Apresentamos aqui um aritgo em ingles, do professor
indiano, Indrasen Reddy, Doutor em
literature pela Kakatiya University em
Warangal. Foi reitor e pro-reitor , director da Faculadde de Artes . Tambem
trabalhou na Asmara University, Eritrea,
Nordeste da África e na Mahatma Gandhi Univerisity, na India. A sua tese de doutorado foi justamente sobre
Chinua Achebe. Ele analisa o “problema de engajamento nas obras de Chinua
Achebe e Ngugi Wa Thiong’o. Por isso achamos pertinente publicar esta nota
embora rápida, escrita logo após a morte de Achebe.
Chinua Achebe: A Writer Activist
1930 – 2013
Indrasena Reddy.
With
the death of Chinua Achebe, lovers of literature lost a friend; Nigerians, a
philosopher; Africans, a guide; and social activists, a writer activist.
Neo-Colonial African scenario threw up a number of writer activists, both men
and women. Prominent among them are: Wole Soyinka (Nigerian Nobel Laureate),
Ngugi wa Thiong’o (Kenyan, now an exile in US), Nawal el Sadaawi (Egyptian),
Frantz Fanon (Martinique) and AbebaTesfagiorgis(Eritrea). All these writers are
not only concerned with the socio-economic exploitative structures in their
countries, but they are also actively involved in the people’s liberation
movements against the neo-colonial order. Achebe himself stood by his fellow
Biafrans for a separate country outside Nigeria (Biafra is in Southern
Nigeria). His latest book, There was a
Country (2012) records once again the gory reminiscences of the Civil War
in Biafra(1967), a dark chapter in Nigerian history.
Things Fall Apart (1958),
Achebe’s first novel celebrated its 50th year of publication in 2008
in the academia in Africa, Europe and India. I am proud of being part of the
celebrations at the Mahatma Gandhi University, Nalgonda in 2008. I was heading
the Department of English then. The novel has been translated into more than 50
languages, and more than 10 million copies of it are in circulation. The novel
tells the poignant story of an African tragic protagonist who fought alone
valiantly against the combined forces of religion (Christianity) and its ally,
the colonizer. Both Things Fall Apart
and Anthills of the Savannah(1987)
are recreation of African myths, rituals, folklore and orature which are
integral to their culture, traditions and ethos. Achebe injects into his
writings the very core and spirit of Africa in every conceivable manner. He
also tried his best to Africanize English. He regrets he has no choice except
to use English language, the legacy left behind by the colonizer. But, he
maintains: “The English language will be able to carry the weight of my African
experience…”
The
first novels of Achebe – Things Fall
Apart (1958),No Longer At Ease (1960), Arrow
of God (1964), A Man of the
People(1966) and Anthills of the
Savannah (1987) not only reflect the Nigerian scenario of colonial and
post-colonial phases, but by extension they also mirror the similar situation
in Africa. These five novels can also be read as the history of Nigeria for a
century, from 1890s to 1980s. Achebe, thus, is a historian as well in addition
to being a novelist, poet, critic and essayist. Above all, he is a writer
activist. He began his career as a script writer for the Nigerian Broadcasting
Corporation.
Achebe
never minces words in his criticism of racism and racists. He maintains that
racism is a product of the West imposed on Africa and elsewhere. For instance,
Africa does not exist even as an area of
darkness in Hegel’s Philosophies of
History. For Joseph Conrad (Nobel Laureate), the image of Africa is, Heart of Darkness, the title of his
magnumopus. Who else other than Achebe can have the courage and conviction to
call Conrad a ‘bloody racist’, invested with ‘a petty European mind’? Achebe
writes out of a commitment to rectify the distorted versions of Africa as a
‘dark continent’. He observes: “I believe it is impossible to write anything in
Africa without some kind of commitment… some kind of protest… because there
were people who thought we didn’t have a past. What we were doing was to say we
did…”
Achebe’s
first three novels are set in colonial Africa. One can witness the drama of
colonial encounters in Africa on the arrival of the white man with his new
religion and the Bible, followed by his ally, the colonizer with the his gun.
The Bible and the gun sum up the tale of colonialism in Africa. But Achebe’s
later novels, A Man of the People and
Anthills of the Savannah depict the
changed scenario with the black zombies in places of power in a neo-colonial
set up. The enemy in this context is the insider, dancing to the tunes of
neo-colonial masters in Europe and America. This, precisely, is the tragedy of
Africa. India and other developing countries are also cast in the same mould.
This is how Achebe becomes relevant to us, the Indians. This is the universality
in Achebe’s writings.
Achebe
is no more. But he lived meaningfully, and left behind a rich legacy to the
posterity. He has also shown to the world how even the weakest of the weak can
offer resistance to the mightiest of powers. I would like to conclude this with
a parable narrated by an unlettered villager in the novel. Achebe uses the same
for the purpose of hinting that the tortoise in the anecdote represents
innocent masses and the leopard as monstrous state power. According to an
African myth, the tortoise and the leopard are sworn enemies. Whenever the
leopard sights tortoise, the latter is instantly killed. Once a leopard finds a
tortoise on the way. The leopard says: “I am going to kill you”. The tortoise
begs for a minute or two to prepare himself for his death. The tortoise begins
to kick and rove dust all over the place. The puzzled leopard asks him: “What
are you doing?” Quick comes the response from the tortoise: “I am going to be
killed now. But I want the passersby who come here to realize that there was an
epic battle between you and me.” What a fantastic parable!
Dr. K. Indrasena Reddy
Professor of English
indrapapa@yahoo.com
