In this interview culled from Okike Magazine Number 30 founded at the University of Nigeria Nsukka, African literary icon, Prof. Chinua Achebe spoke with  the then editor, Professor Ossie Enekwe, about his  his vision as a cultural catalyst, pan African scholarship and, most importantly, how much he desired a climate of peace in post -war Nigeria to help further his literary vision.

Why are you returning to Nigeria at this time, and what do you plan to do there?
I’m returning to resume my life, if you like, in Nigeria, I came to the States on a short visit, to begin with. When I left Nigeria in 1972, I thought I would be here for one year, or at the most, two years. But it’s dragged on beyond that to four years. So it’s an overdue return, and I’m looking forward very much to my work at Nsukka.

What would you like to do, specifically, at the University of Nigeria?
Well, I have so many things, I really don’t know where to begin. I have so many ideas; there are so many things that need to be done, so many possibilities – you know; one is terribly excited, but at the same time, you’re almost confused, because you don’t know where to begin. But one can start from a personal angle. I’d like to complete the novel I’m working on. I had hoped to have at least the first draft ready here before going back. It didn’t work out that way. I hope to complete it in Nigeria,. So that’s the first thing. Secondly, I want to see the work of the magazine, Okike, developed in its natural soil, with people who share the same kind of vision as I have.

Thirdly, I’d like to pursue my own understanding and study of Igbo culture, which excites me more and more everyday. You can’t do that from America-you need to get back to the soil. So, I’d like to get back, but I’m not sure just what specific areas.

This is one of the major cultures in Africa, and it’s received scant attention. And somebody ought to get down to work on it, you know, just to uncover the mainspring of Igbo thinking. This is a major undertaking. And I’m not certain just what aspect I shall begin with, but that doesn’t matter – this is the major area that needs to be attended to. So, that’s the next thing that I’m excited about – getting back to Igboland, getting back to the study of Igbo people and Igbo culture.

Now, about your novel… does the delay have to do with what you wrote in Morning Yet on Creation Day that ‘he should not forget the past? Is it related to the problem of delving into the causes of the Nigerian crisis? Or is it simply part of your slow and meticulous writing habit?

Well .. .I’ve had this question in a different way before, and I’m sure I’m going to contradict myself here. I would say that the reason I didn’t come up with another novel was the civil war, the crisis in Nigeria and the problem of finding the kind of emotional and artistic stability-peace of mind, if you like – that is needed. This is part of the answer, of course. I think the crisis had something to do with it because I did abandon a project of writing that I was already embarked upon. But I think that, as I look back on that, there is a second element, which I have not until now talked about. And that’s the fact that I don’t really feel that there is any obligation on my part to produce a novel every other year. It’s not my style, and perhaps I was really making this point – it may have been unconscious-that one can get into the habit of being pressured by one’s publisher, one’s readers, one’s fans – you know, everybody saying: “We read the last novel. Now when is the next one”. And I think that is something that, for me, is not very desirable. I think I have to fight to work at my own pace. I think probably why I began to think of this was that I saw a TV interview that somebody did with Bernard Shaw on one of his visits to the United States. You know, Bernard Shaw never liked Americans, and he was always off-hand. So this interview was interesting because Shaw was almost anticipating his interviewer, and saying: “Don’t ask me what should we do’ because when I was last here I told you what you should do and you haven’t done it”. So I think that I have a kind of feeling of: “Well, I’ve written these novels, which are important in my view, and they have not been fully, adequately, dealt with. So why should I write a fifth, and a sixth? Now, that’s one point of view. You may think that this is just an excuse, but in a way I think that there’s something quite fundamental there. I think that the job of my readers is to get the maximum out of what I have done.

I too have to sit back – especially after the number four – and assess, what I have been doing, ask myself questions and see if there is need for new departure. Because it’s so easy to get onto the same routine. A novel every two years; perhaps, improving technique. But I’m not interested in that. I’m interested in doing something fundamentally important – and therefore, It needs time. And what I’ve been doing, really, is avoiding this pressure to get into the habit of one novel a year. This is what is expected of novelists. And I have never been really too much concerned with doing what is expected of novelists, or writers, or artists. I want to do what I believe is important. And so I’ve been thinking; I’ve been working out things in my mind, and part of it is the Nigerian crisis. I have to ask myself:

What happened to Nigeria? What happened to my relationship to Nigeria? What happened to the Igbo people in relation to Nigeria? And how are we going to deal with this in future? Should this kind of thing ever happen again, how would we deal with it? How does Nigeria move on into this stage of evolution”. And these are very important questions. And I don’t think you can answer them if you’re busy churning out one novel after another.

