By Denrele Animasaun

“It is the storyteller,who makes us what we are, who creates history. The storyteller creates the memory that the survivors must have – otherwise their surviving would have no meaning.” – Chinua Achebe

Chinua Achebe, the internationally celebrated Nigerian author, statesman and dissident who gave literary birth to modern Africa with Things Fall Apart, has died. He was 82. I  was  in  my  office  when  I  heard  of  the  passing  of  our elder, Chinua Achebe. The news shook me to  the  core, then  I  scrambled to  the  nearest  computer pot. I was stunned there was  no mistake, it was true that Chinua Achebe was  no  more.

I  had  to call   my son, who although at  23, had never been on  Nigerian soil, but  read Things  Fall Apart at  his  secondary school. When I told him the news, he paused and then he said of how lucky we were to have read his books. I tried  to  think  why  I  was  bereft, I  felt I  lost  someone  close. Then I realised I have.  Through  Chinua Achebe’s  novels  we  in  our  individual  ways  caught  a glimpse of  the  man and  his  mastery.

Late Prof Chinua Achebe

Chinua Achebe had influenced many a writer and Nelson Mandela said how reading his novels made the walls of the prison invisible. Many of  my non-Nigerian friends  had read Things Fall  Apart and  many  were converts  of  his novels as a  result. Many of the UK newspapers carried  his  passing and all were very  complimentary  of the  man.  And  so  they  should, after all many  had  read his  books  and some had  been present at  some of his talks .

Things Fall Apart has sold more than eight million copies worldwide and translated into more than 50 languages. The novel has been a staple of many schools the world over. He  was a critic of Western literature, of that he said:” Until Lions write their own history, the tale of the hunt will always glorify the hunter “ and he  was  right, our  history  can only  be told  by us and  not from  an outsider’s clouded view of  the  then colonial’s terminology of the  “savages”.

He was vehemently critical of  Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness,  which  was  a standard  reading  for millions around the  colonised countries. He set a standard and blazed a trail; without a doubt has been responsible for founding  and developing African  literature by  an African. “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 had said. Until his death, Prof Achebe was the David and Marianna Fisher University Professor and Professor of Africana Studies at Brown, New York.

He  twice rejected being named a Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic(CON) on  the  basis  that  the  Nigerian  government  was riddled  with  greed and  corruption. “The reasons for rejecting the offer when it was first made have not been addressed, let alone solved. It is inappropriate to offer it again to me,” he said when it was offered the second time.

He said at the time how he had watched events in Nigeria with alarm and dismay. He said “I have watched particularly the chaos in my own state of Anambra where a small clique of renegades, openly boasting its connections in high places, seems determined to turn my homeland into a bankrupt and lawless fiefdom” and “ I am appalled by the brazenness of this clique and the silence, if not connivance, of the presidency,” continued Achebe .

President Jonathan responded that Achebe’s  claim “clearly flies in the face of the reality of Nigeria’s current political situation” and he expressed hope that the writer would “find time to visit home soon and see the progress being made by the Jonathan administration for himself.” I guess Achebe  knew  enough and he said that  ”Nigeria is what it is because its leaders are not what they should be”.

I’ve had trouble now and again in Nigeria because I have spoken up about the mistreatment of factions in the country because of difference in religion. These are things we should put behind us,-Chinua Achebe once wrote.

As Achebe told The Associated Press in 2008, that “age was respected among my people, but achievement was revere”. As the elders said,  if “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.”

Achebe was irascible and he defined himself as a protest writer, with restraint. Whatever  the  restraint he  had he managed  it well  with  grace  and aplomb .  Like  an astute observer he  noted  that he  feared what  could  become  of  his  beloved country, Nigeria, that  should a  leaderless uprising took over what was a  bad  government  will  only  be  replaced  by one  much  worse. He was right. If  the  word should side  with  the  people against  the “ the Emperor” that oppresses his or her people.

The  last  word: when asked  how he  felt  being seen as  the founder  of  African Literature , he said “I 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”.

Chinua Achebe left his work, his legacy and for every child, adult  that open up Things Fall Apart or  any  of  his  other books   they  will  not be  alone, they  will in fact be  opening  up to a world from the  past and complex characters who can  be  from  anywhere in the  world. Achebe came with a purpose  and he  did more by writing.

He changed the way Africa was portrayed  by  the  colonials and the outside  world. He was always uncompromising and he, indeed wrote what  he  wanted and  he  did not  want  his  life  to  be  dictated  to by anybody  but  him. We are indeed thankful to have had him in our midst and for him to have  been  one  of  our own. We   will always be accompanied by this ebullient imaginative, creative purposeful, patriotic African soul.