English and the African Writer

Author(s): Chinua Achebe

Source: Transition , 1997, No. 75/76, The Anniversary Issue: Selections from Transition,
1961-1976 (1997), pp. 342-349
Published by: Indiana University Press on behalf of the Hutchins Center for African
and African American Research at Harvard University

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/2935429

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AM African Literature

ENGLISH AND
THE AFRICAN WRIE

From Transition I8 (I965)

Chinua Achebe

In June I962, there was a gathering given the impression of not knowing
at Makerere University, impressively what we were doing, or worse, not dar-
styled: "A Conference of African Writ- ing to look too closely at it.
ers of English Expression." Despite this A Nigerian critic, Obi Wali, writing
sonorous and rather solemn title, it in Transition io said: "Perhaps the most
turned out to be a very lively affair and important achievement of the Confer-
an exciting and useful experience for ence ... is that African literature as now
many of us. But there was something defined and understood leads nowhere."
that we tried to do and failed: to define I am sure that Wali must have felt vin-
"African literature" satisfactorily. Was it dicated when he saw the report of a
literature produced in Africa, or about subsequent conference held at Fourah
Africa? Could African literature be on Bay to discuss African literature and the
any subject, or must it have an African University curriculum. This conference
theme? Should it embrace the whole produced a tentative definition of Af-
continent, or south of the Sahara, or rican literature, as follows: "Creative
just Black Africa? And then the ques- writing in which an African setting is
tion of language. Should it be in in- authentically handled or to which ex-
digenous African languages or should it periences originating in Africa are in-
include Arabic, English, French, Portu- tegral." We are told specifically that
guese, Afrikaans, and so on? Conrad's Heart of Darkness qualifies as
In the end we gave up trying to find African literature, while Graham Greene's
an answer-partly, I should admit, on Heart of the Matter fails because it could
my own instigation. Perhaps we should have been set anywhere outside Africa.
not have given up so easily. It seems to A number of interesting speculations
me from some of the things I have heardarise from this definition, which is, ad-
and read since then that we may have mittedly, only an interim formulation,

342 TRANSITION ISSUE 75/76

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designed to produce a certain desirable born infants. If you only look cursorily,
end-namely, to introduce African stu- one infant looks very much like an-
dents to literature set in their envi- other; but each is already set on its own
ronment. But I could not help being journey. Of course, you may group
amused by the curious circumstance in them together on the basis of anything
which Conrad, a Pole, writing in En- you choose-the color of their hair, for
glish, could produce African literature, instance. Or you may group them on
while Peter Abrahams would be ineli- the basis of the language they will speak
gible were he to write a novel based on or the religion of their fathers. Those
his experiences in the West Indies. would all be valid distinctions, but they
What all this suggests to me is that could not begin to account fully for
you cannot cram African literature into each individual person, carrying, as it
a small, neat definition. I do not see were, his own little lodestar of genes.
African literature as one unit but as a Those who want to exclude North
group of associated units-in fact, as Africa from the discussion of African
the sum total of all the national and eth- literature because it belongs to a different
nic literatures of Africa. tradition surely do not suggest that Black
A national literature is one that takes Africa is anything like homogeneous.
the whole nation for its province, and What does Shabaan Robert have in
has a realized or potential audience common with Christopher Okigbo or
throughout its territory; in other words,
There are not many countries in Africa
a literature that is written in the national
language. An ethnic literature is one that
today where you could abolish the language
is available only to one ethnic group
within the nation. If you take Nigeria as of the erstwhile colonial powers and still
an example, the national literature, as I
retain the facility for mutual communication.
see it, is the literature written in En-
glish; and the ethnic literatures are in Those African writers who have chosen to
Hausa, Igbo,Yoruba, Effik, Edo, Ijaw,
write in English or French are not unpatriotic
and so on.
Any attempt to define African litera- smart alecs.
ture in terms that overlook the com-
plexities of the African scene is doomed George Awoonor-Williams? Mongo Beti
to failure. After the elimination of of Cameroon and Paris with Nzekwu of
white rule is complete, the single most Nigeria; or what does the champagne-
important fact in Africa in the second drinking upper-class Creole society de-
half of the twentieth century will be thescribed by Easmon of Sierra Leone
rise of individual nation-states. I believe have in common with the rural folk
that African literature will follow the and fishermen of J. P. Clark's plays?
same pattern. While some of these differences could
We tend to think of African literature be accounted for on individual rather
as a newborn infant. But what we have, than national grounds, a good deal of
in fact, is a whole generation of new- it is also environmental.

