. :)

Achebe has always been a hero of mine simply because of his take on the Nigeria’s Civil War (aka Biafra War) doesn’t tow the party/dominant line of historical revisionism (Although I haven’t read her work yet, I believe Adichie shares the same perspective). The thing is that for most folks who are not Igbo or from the South Eastern part of Nigeria, the war does not register as a historical event and part of their personal history.

I remember a friend in secondary school telling me how his father and uncle, had to cook food in hiding so that planes wouldn’t hone in on the fire from the wood burning. A bunch of my uncle’s colleaguesm (most of whom were Igbo) who moved to the US as refugees recounted how many of their families were on the verge of starving to death when the Nigerian military prevented aid and support to civilians. How can anyone ever forget that? There are still folks who have pictures of Odumegwu Ojukwu in uniform on their walls (even though I think of him as a spoilt brat, but that’s another story for another day).

The other aspect of Achebe’s (and from what I can tell from the excerpt, Adichie’s) writing is that they write from a comprehensive view of post-colonial Nigeria (and in a few cases, other Sub-Saharan African countries) i.e. national identity, racialized/ethnicized/classist structures, the experiences of folks from his (my parent’s) generation who went to parochial/colonial schools in Nigeria and/or England (racism, classism, sexism etc) as well as theirs and our experiences of being of trying to juggle multiple identities as citizens of two or more countries.

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Rachel S. Writes:

June 14th, 2007 at 2:19 pm
Thanks for commenting folks. I really debated about the title of this post. I was going to put “black authors” and considered “African authors,” because I thought more people would read the post. But they are Nigerian and Igbo, and that is central to their body of work. To characterize them as African or Black would be accurate, but it misses the centrality of thei nationality and ethnicity in their work.

I don’t know what the deal with Igbo writers is, but Uzodinma Iweala is another person getting a lot of attention.

The younger writers are transnational folks, but the writing is about west Africa. I’m waiting for the story that is written about the transnational experience.

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Rachel S. Writes:

June 14th, 2007 at 2:31 pm
I haven’t even read the books myself just reviews. I have to read Things Fall Apart because that’s really part of the contemporary canon of English literature, but what I find fascinating is how these writers discuss their identities.

Sewere said, “The thing is that for most folks who are not Igbo or from the South Eastern part of Nigeria, the war does not register as a historical event and part of their personal history….I remember a friend in secondary school telling me how his father and uncle, had to cook food in hiding so that planes wouldn’t hone in on the fire from the wood burning. A bunch of my uncle’s colleaguesm (most of whom were Igbo) who moved to the US as refugees recounted how many of their families were on the verge of starving to death when the Nigerian military prevented aid and support to civilians. How can anyone ever forget that?”

There is definitely a historical element to these stories. For Achebe, who is probably the most famous Nigerian outside of Nigeria, it is about his generation. For the younger writers, it may be paying homage to their parents and grandparents, many of whom didn’t survive. I’m curious how these younger writers will describe their generations experiences in their writing.

Sewere said, “…the experiences of folks from his (my parent’s) generation who went to parochial/colonial schools in Nigeria and/or England (racism, classism, sexism etc) as well as theirs and our experiences of being of trying to juggle
multiple identities as citizens of two or more countries.”

Yeah that is complicated.

I think there are many Igbo kids growing up in the US who are going to have really interesting stories to tell. For them the added layer of identity–being American and African American could make for some really interesting analysis. (I don’t know many Nigerian Americans who are not Igbos; I guess the refugee factor could play into that.)

I knew you would come out of the wood work to comment. :)

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Richard Jeffrey Newman Writes:

June 14th, 2007 at 6:14 pm
Another Nigerian writer worth reading, though I don’t know his native language, is Chris Abani. I have his first book of poems–the title escapes me now–written after his imprisonment and torture. It is a remarkable book in its (in my opinion not always successful) attempt to render the realities of torture, a true literature of witness.

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debbie Writes:

June 14th, 2007 at 6:53 pm
Both books are fantastic, and I’m glad these authors are getting the recognition they deserve.

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Rich B. Writes:

June 15th, 2007 at 7:50 am
“Things Fall Apart” ruined my life.

There. I admitted it.

Maybe I can move on now.

When I was a kid, I was an unthinking Conservative, because that’s what everyone around me was. When I went to college, I became an unthinking liberal, because that’s what everyone around me was, except for the Young Republicans, who were all losers.

Then, after college, I picked up “Things Fall Apart,” for no good reason that I can think of now. I think I was just looking for a good book, and started on the first shelf at Borders, and “Achebe” is on the first shelf alphabetically.

And I started reading about how the Christian missionaries imposed themselves on the natives (”Boo!! Imperialists!!”) And the got a foothold by bringing in people from the lower castes and treating them as equals (”Yey!! Equality!!”) and then taking over and prohibiting things like leaving baby twins out in the woods to die (”Yey!! Forced imposition of Western values that I agree with!!”) and then they started taking other powers away from the native rulers (”Boo!! Abuse of power!!”) and the book was over and I sat there and though, “Who were the good guys?” “Who were the bad guys?” “Was this a ‘liberal’ book or a ‘conservative’ book?” Well, it was ‘just’ a book about stuff the way the author saw it.

And, well, ever since then I have been unable to NOT see both sides of the situation. I became interested in politics, but never really had a favorite candidate because I saw the arguments for and against everyone’s positions. Then, I started reading blogs, and felt forced to comment when people were all saying the same thing without considering the other side. So, then, pretty soon, I had a whole list of liberal blogs where I had been called a right-wing-fascist troll, and a whole list of conservative blogs where I had been call a loony-leftist-liberal troll, and I ended up with no internet friends, forcing me to only deal with “real” people, with whom I try hard not to discuss politics, because I am sure I would disagree with everything they said, not because they were wrong, but because they believed it too strongly and without qualification.

And, yes, I blame it all on “Things Fall Apart.”

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Sewere Writes:

June 15th, 2007 at 3:24 pm
Rachel said,

For Achebe, who is probably the most famous Nigerian outside of Nigeria, it is about his generation.
Make you no say am like that o. Yoruba people go claim say Wole Soyinka pass Chinay Achebe because him get Nobel Prize…. :-0

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Rachel S. Writes:

June 15th, 2007 at 5:11 pm
LOL!! I guess we’ll have to do surveys to see.

I have a little Igbo bias since I’m married to one :)….Nobel Prize is big, but it doesn’t necessarily make a person a household name.

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lurker Writes:

June 15th, 2007 at 9:31 pm
“Nobel Prize is big, but it doesn’t necessarily make a person a household name.”

Not to mention all the back-of-scene politics,

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Anu Writes:

June 18th, 2007 at 12:10 am
lol being Yoruba I have to say I’m partial to Wole Soyinka as well.

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Remy Ilona Writes:

June 28th, 2007 at 6:17 am
It suffixes, and important to note that both writers are ‘Igbo’. Anything beyond that is misleading.
I consider Achebe an inspiring figure, and the Igbos sharpest mind today.

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