Chinua Achebe

Your Playlist:

Description

Chinua Achebe is president of the town council in his village in Nigeria, a role that brings him more headaches than honors. He's also a storyteller who hears the music of history, weaves the fabric of memory, and sometimes offends the Emperor as well. His first novel, Things Fall Apart, took the world by storm. Achebe disagrees with the notion that literature should be divorced from the politics and economics of its society. In fact, he states, "It is the storyteller..that makes us what we are, that creates history. In his storytelling role, Achebe serves as the collective memory of his society, chronicling the rough transition of African nations such as Nigeria from colonialism to democracy. In this program with Bill Moyers, Chinua Achebe, a man caught between two worlds, discusses his observations and criticisms of both African and Western politics and culture.