ENGLISH AND THE AFRICAN WRITER 343

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 I have indicated somewhat offhand- enterprise of the fortunate Princes of
edly that the national literature of Ni- Serendip. And I believe that in political
geria and of many other countries of and economic terms, too, this arbitrary
Africa is, or will be, written in English. creation called Nigeria holds out won-
This may sound like a controversial derful prospects. Yet the fact remains
statement, but it isn't. All I have donethat
hasNigeria was created by the British
been to look at the reality of present-day
-for their own ends. Let us give the
Africa. This "reality" may change as a devil his due: colonialism in Africa
result of deliberate, i.e., political, action. disrupted many things, but it did create
If it does, an entirely new situation will big political units where there were
small, scattered ones before. Nigeria had

The nondescript writer has little to tell hundreds of autonomous communities,

ranging in size from the vast Fulani
us, anyway, so he might as well tell it in
Empire founded by Usman dan Fodio

conventional language and get it over in the North to tiny village entities in
the East. Today, it is one country.
with. He is like a man offering a small,
There are, of course, parts of Africa

nondescript, routine sacrifice for which where colonialism divided a single eth-
nic group among two or even three
a chick, or less, will do. A serious writer
powers. But on the whole, it did bring

must look for an animal whose blood together many peoples that had previ-
ously gone their several ways, and it
can match the power of his offering.
gave them a language with which to
talk to one another. If it failed to give
arise, and there will be plenty of time to
them a song, it at least gave them a
examine it. At present it may be more tongue for sighing. There are not many
profitable to look at the scene as it is. countries in Africa today where you
What is it that has conspired to place could abolish the language of the erst-
English in the position of national lan- while colonial powers and still retain
guage in many parts of Africa? Quite the facility for mutual communication.
simply, it is the fact that these nations Those African writers who have chosen
were created in the first place by the to write in English or French are not
intervention of the British, which (I unpatriotic smart alecs, with an eye on
hasten to add) is not saying that the the main chance outside their countries.
peoples comprising these nations were They are by-products of the same pro-
invented by the British. cesses that made the new nation-states
The country that we know as Nige- of Africa.
ria today began not so very long ago as You can take this argument a stage
the arbitrary creation of the British. It further to include other countries of Af-
is true, as William Fagg says in his ex- rica. The only reason why we can even
cellent new book Nigerian Images, that talk about African unity is that when
this arbitrary action has proved as lucky, we get together we have a manageable
in terms of African art history, as any number of languages with which to

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communicate-English, French, and
Arabic.
The other day I had a visit from
Joseph Kariuki of Kenya. Although I
had read some of his poems and he had
read my novels, we had not met before.
It didn't seem to matter. In fact, I had
met him through his poems, especially ........;
thro'ugh his love poem "Come Away
My Love," in which he captures in so
few words the trials and tensions of an
African in love with a white girl in
Britain:

Come away, my love,from streets "r :

4here unkind eyes divide
And shop windows reflect our difference.

By contrast, when I was traveling in

East Africa in I960 and went to the
home of the late Shabaan Robert, the
Swahili poet of Tanganyika, things were
different. We spent some time talking
about writing, but there was no real
contact. I knew from all accounts that I
was talking to an important writer, but
just how important I had no idea. He
gave me two books of his poems which
I treasure but cannot read-until I have
learned Swahili. tion to appreciate the value of the in- "I could not help

And there are scores of languages I heritance. Or we may go on resenting being amused by

the curious
would want to learn if it were possible. it, because it came as part of a package
circumstance in
Where am I to find the time to learn thedeal that included many other items of
which Conrad, a
half dozen or so Nigerian languages, doubtful value, especially the atrocities
Pole, writing in
each of which can sustain a literature? I of racial arrogance and prejudice which
English, could
am afraid it cannot be done. These lan- may yet set the world on fire. But let us
produce African
guages will just have to develop as trib- not, in rejecting the evil, throw out the
literature."
utaries to feed the one central language good with it.
API Wide World
enjoying nationwide currency. Today, Last year I was traveling in Brazil,
for good or ill, that language is English. meeting Brazilian writers and artists. A
Tomorrow it may be something else, number of the writers I spoke to were
although I very much doubt it. concerned about the restrictions im-
Those of us who have inherited the posed on them by their use of the Por-
English language may not be in a posi- tuguese language. I remember a poet

