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CHAPTER ONE Heart of Darkness, Ch. Ii. 3. Leo Africanus, the History Notes CHAPTER ONE 1. Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness (1902), ch. ii. 2. Heart of Darkness, ch. ii. 3. Leo Africanus, The History and Description of Africa, translated by John Pory, edited by Robert Brown (London: Hakluyt Society, 1896), Vol. I, p. 187. 4. Useful discussions of these ideas are to be found in Michael Crowder, The Story of Nigeria, fourth edition (London: Faber & Faber, 1978); Philip D. Curtin, The Image of Africa: British Ideas and Action, 1780-1850 (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1964); James S. Coleman, Nigeria: Background to Nationalism (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1958); Nigerian Perspectives, edited by Thomas Hodgkin (London: Oxford University Press, 1960); Dorothy Hammond and Alta Jablow, The Africa That Never Was (New York: Twayne, 1970); Patrick Brantlinger, Rule of Darkness: British Literature and Imperialism, 1830-1914 (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1988). 5. 0. Mannoni, Prospero and Caliban: the Psychology of Colonization, translated by Pamela Powesland (New York: Praeger, 1964). 6. Chinua Achebe, Arrow of God (London: Heinemann, 1974), ch. xi. 7. Morning Yet on Creation Day (London: Heinemann, 1975), pp. 65-70. 8. I am indebted to the works listed in the Bibliography under 'Background Studies' for this brief description of Igbo culture. See, in addition, Achebe's recent account of how he came to write his novels in the Preface to African Trilogy (London: Picador, 1988), a reprinting of his first three novels in one volume. 9. Morning Yet on Creation Day, pp. 93-103. 10. Ibid., pp. 90-92. 11. Jean-Paul Sartre, 'Orphee noir', in Anthologie de la nouvells poesie negreet malgache (Paris: PUF, 1948), p. XX. 12. Morning Yet on Creation Day, p. 61. 13. African Writers on African Writing, edited by G. D. Killam (London: Heinemann, 1973), p. 12. 14. Morning Yet on Creation Day, pp. 19-29. 15. Ibid., p. 9. 16. Ibid., p. 24. 17. Ibid., pp. 42-5. 18. 'The Role of the Writer in a New Nation', Nigeria Magazine (Lagos), 81 (1964), 157. 19. African Writers Talking, edited by Dennis Duerden and Cosmo Pieterse (London: Heinemann, 1975), p. 7. 20. African Writers Talking, p. 13. 21. Morning Yet on Creation Day, p. 82. 196 Notes 197 22. 'The Black Writer's Burden', Presence Africaine, 31 (1966), 135. 23. Morning Yet on Creation Day, p. 15. 24. Bernth Lindfors, 'Achebe on Commitment and African writers', Africa Report (Washington, DC), 3 (March 1970), 16-18. 25. The Trouble with Nigeria (London: Heinemann, 1984), pp. 2, 62. Roland Oliver disputes Achebe's diagnosis in a review which suggests that countries also get the politicians they deserve (The Times Literary Supplement, 12 October 1984, p. 1150). 26. The Trouble with Nigeria, p. 63. For details of the recent political history of Nigeria I am indebted toT. C. McCaskie, 'Nigeria: Recent History', Africa South of the Sahara (London: Europe Publications, 1988), pp. 778-90. 27. They are collected in Hopes and Impediments: Selected Essays 1965- 1987 (London: Heinemann, 1988). Of the 14 essays in this collection five are reprinted from Morning Yet on Creation Day. 28. Hopes and Impediments, p. 12. 29. Ibid., p. 17. 30. Ibid., pp. 43-4. 31. Ibid., p. 36. 32. Ibid., p. 100. 33. Ibid., p. 45. 34. Ibid., p. 110. 35. Ibid., p. 112. 36. Ibid., p. 117. CHAPTER FOUR 1. Arrow ofGod was first published by Heinemann in 1964 and then in their African Writers Series in 1965. In 1974 a revised edition appeared in which the author acknowledged he had removed 'certain structural weaknesses'. Three of the most striking changes are: (a) Obiageli's song in the first edition (pp. 79-80) is reduced to five lines in the revised edition (p. 65). (b) the 18-line continuation of the song in the first edition (p. 80) is omitted in the revised edition. (c) the story of the two boys in the world of the spirits (pp. 235-9) is reduced to a six-line introduction in the revised edition (pp. 190-1). For a detailed analysis of the revisions, see: Robert M. Wren, 'Achebe's Revisions of Arrow of God', Research in African Literatures, 7 (1976), 53-8; and Bruce King, 'The Revised Arrow of God', African Literature Today, 13 (1983), 69-78. 