Abstract:
The first thing that comes to mind when I reflect on the
extraordinary career of Chinua Achebe is that he was a true pioneer. I suppose that could be said of many other African
writers as well, not only those who preceded him but also those
of his own generation who, rather unexpectedly, helped to launch
vigorous literary movements throughout the continent in the
middle of the last century by expressing themselves creatively in
European and indigenous languages. All of them, individually and collectively, were vital contributors to the modernization of
Africa, to the reconceptualization of the continent’s past, present,and future, and perhaps most importantly, to the liberation of Africa’s imaginative energies. And they did this not by waging wars or struggling to win political or economic independence for their people as some of their more famous contemporaries had, but rather simply by manipulating words in new and surprising ways. They were revolutionaries of another kind who changed their world through invention, through powers not of muscle but of mind. They worked from the inside out.