ENGLISH AND THE AFRICAN WRITER 345

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saying she had given serious thought to are not writers. We do have enough
writing in French! And yet their prob- examples of writers who have per-
lem is not half as difficult as ours. Por- formed the feat of writing effectively in
tuguese may not have the universal cur- a second language. And I am not think-
rency of English or French, but at least ing of the obvious names like Conrad.
it is the national language of Brazil, with It would be mnore germane to our sub-
her eighty million or so people, to say ject to choose African examples.
nothing of the people of Portugal, The first name that comes to my
Angola, Mozambique, and so on. mind is Olaudah Equiano, better
Of Brazilian authors I have only known as Gustavus Vassa, the African.
read, in translation, one novel by Jorge Equiano was an Igbo-from the village
Amado, who is not only Brazil's leading of Iseke in the Orlu division of Eastern
novelist, but one of the most important Nigeria, I believe. He was sold as a slave
writers in the world. From that one at a very early age and transported to
novel, Gabriella, I was able to glimpse America. Later he bought his freedom
something of the exciting Afro-Latin and lived in England. In I789 he pub-
culture which is the pride of Brazil, a lished his life story, a beautifully writ-
culture quite unlike any other. Jorge ten document which, among other
Amado is only one of the many writers things, set down for the Europe of his
Brazil has produced. At their national time something of the life and habit of
writers' festival, there were literally his people in Africa, in an attempt to
hundreds of them. But the work of the counteract the lies and slander invented
vast majority will be closed to the rest of by some Europeans to justify the slave
the world forever, including no doubt trade.
the work of some excellent writers. Coming nearer to our time, we may
There is certainly a great advantage in recall the attempts in the first quarter of
writing in a world language. this century by West African national-
I think I have said enough to give an ists to come together and press for a
indication of my thinking on the im- greater say in the management of their
portance of the world language that own affairs. One of the most eloquent
history has forced down our throats. of that band was The Honorable Casely
Now let us look at some of the most Hayford of the Gold Coast. His presi-
serious handicaps. And let me say dential address to the National Con-
straightaway that one of the most seri- gress of British West Africa in I925 was
ous handicaps is not the one people talk memorable not only for its sound com-
about most often: namely, that it is im- mon sense, but as a fine example of el-
possible for anyone ever to use a second egant prose. The Governor of Nigeria
language as effectively as his first. This at the time was compelled to take no-
assertion is half truth and half bogus tice and he did so in characteristic style:
mystique. Of course, it is true that the he called Hayford's Congress "a self-
vast majority of people are happier selected and self-appointed congrega-
with their first language than with any tion of educated African gentlemen."
other. But then, the majority of people We may derive some wry amusement

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from the fact that British Colonial ad- his mother, walking about in the dark,
ministrators learned very little in the moves her simple belongings:
following quarter of a century. But
Out of the run of water
at least they did learn in the end-
That like ants filing out of the wood
which is more than one can say for
Will scatter and gain possession
some others.
Of the floor ...
It is when we come to what is com-
monly called creative literature that I think that the picture of water
doubts seem to arise. Obi Wali, whose spreading on the floor "like ants filing
article, "The Dead End of African Lit- out of the wood" is beautiful. Of
erature," I referred to earlier, has this course, if you have never made fire
to say: "Until these writers and their with faggots, you may miss it. But
Western midwives accept the fact that Clark's inspiration derives from the
any true African literature must be writ- same source that gave birth to the say-
ten in African languages, they are ing that a man who brings home ant-
merely pursuing a dead end, which can ridden faggots must be ready for the
only lead to sterility, uncreativity, and lizards' visit.
frustration." I see no sign of sterility anywhere
But far from leading to sterility, the here.What I do see is a new voice com-
work of many new African writers is ing out of Africa, speaking of African
full of the most exciting possibilities. experience in a world-wide language.
Take this, from Christopher Okigbo's So my answer to the question, "Can an
"Limits": African ever learn English well enough
to be able to use it effectively in cre-
Suddenly becoming talkative
ative writing?" is certainly, "Yes." If on
like weaverbird
the other hand you ask, "Can he ever
Summoned at offside of
learn to use it like a native speaker?" I
dream remembered
should say, "I hope not." It is neither
Between sleep and waking,
necessary nor desirable for him to be
I hang up my egg-shells
able to do so. The price a world lan-
To you of palm grove,
guage must be prepared to pay is sub-
Upon whose bamboo towers hang
mission to many different kinds of use.
Dripping with yesterupwine
The African writer should aim to use
A tiger mask and nude spear ... English in a way that brings out his
message best without altering the lan-
Queen of the damp halflight,
guage so much that its value as a me-
I have had my cleansing,
dium of international exchange will be
Emigrant with air-borne nose,
lost. He should aim at fashioning an
The he-goat-on-heat.
English that is at once universal and able
Or take the poem "Night Rain," in to carry his peculiar experience. I have
which J. P Clark captures so well the in mind here the writer who has some-
fear and wonder felt by a child as rain thing new, something different, to say.
clamors on the thatch roof at night, and The nondescript writer has little to tell

