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April 6, 1992. Chinua Achebe with his daughters Chinelo, (L) and Nwando (R), in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. Photographer: Mariana Cook. #ChinuaAchebe“No one is, or should be, so naive as to believe that all the problems of the world will be solved by goodwill and civility alone. Indeed it may well be true that the road to hell is often paved with good intentions. But it is at the same time inconceivable that the road to the other place will be paved with bad intentions.” - #ChinuaAchebe, 1996, speaking at the Bates College commencement ceremony. Here he is pictured with Peter Gomes ‘65. At right are President Donald Harward and famed ornithologist Edmund Wilson. (Marc Glass ’88/Bates College)Flying (for Niyi Osundare)_____________________________________Something in altitude kindles power-thirstMere horse-height suffices the emirBestowing from rich folds of prodigious turbanUpon crawling peasants in the dustRare imperceptible nods enwrappedIn princely boredom. I too have knownA parching of that primordial palate,A quickening to manifest lifeOf a long recessive appetite.Though strapped and manacledThat day I commanded from the pinnacleOf a three-tiered world a bridge befittingThe proud deranged deity I had become.A magic rug of rushing cloudsBillowed and rubbed its white softnessLike practiced houri fingers on my soleAnd through filters of its gauzy fabricRevealed wonders of a metropolisMagic-struck to fairyland proportions.By different adjustments of visionI caused the clouds to floatOver a stilled landscape, over towersAnd masts and smoke-plumed chimneys;Or turned the very earth, unleashedFrom itself, a roaming fugitiveBeneath a constant sky. Then cameA sudden brightness over the world,A rare winter’s smile it was, and printedOn my cloud carpet a black crossSet in an orb of rainbows. To whichSplendid nativity came–who else would comeBut gray unsporting Reason, faithlessPedant offering a bald refractory annunciation?But oh what beauty! What speed!A chariot of night in panic flightFrom Our Royal Proclamation of the ritesOf day! And riding out Our processionOf fantasy We slaked an ancientVestigial greed shriveled by ages of dormancyTill the eyes exhausted by glorious pageantriesReturned to rest on that punyLegend of the life jacket stowed awayOf all places under my seat. Now I think I know why godsAre so partial to heights—to mountainTops and spires, to proud iroko treesAnd thorn-guarded holy bombax,Why petty household divinitiesWill sooner perch on a rude boardStrung precariously from brittle raftersOf a thatched roof than sit squarelyOn safe earth._____________________________________ #1973 #ChinuaAchebe #NiyiOsundare #Poetry #Nigeria (Btw the TNF’s @niyiosundare is temporarily inactive but will return in October).Nigeria: Christmas in Biafra________________________________________This sunked-eyed moment wobblingdown the rocky steepness on brokenbones slowly fearfully to hideousconcourse of gathering sorrows in the valleywill yet become in another year a lostChristmas irretrievable in the heightsits exploding inferno transmutedby cosmic distances to the peacefulnessof a cool twinkling star…. To dead-cellsof that moment came farway sounds of othermen’s carols floating on crackling wavesmocking us. With regret? Hope? Longing? None ofthese, strangely, not even despair ratherdistilling pure transcendental hate…. Beyond the hospital gatethe good nuns had set up a mangerof palms to house a fine plastercastscene at Bethlehem. The HolyFamily was central, serene, the ChildJesus plump wise-looking and rose-cheeked: oneof the magi in keeping with legenda black Othello in sumptuous robes. Otherfigures of men and angels stoodat well-appointed distances fromthe heart of the divine miracleand the usual cattle gazed onin holy wonder…. Poorer than the poor worshipersbefore her who had paid their homagewith pitiful offering of new aluminumcoins that few traders would take anda frayed five-shilling note she onlycrossed herself and prayed open-eyed. Herinfant son flat like a dead lizardon her shoulder his arms and legscauterised by famine was a miracleof its kind. Large sunken eyesstricken past boredom to a flatunrecognising glueyness moped farawaymotionless across her shoulder…. Now her adoration overshe turned him around and pointedat those pretty figures of Godand angels and men and beasts-a spectacle to stir the heartof a child. But all he vouchsafedwas one slow deadpan look of totalunrecognition and he began againto swivel his enormous head awayto mope as before at his empty distance….She shrugged her shoulders, crossedherself again, and took him away._____________________________________ #Poetry #ChinuaAchebe #BiafraAchebe’s ‘Christmas in Biafra and Other Poems’ (1973) feels more “like an American version” (E.C. Ukwu) of ‘Beware Soul Brother’ (1971). 7 new poems appear with the 23 of the earlier text, re-written or revised. “The odd thing about these poems written by the Nigerian novelist of note is that there is so little of Africa in them. The author has apparently assimilated an alien literary tradition as much as is possible: the central referents and symbols are those of western culture (Christianity, World War II); even the poems about the tragedies of war have more the detached tones of an restrained observer than the passionate bitterness one might expect from someone who worked in the Ministry of Information of ill-fated Biafra.” - Kirkus Review.“The only thing we have learnt from experience is that we learn nothing from experience.” Let sleeping dogs lie, let us turn our attention to the matter at hand, Nigeria is a cesspool of corruption. How do we bridge art, literature, social-media into active social-political discourse, rather than nail our differences to the cross over and again because of a White Man’s Prize?_____________________________________________March 10, 1974. Visiting professor in English and Afro-American studies Achebe Chinua laces his fingers while speaking as he sits behind a desk in an office or classroom. He is at the University of Mass. for the Chancellor's lecture series, Alumnus V/2 : A/M '74 feature". Courtesy of the Univ. of Mass. Archives. All Rights Reserved.March 9, 1988. Achebe Chinua, once a visiting professor, signs a copy of his book "Anthills of the Savannah" while attending a reception in his honor. Three unidentified women and an unidentified man look on. All Rights Reserved: Special Collections and University Archives, University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries. _____________________________________ #ChinuaAchebe #anthillsofthesavannahMay 10, 1988. Professor Chinua Achebe with the great African-American poet Sonia Sanchez, who is associated with the Black Arts Movement, at Temple University. ______________________________________________Photo courtesy of Temple University Libraries’ Special Collections Research Center, All Rights Reserved. #ChinuaAchebe #SoniaSanchez #Poetry #BlackArtsMovement1971. Filming ‘Bullfrog in the Sun’ starring Princess Toro, Johnny Sekka and Orlando Martins. The film was a combination of Things Fall Apart and No Longer at Ease._________________________________Director: Hans Jürgen Pohland (@modernartfilmarchiv)Screenplay: #ChinuaAchebeStars: Elizabeth of Toro,Country: Nigeria | West GermanyLanguage: EnglishDuration: 1 hr 30 min (90 min)Produceder: Francis Oladele, Hans Jürgen Pohland, Wolf Schmidt.Cinematography: Michael J. DavisProduction Sound Mixer: Ivan Sharrock“You cannot plant greatness as you plant yams or maize. Who ever planted an iroko tree - the greatest tree in the forest? You may collect all the iroko seeds in the world, open the soil and put them there. It will be in vain. The great tree chooses where to grow and we find it there, so it is with the greatness in men” - #NoLongerAtEase #ChinuaAchebe“A basic element of [Nigeria’s leadership] misfortune is the absence of political thought of our founding fathers — a tendency to pious materialistic woolliness and self-centred pedestrianism.” #ChinuaAchebe #TheTroubleWithNigeriaThat will do it. #RIPFela #RIPKen #RIPMandela ......... #RIPChinua
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