SHALLY A.

                                                    Chinua Achebe has been described as "the grandfather of African fiction" who "lit up a path for many others." I met this extraordinary Nigerian novelist, poet, and professor when I read his debut novel,  Things Fall Apart . The book was a compulsory literary text in secondary school and has been translated into more than 50 languages. It has sold over 8 million copies worldwide. According to Wikipedia, the book is the most widely read book in modern African literature. It is quite fascinating that  Things Fall Apart  and most of Achebe's novels rely heavily on the Ibo tradition and the effect of Christian influences on traditional African values during and after the colonial era. He uses lots of Ibo folk stories and proverbs to tell his stories. His success partly arose from his background, culture and environment. Lesson One Your culture and background influence your thinking and views.

They say:   In Africa Spiders crawl high Honest men, dragged down Leaders’ tongues drool lies Man must know man to succeed Merit dies; 'drop brown envelope abeg.' ********    In Africa Riches are trampled on the streets Papers, cans, nylons, litter in death And curl together in decay Till mosquito’s eat away our homes ******** In Africa We seek White Man’s aid Proclaiming, ‘ it’s free, take it all. ’ Oga, awof dey run belle    (greed causes untold pain) ********   In Africa Forget the price of freedom Love us, feed us True love empowers, not just aids ********     In Africa The lands are alive with abundance Yet land livers die in poverty ********   In Africa The gun power cuts off man’s humanity We point bullets at victims to save the heads of tormentors ******** I say:  In Africa Sad stories burden we Yet