ENGLISH AND THE AFRICAN WRITER 347

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us, anyway, so he might as well tell it those people-just to be on the safe
in conventional language and get it side in case the new religion develops.
over with. If I may use an extravagant One has to move with the times or else
simile, he is like a man offering a small, one is left behind. I have a hunch that
nondescript, routine sacrifice for which those who fail to come to terms with
a chick, or less, will do. A serious writer the white man-may well regret their lack
must look for an animal whose blood of foresight."
can match the power of his offering. The material is the same. But the
In this respect, Amos Tutuola is a form of the one is in character and the
natural. A good instinct has turned his other is not. It is largely a matter of in-
apparent hlnguistic limitation into a wea-stinct, but judgment comes into it, too.
pon of great strength-a half-strange di- You read quite often nowadays of the
alect that serves him perfectly in the problem of the African writer having
evocation of his bizarre world. His last first to think in his mother tongue and
book (to my mind, his finest) is proof then translate what he has thought into
enough that one can make even an im- English. If it were such a simple, me-
perfectly learned second language do chanical process, I would agree that it
amazing things. In this book, The was pointless-the kind of eccentric
Feather Woman of the Jungle, Tutuola's pursuit you might expect to see in a
superb storytelling is at last cast in the modern Academy of Lagado; and such
episodic form which he handles best, a process could not possibly produce
instead of being painfully stretched on some of the exciting poetry and prose
the rack of the novel. which is already appearing.
From a natural to a conscious artist: The real question is not whether Af-
myself, in fact. Allow me to quote a ricans could write in English, but
small example from Arrow of God which whether they ought to. Is it right that
may give some idea how I approach a man should abandon his mother
the use of English. The Chief Priest is tongue for someone else's? It looks like
telling one of his sons why it is neces- a dreadful betrayal, and produces a
sary to send him to church: "I want one guilty feeling.
of my sons to join these people and be But for me there is no other choice.
my eyes there. If there is nothing in it I have been given this language and I
you will come back. But if there is intend to use it. I hope, though, that
something there you will bring home there always will be men, like the late
my share. The world is like a Mask, Chief Fagunwa, who will choose to
dancing. If you want to see it well you write in their native tongue and ensure
do not stand in one place. My spirit tells that our ethnic literatures will flourish
me that those who do not befriend the side by side with the national ones. For
white man today will be saying,'Had those of us who opt for English, there
we known .. .'tomorrow." is much work ahead and much excite-
Now supposing I had put it another ment.

way. Like this, for instance: "I am send- Writing in the London Observer re-
ing you as my representative among cently,James Baldwin said:

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My quarrel with English language has been
that the language refiected none of my expe-
rience. But now I began to see the matter in
quite another way.... Perhaps the language
was not my own because I had never at-
tempted to use it, had only learned to imitate
it. If this were so, then it might be made to
bear the burden of my experience if I could
find the stamina to challenge it, and me, to
such a test.

I recognize, of course, that Baldwin's

problem is not exactly mine, but I feel
that the English language will be able to
carry the weight of my African expe-
rience. But it will have to be a new
English, still in full communion with
its ancestral home, but altered to suit
its new African surroundings.

ENGLISH AND THE AFRICAN WRITER 349

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