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There Was A Country by Chinua Achebe: My Review!

Why would I review an Author’s personal account of the realities of his time on a page that deals with fiction and development issues? Drawing from a background of literature and history, I believe that  the book ‘There was a Achebe_review1Country’ by Chinua Achebe gives deeper insight into the development of the country Nigeria. It gives relevance to the past and the future of our world perhaps projecting the need of a better perspective for younger generation trying to understand their root.
This book comes littered with thought provoking poems that gives the right ambience to the issues discussed. It speaks of an era when renowned authors responded to development issues using fiction writing that produced satiric works like ‘Before the Black out’ by Wole Soyinka and Man of the People by Chinua Achebe amongst others. It tells of the role of a writer in social and national development. Chinua Achebe emphasizes that ‘if a society is ill, the writer has a responsibility to point it out’. It highlights the political position of creative writing in the advancement of development in any era.
Beyond this, the book indeed has placed a moral lens on how we as young people view our history and our past leaders (villains and heroes alike). It helps one position the intentions of the many giant nations, especially the western nation in the development of Nigeria. It is here to help us look through our national pathologies and indeed unlearn things that will stop ugly history from repeating.
The Biafran war remains a very political issue; it is not spoken of without raising a tribal dust. Its realities are barelyBLM-Biafra-Flag-Waving-Large known to people like me who were born three or four decades ago. For most of us, Biafra was that war that failed to divide Nigeria; it’s when the people of Ibo descents wanted a country of their own. Not many of us have strived to understand clearly the roots of this desired separation. Perhaps it has been politically hidden in our education. As the Author clearly asked, ‘why has the war not been discussed, or taught to the young, fourty years after its end?’
Reading this book, momentarily estranged me from my generation and I kindled to the life and truth of the Author’s generation, it gave my life more depth, meaning and resonance. I understand the war began not just as a result of belligerency raised by some primitive Ibo tribe. It was not a war between progressive nationalist and retrogressive tribal bigots. By Achebe’s projections, it started with a military coup that was misconstrued and given a tribal colour, it was stirred by a pogrom committed severally against a group. It was fuelled by manifold rivalry allowed by a complacent government.
When you read of the Asaba and Calabar Massacre, amongst others followed by the many pogroms that preceded it in Nigeria, you may like myself be tempted to ask if an apology by the incumbent leaders at the time was enough? Did this belated apology change the fact that there was genocide in Biafra? Will it change the alterations their acts had done to the present day people and their families who as the children of yesterday watched their father and brother’s Chinua-Achebe10--AFP-bloods splashing on their faces and settling in violation on the earth?
I am not trying to raise a settled dust, No! The dusts are not settled! Again and again they rise with the tornadoes of many injustice and cycles of inter-ethnic and inter-religious killings littered all over Nigeria. They are there in the life and family of the many Ibo fathers, who were Biafran casualties, who wake up spontaneously angry, violent and abusive to wives and children for reasons they do not know. Perhaps they still duck under cover, hear the howls of pain, picture Biafran babies with washed out ribs and blown out bellies starved into submission in a landscape where the air is heavy with odours of blood. Hmmnn…to the children of yesterday, there is a cry for justice. To the children of today, there is a hunger for peace. But there will be no peace without justice.
Achebe’s personal accounts, gave an insight into the genesis of election rigging (another national cancer) as an eclectic seed of the West. The manipulations of the embittered British Colonists aided the transfer of power to the then most conservative elements in the country hence inspiring the perpetual death of faith in genuine democracy. The character of the independence given to the country Nigeria came with so much ease that one would wonder if it were not a Greek gift.
13201_biafrapound1_1_jpg52d5260fbadee7189d2c5a2cc71cdbe7This book showcased landmark events that could have catalyzed development in Africa. But rather our leaders compromised or altered them with mediocre thinking which enshrined our government. Perhaps we may need to ask what our acclaimed altruistic leaders had done with the ingenuity of the Biafran scientist and think-tanks who fourty decades ago, could pilot planes and generate technologies they used to fight their cause. These people survived for years refining their own oil and maintaining their vehicle with no western aid or resources. What happened to the indigenous skills of this group of people who did what the Europeans may have tagged impossible for Africa in that time? In three years of the war, necessity gave birth to great inventions which if integrated into national development could advance a nation and perhaps a continent. But alas, we buried them all, we buried true African independence with the memories of men and women en-masse that died for theirbook1 faith.
The late writer paid his last due by putting in our hands the gift of a little history book and now I can confidently say that ‘There was a Country’! I am always of the opinion that our African fathers failed us by their choices and decisions in a revolutionary era. Now I am tempted to say that my generation may be on the verge of failing our children by being complacent and not questioning many past and present conventions, for fear that we will raise another dust! But must Biafra come again?
 
 
 
 

By Adaobi Nkeokelonye

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8 Comments

  1. Victoria

    Ada, you have an amazing mastery of words. A gift/skill that I pray earnestly will be found in our present generation of university undergraduates before it’s too late.
    There was a Country kept me awake for two nights early this year; not because it took that long to read but because I paused at many moments to sigh and exhale and sometimes … weep. I have read as many Biafra stories as there are but none moved me with the stark injustice that was the Biafran war and now the handling of its history; the devilish manipulation of our future by Britain and the missed opportunities to build a true nation in Nigeria. I saw the book as Chinua Achebe’s last valiant attempt to warn Nigeria (as a country and as people) to step back from the precipice that ethnic bigotry and corruption has brought us to. As I read the final pages, I kept reflecting on where we are today as a nation and I wept with a strong sense of dread that even Chinua may have known his warning was too late. Ada, it appears to me that you may have observed this futility as, unlike your previous ‘offerings’; I am missing a positive note.

    • Dear Vicky, very kind of you to read it. I appreciate. And yes, no one reads this book without wailing for the unjust foundation our country is hanging on. I feel particularly sad at the calibre of leaders who today constitute our list of national heroes. This book brought their history to judgement and I must confess that they have shamefully been found wanting.

  2. Uche Bank Anthony

    Ada, you blew me away. Very well written. Mistress of imagery. One of the best reviews of this book. Well done Sister.

  3. Deji

    This review is superb. I hail you…

  4. Godfrey Odogwu

    Omalicha,
    Your review of China Achebe’s There Was A Country is a master piece. You conveyed the salient points of the author’s mind with ease, yet sufficiently stirred the emotions of the reader as to wonder what more important lessons of the death of a nation can surpass the lessons of the tragedy of Biafra. Our hypocritical leaders of those dark years, many of whom in their 80s today, continue to hide their heads in the sand, living in denial of the tragedy, rather than working hard to turn this tragedy into a platform for national rebirth and true reconciliation as harbingers of genuine unity, peace and tranquility. I was a 13 year old when this tragedy was unleashed on us, young and old. Now at over 60yrs of age, I can hear renewed sounds and echoes of another impending Biafra war. It gets louder everyday. Yet those who hold political power and who are in the position to initiate peaceful changes that would set Biafrans free, are positioning themselves for another bloodbath. Regrettably, their conquering mentality is gradually subduing rational thinking and the fact of life that you can’t always have your way. I believe that the contents of the last chapter of the history of Biafra is very much in the distant future.
    Thanks for this offering. Even Achebe would be proud of the sheer power of your expression and the magic of your command of his story lines.

    • Thanks so much for your very rich and validating comment.
      I can’t stop appreciating Achebe for telling me what my father couldn’t about the history of my descent.
      I wish indeed that we learnt from this but sadly we poured it all away. I am however happy that children of Biafran descent are beginning to immortalise it in very credible ways home and abroad.
      Thanks again, I appreciate.

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