By Harry Olufunwa
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Prof Chinua Achebe
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Professor Chinua
Achebe’s life and career reflect the growth and development of Nigeria itself.
Son of first-generation Christian converts, he grew up at the very crossroads
of cultural change, when the novelty of western culture crystallised into a
desirable way of life. As one of the brightest minds of his generation, he was
at the core of that critical mass of intelligent and enlightened Nigerians who
made observers so confident in the country’s prospects as an African
superpower.
And he certainly lived
up to those lofty expectations. His Things Fall Apart, published in 1958 is
widely accepted as the most influential African novel ever written: its
delineation of the complex interactions between indigenous and foreign cultures
has rarely been bettered. His reputation was cemented with the subsequent
publication of novels like No Longer at Ease, Arrow of God, A Man of the People
and Anthills of the Savannah, as well as several thoughtful essays which sought
to explain his understanding of Africa and its culture.
Given Achebe’s primary
identity as an author, it is perhaps fitting that it is a book which has made
him one of The Nation’s Men of the Year. There Was a Country: A Personal
History of Biafra, his memoir of the Nigerian Civil War, has stirred
controversy, inflamed passions and whipped up sentiment to a degree unheard of
in Nigerian writing.
Like the book itself,
Achebe’s choice of title is provocative. “There Was a Country” raises obvious
questions. Was there a country? What animated it, gave it life and form? If
“There Was a Country” in the past, “Is There a Country” now? What kind of
country is it, particularly compared to the country that “was”?
Achebe’s book revisits a
crucial aspect of Nigerian history in an attempt to understand what happened,
why it happened, and what its consequences are. What distinguishes his effort
from others is the depth of feeling and the courage he brings to the topic.
Ever since the last shot was fired, there has been a conspiracy of silence on
all sides, a determined attempt to forget that the conflict ever happened. It
was first seen in the pious mantra of “No Victor, No Vanquished” peddled by the
Gowon administration and was entrenched in the complacent attitudes that
quickly developed in reaction to it.
In a country where it is
far more profitable to ignore the past, There Was a Country has dragged
Nigeria, kicking and screaming, back to a history it would prefer to forget.
The ensuing debate, raucous and unmannerly though it has been, has compelled
Nigerians to look more intensively at themselves than before. In a country
where questions of justice and equity are often subordinated to the
“turn-by-turn” ethos of Nigeria’s cake-sharing political process, Achebe’s book
has compelled a new focus on fundamentals. The questions Nigerians now ask
themselves are as terrible as they are necessary: To what extent did ethnic
animosity and private ambition turn an avoidable conflict into an inevitable
war? What does genocide mean? What is a war crime? How did the conflict affect
the country and its people?
While much of the
discussion has degenerated into a heated argument over the actions of specific
personalities and ethnicities, the book’s main thesis is incontrovertible: the
fallout of Nigeria’s Civil War cannot be glossed over, or forgotten, or
ignored, or wished away, or put aside. It is simply too significant to a
coherent understanding of how Nigeria is, who Nigerians are, and what they can
be. The war speaks to the country’s skewed structure and the tensions that
characterize relationships between its constituent ethnic groups. The manner in
which it was prosecuted carries harsh lessons about the dire consequences of
political and military overreach. Its lingering after-effects carry grim
portents for Nigeria’s future stability.
The simple truth is that
no nation can overlook a conflict that resulted in between one and three
million deaths, most of whom were non-combatants. The very enormity of the
tragedy cries out for attention: far too many innocents on all sides died for
their deaths to be in vain. If the Americans and the Spanish are looking into the
causes and courses of older civil conflicts, there can be no reason why Nigeria
should not do it. Hard truths will be told; guilt and innocence, culpability
and exculpation, victory and defeat could become so intertwined as to be
indistinguishable from one another. But the country will have made progress in
the vital task of understanding itself, and will thus be the better for it.
For asking
hitherto-unanswered questions, for uttering the supposedly unmentionable, for
demanding that Nigeria live up to its own noble ideals, Chinua Achebe is The
Nation’s Third Runner-Up for Man of the Year, 2012.
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