Dan's Papers - February 22, 2008 - A Tribute to Chinua Achebe

Time magazine distinguished Things Fall Apart as one of the top 100 books since 1923. It is a staple in high schools and colleges across Africa as well as America and is the best insight many readers have to African culture during the colonial period. This year it turns 50 and in honor of that occasion, PEN American Center is honoring its author, Chinua Achebe, on Tuesday, February 26.

Achebe was born in Nigeria in 1930. By the age of 23 he had finished his studies of English Literature at the Ibadan University. Part of that study included novels such as Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad and Mister Johnson by Joyce Cary. These pieces of Western literature painted Africa as a savage, ignorant country - sentiments that struck hard against Achebe's knowledge of his homeland. Frustrated by the way Africans had been treated in English literature, he began writing a novel that dealt with African culture leading up to and during European contact. At the age of 28, Achebe celebrated the publishing of Things Fall Apart. The book, which takes its title from a line in Yeats' poem "The Second Coming," has sold over eight million copies worldwide.

The story follows the life of Okonkwo, a man who has fought to free himself from the slacker stigma of his father. By becoming a great wrestler, he establishes himself as an important person in the village of Umuofia. When he is forced to take in a child from a neighboring village as a peace settlement, he raises the boy like his own son until the tribal elders decide (based on an oracle's vision) that the child must be killed. Fearing he would be seen a as a coward, Okonkwo participates in the murdering of the child (though the oracle has warned Okonkwo against it). Later, at the funeral of a high member of his clan, his gun explodes and he accidentally kills a boy. His family is banished for seven years and when he returns the infiltration of European missionaries has already begun. The clan has changed. Customs and traditional religion have been lost as the white man's government is forced upon them. Okonkwo wants to go to war to regain Umuofia's independence. During a village meeting, court messengers sent by the Europeans arrive and, overwhelmed with anger, Okonkwo kills one, hoping to spark a revolution. His fellow villagers allow the other messengers to escape and he realizes they have given up on the idea of independence. Disheartened and fearing the embarrassment of being punished by Europeans, he returns to his home and hangs himself. The shame of suicide casts his family's name back into the dishonorable light he spent his life trying to escape. The novel is about his individual decline as well as that of the Ibo people as they struggle to maintain identity when faced with the European colonization.

Two years later Achebe wrote No Longer at Ease (taking its title from T.S. Eliot's poem "The Journey of the Magi"). Set again in Nigeria, this story actually follows Obi Okonkwo, the grandson of Okonkwo in Things Fall Apart, as he struggles to survive against corruption. The great hope of his village, he is sent to England to study law in order to return and aid the Ibo people in the now English colony. He studies English Literature instead and returns to Nigeria, but everything around him falls apart (pun intended). Achebe has written five novels in all, as well as four children's books and the controversial work An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's "Heart of Darkness."

The evening will host an international who's who of writers to join Achebe on stage. Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison (Beloved, Tar Baby) and Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Cummings (The Hours) are among the group, but also fellow Nigerians Chris Abani (Virgin of Flames) and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Half of a Yellow Sun) will be on hand for the tribute. To add to the night's events there will be a special performance by the Francesca Harper Dance Project with dancers from the Alvin Ailey School.

It is always wise to take the opportunity to see a tribute to a great writer. Luckily, more and more, we are taking that opportunity while the writer is still alive, allowing another generation to hear the voice and experience the presence of a truly iconic person - couple that with the supporting cast of Nobel and Pulitzer laureates and for anyone who loves writing, the night couldn't be any more stimulating.

A Tribute to Chinua Achebe will take place at Town Hall (123 West 43rd Street) at 8 p.m. this Tuesday, February 26. Tickets cost $15 and are now available online at ticketmaster.com or by calling Ticketmaster at (212) 307-4100.