![]() ![]() By the Nigerian tradition in literature, I further mean that tradition which takes its roots from our literature and folkways and is given ballast by vigorous and robust recourse to our folk culture. It subsumes other narrative techniques employed by other Nigerian writers, especially Achebe to highlight the Nigerian worldview in literature. By that tradition I mean in this study the literary conventions and habits of expression deployed by Achebe in the practice of his art. It was Chinua Achebe who originated and finally defined what I shall call, the "Nigerian tradition" in the novel. Achebe is as native to Nigeria as garri and okro soup, just as Hawthorne is to America as native as apple-pie, Tolstoy as native to Russia as vodka, and Shakespeare as native of England as the long bow and the institution of the monarchy. I have in mind the kind of symbiotic relationship between England and Shakespeare, Russia and Tolstoy, the United States of America and Hawthorne or Melville, Kenya and Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o. Achebe is definitely the father of the African novel.Ĭhinua Achebe has the singular honour and privilege of numbering among world class writers who define their nations, whose country of origin evokes their names. So that other African writers had no choice but to look up to him. Key words: Chinua Achebe, indigenous Nigerian traditions, political leadership, social criticism.Ĭhinua Achebe's incomparable genius was definitely boosted and assisted by what I term the advantage of an early start. But will the elite rise up to the challenge? Achebe is a writer to whom we are grateful. With the failure of both leaders of the old order and of the military regimes, Achebe places his hopes on the elite on whom the duty of salvaging Nigeria from her leadership problems rests. He had equally dealt with the problem of poor leadership in his earlier fiction where he created leaders who failed their people. This is made clear in The Trouble with Nigeria in which he concentrated on the issue of poor leadership in Nigeria. It is understood that both in his fictional and non-fictional works plus his interviews and other critical essays, Achebe is at heart a social critic. Achebe's achievements were indeed so fascinating that a "School of Achebe" arose. ![]() ![]() And by making capital of what is indigenous in both Nigerian and African literature, Achebe established the total rehabilitation of the image and dignity of the African personality bruised and damaged by the colonial master. It was Chinua Achebe who established and defined the Nigerian tradition in the novel, a tradition that takes its roots from our folk culture and creatively makes use of our proverbs, legends, folktales, and local myths, thus giving expression to our national culture. This article argues that the genius of Chinua Achebe as a novelist was definitely assisted by the advantage of an early start so that other African writers had no choice but to look up to him. ![]()
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