Late Prof  Chinua Achebe

So the kind of thing I want to do in the interim isa book of essays, which could pull together some of my thoughts in the past, but also include some of the more recent things that I have been thinking about. And this seems to me necessary. You can clarify your own thinking much more directly in an essay than you can do in a novel. A novel is like life. I mean, there is no way a novelist can be held to account for what happens in a novel. I mean, even a character you like can be totally odious to other people. So a novel is not a way to clarify your mind. An essay is – it’s logical. And so I think probably I needed to take time off to attend to the logic of a situation.

You talked about dealing with some aspects of Igbo culture. You would like to get back to study the Igbo culture. Some time ago I heard that you were planning to write an Igbo dictionary. Is this true. If so, what are your plans?

No, it’s not true. I’m not planning to do an Igbo dictionary…. I think that’s something that people in Linguistics should be dealing with.

In 1974, during a conference in Columbia University, you disclosed that you were developing an inclination or rather, that you have a talent for the theatre. Earlier, in an interview at the University of Washington in Seattle, you had expressed an intention to’ write plays in Igbo language. What is your concept of theatre?

Well, I don’t know that I can answer the question of concept, because I really would prefer to produce a play and then from that play, discuss my concept of theatre. In other words, there is a certain artistic inevitability in creation which I do not want to anticipate, to pre-empt. I have certain ideas, certain theories about theatre and language ill our situation, which I’d like to tryout before I begin to pontificate.

I think, for instance, that one of the problems with modern Nigerian theatre is the language – the English language. You are likely to produce theatre for the West ratter than theatre for Nigeria, if you didn’t stop to think about the language problem. Now you might say: “Well, isn’t. that the same with the novel; isn’t it the same with poetry?” No, I don’t think it is. Art is a convention. There are various forms, various convention1l, which are applied. ‘probably you could say that no convention. There are various form, various conventions, But once you choose the convention I think you are bound by the rules of that convention. Now, the theatre, being a very direct, almost participatory form, does require a different convention from the novel. You go to watch a play, you see actual people moving, and talking on the stage. If you are reading a novel, you don’t see anybody. You are using your imagination. So what I’m saying is that it’s a different convention.

In a novel, once you accept that the whole thing is make-believe; once you accept that you are reading printed words on a page, and you come across characters, and so on, this is all a kind of pre-arranged convention, and you accept it. And so if you read about Okonkwo, a traditional Igbo character in the English language, you know that this is a convention anyway; there is a kind of filter ~ somebody’s telling you what happened. Even if you are reading the words of Okonkwo, you know that it was written by somebody else- by the ‘author, or narrator, whatever you call him – there is an agent between you and Okonkwo, telling you the story. And however you work this out for yourself, if the novel is successful, you do accept the convention, and you stop asking questions. Now, I think, if I were to put Okonkwo on the stage, and if I were to put English words into his mouth, it would be a different problem altogether. The convention would no longer hold. Because each time Okonkwo talks, he would be violating something quite fundamental. He would be talking about experiences and life and history in a language which has nothing to do with that life or experience or history. And each time he opens his mouth, the audience is reminded that there is a convention – a translator, a medium – between him and the audience. And I think this is almost an insuperable problem, and this is why I began to think that if you are going to work in the theatre, at least, part of the action, part of the dialogue, of this theatre must be in the language of the characters. Because you see a character is there on the stage, alive, and even though he’s only an actor, pretending to be Okonkwo, he’s there. He’s visible to you; he’s flesh and blood. And if he were to speak in a language that Okonkwo did not understand, there’s a major problem there: a problem of artistic credibility. So when I work, I’d like to experiment with the Igbo language as well as English, where it is appropriate. There are vast areas

There are vast areas. If one is writing a modern Nigerian play in which modern people like you and me are at work, it would be better for me to do it in English, because we talk in English, it’s not the only language we speak, but we use it quite extensively. But going back to Okonkwo, to Ezeulu, it seems to be inappropriate.

This interview was conducted on June 27, 1976, in Chinua Achebe’s country home at Storrs, Connecticut -.two days before his departure to Nigeria. Because Achebe was very busy at that, time, this interview had to be discontinued. The second part was continued in Nigeria in 1978, and published in New Culture, 19(1979), and in Nsukkascope; 7) 1979).