VIDEO: Chinua Achebe

AN EVENING WITH

CHINUA ACHEBE
Through his fiction and non-fiction works, Nigerian author Chinua Achebe has sought to repair the damage done to the continent of Africa and its people as a result of European colonization. This is best exemplified in his most famous novel "Things Fall Apart," one of the first African novels written in English to achieve national acclaim. Set in the 1890s, the novel deals with the impact of British colonialism on the traditional Igbo society in Nigeria. Published in 1958 -- just two years before the end of a century of British rule in Nigeria -- the novel celebrated its 50th anniversary of publication in 2008. "An Evening with Chinua Achebe" featured the author reading from his celebrated work.
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teachingliteracy: Chinua Achebe: 12 Quotes On Stories If you don’t like someone’s story, write your own. To me, being an intellectual doesn’t mean knowing about intellectual issues; it means taking pleasure in them. Nobody can teach me who I am. You can describe parts of me, but who I am - and what I need - is something I have to find out myself. My weapon is literature. People create stories create people; or rather stories create people create stories. Storytellers are a threat. They threaten all champions of control. It is the storyteller who makes us what we are, who creates history. The storyteller creates the memory that the survivors must have - otherwise their surviving would have no meaning. The emperor would prefer the poet to keep away from politics, the emperor’s domain, so that he can manage things the way he likes. We cannot trample upon the humanity of others without devaluing our own. If you only hear one side of the story, you have no understanding at all. The only thing we have learnt from experience is that we learn nothing from experience.  Stories serve the purpose of consolidating whatever gains people or their leaders have made or imagine they have made in their existing journey thorough the world.  Chinua Achebe is a Nigerian novelist, poet, professor, and critic. He is best known for his first novel and magnum opus, Things Fall Apart, which has sold more than 8 million copies around the world, and been translated into 50 languages. Achebe is the most translated African writer of all time.Nelson Mandela referred to Achebe as a writer ‘in whose company the prison walls fell down’.Achebe is the recipient of over 30 honorary degrees. He has been awarded the Man Booker International Prize, the Commonwealth Poetry Prize, an Honorary Fellowship of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Nigerian National Order of Merit. by Amanda Patterson From Writers Write

teachingliteracy:

Chinua Achebe:

12 Quotes On Stories

  1. If you don’t like someone’s story, write your own.

  2. To me, being an intellectual doesn’t mean knowing about intellectual issues; it means taking pleasure in them.

  3. Nobody can teach me who I am. You can describe parts of me, but who I am - and what I need - is something I have to find out myself.

  4. My weapon is literature.

  5. People create stories create people; or rather stories create people create stories.

  6. Storytellers are a threat. They threaten all champions of control.

  7. It is the storyteller who makes us what we are, who creates history. The storyteller creates the memory that the survivors must have - otherwise their surviving would have no meaning.

  8. The emperor would prefer the poet to keep away from politics, the emperor’s domain, so that he can manage things the way he likes.

  9. We cannot trample upon the humanity of others without devaluing our own.

  10. If you only hear one side of the story, you have no understanding at all.

  11. The only thing we have learnt from experience is that we learn nothing from experience. 

  12. Stories serve the purpose of consolidating whatever gains people or their leaders have made or imagine they have made in their existing journey thorough the world. 

Chinua Achebe is a Nigerian novelist, poet, professor, and critic. He is best known for his first novel and magnum opus, Things Fall Apart, which has sold more than 8 million copies around the world, and been translated into 50 languages. Achebe is the most translated African writer of all time.
Nelson Mandela referred to Achebe as a writer ‘in whose company the prison walls fell down’.
Achebe is the recipient of over 30 honorary degrees. He has been awarded the Man Booker International Prize, the Commonwealth Poetry Prize, an Honorary Fellowship of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Nigerian National Order of Merit.

by Amanda Patterson

From Writers Write

(via 37thstate)

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