Tracing Chinua Achebe ' s Background - His Earliest Life and Schooling in Nigeria
By Arthur Smith
Nigerian novelist,Chinua Achebe,, best
known for his first novel, Things Fall Apart
which is the most widely-read and discussed
book in modern African literature, described
his writing as an attempt to set the historical
record straight by showing that African
people did not hear of culture for the first time from
Europeans, that their societies were not mindless but had a
philosophy of great depth and value and beauty, that they had
poetry and above all, they had dignity.
Achebe's novels especially so Things Fall Apart which is now
50 years old focus on the traditions of Igbo society, the effect
of Christian and Western influences on it, and the clash of
values during and after the colonial era.Achebe's works
portray Nigeria's communities passing through the traumas of
colonization and moving into a troubled nationhood. In
bringing together the political and the literary, he neither
romanticizes the culture of the indigenous nor apologizes for
the colonial.
Achebe who unlike his Kenyan counterpart, Ngugi Wathiongo,
wrote his novels in English, has defended the use of English,
though it is the language of colonisers, in African literature.
Achebe's keen ear for spoken language have made him one of
the most highly esteemed African writers writing in English.
His style relies heavily on the Igbo oral tradition, and
combines straightforward narration with representations of
folk stories, proverbs, and oratory.
Raised by christian parents in the Igbo village of Ogidi in
southern Nigeria, Achebe excelled at school and won a
scholarship for undergraduate studies. He then became
fascinated with world religions and traditional African cultures,
and began writing stories which were published in on campus
publications.
After graduating, he worked for the Nigerian Broadcasting
Service which caused him to move to the metropolis of Lagos.
Achebe's parents, Isaiah Okafo Achebe and Janet Anaenechi
Iloegbunam, were converts to the Protestant Church Mission
Society (CMS) in Nigeria. The elder Achebe being a teacher in
a missionary school, stopped practising the religion of his
ancestors, but he respected its traditions and sometimes
incorporated elements of its rituals into his Christian practice.
Chinua's unabbreviated name, Chinualumogu "May God fight
on my behalf", was a prayer for divine protection and stability.
The Achebe family had five other surviving children, named in
a similar fusion of traditional and English names: Frank
Okwuofu, John Chukwuemeka Ifeanyichukwu, Zinobia Uzoma,
Augustine Nduka, and Grace Nwanneka.
Chinua was born Albert Chinualumogu Achebe in the Igbo
village of Ogidi in Nneobi, on November 16, 1930. His parents
instilled in him many of the values of their traditional Igbo
culture even though they were devout evangelical Protestants.
They then christened him Albert, after Prince Albert, husband
of Queen Victoria.. His parents standing at a crossroads of
traditional culture and Christian influence made a significant
impact on the children, especially Chinualumogu. As a result
Achebe's upbringing spanned both worlds, the indigenous as
well as the colonial.
After the youngest daughter was born, the family moved to
Itheir ancestral village of Ogidi, in what is now Anambra.
state.
Storytelling was one of the mainstays of the Igbo tradition and
an integral part of the community. Chinua's mother and sister
Zinobia Uzoma therefore told him many stories as a child,
which he repeatedly requested more of. His education was
expanded further by the collages his father hung on the walls
of their home, as well as almanacs and numerous books -
including a prose adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream
and an Igbo version of The Pilgrim's Progress. Chinua also
eagerly anticipated traditional village events, like the frequent
masquerade ceremonies, which he recreated later in his
novels and stories.
In 1936 Achebe entered St Philips' Central School. Despite his
protests, he spent a week in the religious class for young
children, but was quickly moved to a higher class when the
school's chaplain took note of his intelligence. He was said to
have had the best handwriting in class, and the best reading
skills. He also attended Sunday school every week and the
special evangelical services held monthly, often carrying his
father's bag along with him. A controversy erupted at one
such session, when apostates from the new church challenged
the catechist about the tenets of Christianity. . Achebe was
later to include a similar scene in Things Fall Apart .
At the age of twelve, Achebe moved away from his family to
the village of Nekede, four kilometres from Owerri where he
enrolled as a student at the Central School, where his older
brother John taught. In Nekede, Achebe gained an
appreciation for Mbari, a traditional art form which seeks to
invoke the gods' protection through symbolic sacrifices in the
form of sculptures and collages. When the time came to
change to secondary school, in 1944, Achebe sat entrance
examinations for both the prestigious Dennis Memorial
Grammar School in Onitsha and the even more prestigious
Government College in Umuahia. He was accepted at both but
he eventually opted for Government College in Umuahia.. He
received a coveted scholarship to Government College in
Umuahia, where he studied alongside some of Nigeria's future
political and cultural leaders.
Modelled on the British public school, and funded by the
colonial administration, Government College had been
established in 1929 to educate Nigeria's future elite. It
maintained rigorous academic standards and was vigorously
egalitarian, accepting boys purely on the basis of ability. The
language spoken atf the school was wholely English, not only
to develop proficiency but also to provide a common tongue
for pupils from different Nigerian language groups. This
Achebe later described as being ordered to "put away their
different mother tongues and communicate in the language of
their colonisers". The rule was strictly enforced and Achebe
recalls that his first punishment was for asking another boy to
pass the soap in Igbo.
There, Achebe was double-promoted in his first year, He thus
completed the first two years' studies in one, spending only
four years in secondary school, instead of the standard five.
Achebe being unsuited to the school's sports regimen
attached himself instead to a group of six exceedingly
studious pupils. whose study habits were so intense that the
headmaster banned the reading of textbooks from five to six
o'clock in the afternoon (though other activities and other
books were allowed).
Achebe started exploring the school's "wonderful library" and
discovered Booker T. Washington's Up From Slavery, the
autobiography of an American former slave. Though Achebe
found it sad, but it showed him another dimension of reality..
He also read classic novels, such as Gulliver's Travels , David
Copperfield , and Treasure Island together with tales of colonial
derring-do such as H. Rider Haggard's Allan Quatermain and
John Buchan's Prester John . Achebe later recalled that, as a
reader, he "took sides with the white characters against the
savages" and even developed a dislike for Africans. "The white
man was good and reasonable and intelligent and courageous.
The savages arrayed against him were sinister and stupid or,
at the most, cunning. I hated their guts."
In 1948, in preparation for independence, Nigeria's first
university now the University of Ibadan opened as an
associate college of the University of London. Achebe
obtained such high marks in the entrance examination that he
was admitted on a Scholarship in the university's first intake
to study medicine. After a year of gruelling work, however, he
decided science was not for him and he changed to English,
history, and theology. Because he switched his field, however,
he lost his scholarship and had to pay his fees. He received a
government bursary, and his family also donated money - his
older brother Augustine even gave up money for a trip home
from his job as a civil servant so Chinua could continue his
studies. From its inception, the university had a strong English
faculty and it includes many famous writers amongst its
alumni. These include Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka, novelist
Elechi Amadi, poet and playwright John Pepper Clark, poet
Christopher Okigbo and playwright and academic, Kole
Omotoso.
Born and schooled in Freetown, Sierra Leone, Arthur Smith
has taught English for over thirty years at various Educational
Institutions. He is now a Senior Lecturer of English at Fourah
Bay College where he has been lecturing for the past eight
years.
Mr Smith's writings have been in various media. He
participated in a seminar on contemporary American
Literature in the U.S. in 2006. His growing thoughts and
reflections on this trip which took him to various US sights
and sounds could be read at http://www.lisnews.org
His other publications include: Folktales from Freetown,
Langston Hughes: Life and Works Celebrating Black Dignity,
and 'The Struggle of the Book'
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Arthur_Smith
0 Comments | Leave a Comment
Submitted On September 04, 2008
Nigerian novelist,Chinua Achebe,, best
known for his first novel, Things Fall Apart
which is the most widely-read and discussed
book in modern African literature, described
his writing as an attempt to set the historical
record straight by showing that African
people did not hear of culture for the first time from
Europeans, that their societies were not mindless but had a
philosophy of great depth and value and beauty, that they had
poetry and above all, they had dignity.
Achebe's novels especially so Things Fall Apart which is now
50 years old focus on the traditions of Igbo society, the effect
of Christian and Western influences on it, and the clash of
values during and after the colonial era.Achebe's works
portray Nigeria's communities passing through the traumas of
colonization and moving into a troubled nationhood. In
bringing together the political and the literary, he neither
romanticizes the culture of the indigenous nor apologizes for
the colonial.
Achebe who unlike his Kenyan counterpart, Ngugi Wathiongo,
wrote his novels in English, has defended the use of English,
though it is the language of colonisers, in African literature.
Achebe's keen ear for spoken language have made him one of
the most highly esteemed African writers writing in English.
His style relies heavily on the Igbo oral tradition, and
combines straightforward narration with representations of
folk stories, proverbs, and oratory.
Raised by christian parents in the Igbo village of Ogidi in
southern Nigeria, Achebe excelled at school and won a
scholarship for undergraduate studies. He then became
fascinated with world religions and traditional African cultures,
and began writing stories which were published in on campus
publications.
After graduating, he worked for the Nigerian Broadcasting
Service which caused him to move to the metropolis of Lagos.
Achebe's parents, Isaiah Okafo Achebe and Janet Anaenechi
Iloegbunam, were converts to the Protestant Church Mission
Society (CMS) in Nigeria. The elder Achebe being a teacher in
a missionary school, stopped practising the religion of his
ancestors, but he respected its traditions and sometimes
incorporated elements of its rituals into his Christian practice.
Chinua's unabbreviated name, Chinualumogu "May God fight
on my behalf", was a prayer for divine protection and stability.
The Achebe family had five other surviving children, named in
a similar fusion of traditional and English names: Frank
Okwuofu, John Chukwuemeka Ifeanyichukwu, Zinobia Uzoma,
Augustine Nduka, and Grace Nwanneka.
Chinua was born Albert Chinualumogu Achebe in the Igbo
village of Ogidi in Nneobi, on November 16, 1930. His parents
instilled in him many of the values of their traditional Igbo
culture even though they were devout evangelical Protestants.
They then christened him Albert, after Prince Albert, husband
of Queen Victoria.. His parents standing at a crossroads of
traditional culture and Christian influence made a significant
impact on the children, especially Chinualumogu. As a result
Achebe's upbringing spanned both worlds, the indigenous as
well as the colonial.
After the youngest daughter was born, the family moved to
Itheir ancestral village of Ogidi, in what is now Anambra.
state.
Storytelling was one of the mainstays of the Igbo tradition and
an integral part of the community. Chinua's mother and sister
Zinobia Uzoma therefore told him many stories as a child,
which he repeatedly requested more of. His education was
expanded further by the collages his father hung on the walls
of their home, as well as almanacs and numerous books -
including a prose adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream
and an Igbo version of The Pilgrim's Progress. Chinua also
eagerly anticipated traditional village events, like the frequent
masquerade ceremonies, which he recreated later in his
novels and stories.
In 1936 Achebe entered St Philips' Central School. Despite his
protests, he spent a week in the religious class for young
children, but was quickly moved to a higher class when the
school's chaplain took note of his intelligence. He was said to
have had the best handwriting in class, and the best reading
skills. He also attended Sunday school every week and the
special evangelical services held monthly, often carrying his
father's bag along with him. A controversy erupted at one
such session, when apostates from the new church challenged
the catechist about the tenets of Christianity. . Achebe was
later to include a similar scene in Things Fall Apart .
At the age of twelve, Achebe moved away from his family to
the village of Nekede, four kilometres from Owerri where he
enrolled as a student at the Central School, where his older
brother John taught. In Nekede, Achebe gained an
appreciation for Mbari, a traditional art form which seeks to
invoke the gods' protection through symbolic sacrifices in the
form of sculptures and collages. When the time came to
change to secondary school, in 1944, Achebe sat entrance
examinations for both the prestigious Dennis Memorial
Grammar School in Onitsha and the even more prestigious
Government College in Umuahia. He was accepted at both but
he eventually opted for Government College in Umuahia.. He
received a coveted scholarship to Government College in
Umuahia, where he studied alongside some of Nigeria's future
political and cultural leaders.
Modelled on the British public school, and funded by the
colonial administration, Government College had been
established in 1929 to educate Nigeria's future elite. It
maintained rigorous academic standards and was vigorously
egalitarian, accepting boys purely on the basis of ability. The
language spoken atf the school was wholely English, not only
to develop proficiency but also to provide a common tongue
for pupils from different Nigerian language groups. This
Achebe later described as being ordered to "put away their
different mother tongues and communicate in the language of
their colonisers". The rule was strictly enforced and Achebe
recalls that his first punishment was for asking another boy to
pass the soap in Igbo.
There, Achebe was double-promoted in his first year, He thus
completed the first two years' studies in one, spending only
four years in secondary school, instead of the standard five.
Achebe being unsuited to the school's sports regimen
attached himself instead to a group of six exceedingly
studious pupils. whose study habits were so intense that the
headmaster banned the reading of textbooks from five to six
o'clock in the afternoon (though other activities and other
books were allowed).
Achebe started exploring the school's "wonderful library" and
discovered Booker T. Washington's Up From Slavery, the
autobiography of an American former slave. Though Achebe
found it sad, but it showed him another dimension of reality..
He also read classic novels, such as Gulliver's Travels , David
Copperfield , and Treasure Island together with tales of colonial
derring-do such as H. Rider Haggard's Allan Quatermain and
John Buchan's Prester John . Achebe later recalled that, as a
reader, he "took sides with the white characters against the
savages" and even developed a dislike for Africans. "The white
man was good and reasonable and intelligent and courageous.
The savages arrayed against him were sinister and stupid or,
at the most, cunning. I hated their guts."
In 1948, in preparation for independence, Nigeria's first
university now the University of Ibadan opened as an
associate college of the University of London. Achebe
obtained such high marks in the entrance examination that he
was admitted on a Scholarship in the university's first intake
to study medicine. After a year of gruelling work, however, he
decided science was not for him and he changed to English,
history, and theology. Because he switched his field, however,
he lost his scholarship and had to pay his fees. He received a
government bursary, and his family also donated money - his
older brother Augustine even gave up money for a trip home
from his job as a civil servant so Chinua could continue his
studies. From its inception, the university had a strong English
faculty and it includes many famous writers amongst its
alumni. These include Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka, novelist
Elechi Amadi, poet and playwright John Pepper Clark, poet
Christopher Okigbo and playwright and academic, Kole
Omotoso.
Born and schooled in Freetown, Sierra Leone, Arthur Smith
has taught English for over thirty years at various Educational
Institutions. He is now a Senior Lecturer of English at Fourah
Bay College where he has been lecturing for the past eight
years.
Mr Smith's writings have been in various media. He
participated in a seminar on contemporary American
Literature in the U.S. in 2006. His growing thoughts and
reflections on this trip which took him to various US sights
and sounds could be read at http://www.lisnews.org
His other publications include: Folktales from Freetown,
Langston Hughes: Life and Works Celebrating Black Dignity,
and 'The Struggle of the Book'
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Arthur_Smith
0 Comments | Leave a Comment
Submitted On September 04, 2008
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