2. In a discussion of his fiction in 1972 (Michel Fabre, 'Chinua Achebe on Arrow of God', The Literary Half-Yearly, 21 (1980), 1-10) Achebe made the following comment on the phrase, 'in the name of the son': There is a bit of parody there, but it is not really parody because Christianity is not a joke, and suddenly what will happen to the 198 Chinua Achebe Ibo culture is not going to be a joke. But there is an even deeper possibility in which the harvest in the name of the son becomes a reversal of the natural order. In the society we have been looking at in this story, you do not do things in the name of the son but in the name of the father. The legitimacy is with the elders, the ancestors, with tradition and age. We now have a new dispensa­ tion in which youth and inexperience earn a new legitimacy. (p. 7). CHAPTER SEVEN 1. For 'Mother Idoto', see Christopher Okigbo' s poem, Heavensgate (1962), 'The Passage'. 2. Idemili's messenger and agent is Eke-Idemili, the royal python, who appears in the conflict between the gods Ulu and Idemili in Arrow of God. CHAPTER EIGHT 1. Morning Yet on Creation Day, p. 94. 2. Ibid., p. 94. 3. Ibid., pp. 67-8. 4. Ibid., p. 90. 5. 'Dereliction'. 6. 'Mango Seedling'. 7. 'Beware, Soul Brother'. 8. 'Beware, Soul Brother'. 9. Morning Yet on Creation Day, p. 94. 10. Hopes and Impediments, p. 96. 11. Hopes and Impediments, p. 45; and John Keats, Letters, ed. M. B. Forman (London: Oxford University Press, 1931), 2 vols, I. 77. 12. Morning Yet on Creation Day, p. 94. 13. Hopes and Impediments, p. 93. 14. Ibid., pp. 115-6. 15. Illuminations, translated Harry Zohn (London: Fontana/Collins, 1973), pp. 83-109. Select Bibliography This bibliography lists only Achebe' s main works and a selection from the large amount of criticism written about him. For a comprehensive list the annual bibliographies of the Journal of Commonwealth Literature should be consulted. Wren (1980) and Innes and Lindfors (1978) contain very useful bibliographies. The latter contains the best collection of critical essays; it is referred to below as Critical Perspectives. Journals which have devoted special issues to Achebe in recent years are: Echos du Commonwealth, 5 (1979-80) on Arrow of God; The Literary Half-Yearly, 21 Ganuary 1980) which also contains an up-to-date bibliography; and Research in African Literatures, 12 (Spring 1981). (I) WORKS BY ACHEBE Things Fall Apart (London: Heinemann, 1958). No Longer at Ease (London: Heinemann, 1960). The Sacrificial Egg and Other Stories (Onitsha: Etudo Ltd, 1962). Arrow of God (London: Heinemann, 1964; second edition, 1974). Chike and the River (London: Cambridge University Press, 1966). [Children's book] A Man of the People (London: Heinemann, 1966). Beware, Soul Brother (Enugu: Nwankwo-Ifejika, 1971; revised and enlarged edition, London: Heinemann, 1972). Girls at War and Other Stories (London: Heinemann, 1972). [Includes the stories in The Sacrificial Egg] (with John Iroaganachi) How the Leopard Got His Claws (Enugu: Nwamife, 1972). [Children's book] Morning Yet on Creation Day (London: Heinemann, 1975). The Drum (Enugu: Fourth Dimension, 1977). [Children's book] The Flute (Enugu: Fourth Dimension, 1977). [Children's book] The Trouble with Nigeria (Enugu: Fourth Dimension, 1983; Heinemann, 1984). Anthills of the Savannah (London: Heinemann, 1987). Hopes and Impediments: Selected Essays 1965-87 (London: Heinemann, 1988). [Reprints five essays from Morning Yet on Creation Day] (II) BACKGROUND STUDIES Basden, G. T., Among the lbos of Southern Nigeria (London: Seeley Service, 1921). --,Niger Ibos (London: Seeley Service, 1938). These two books, written by a missionary, provide an ethnographic picture of the Onitsha Igbo early in this century. 199 200 Chinua Achebe Forde, D. and G. I. Jones, The lbo and lbibio-Speaking Peoples of South-eastern Nigeria (London: International African Institute, 1950). Standard ethno­ graphic survey. Isichei, E. A., A History of the Igbo People (London: Macmillan, 1976). A comprehensive cultural and historical account. Ogbalu, F. Chidozie and E. Nolue Emenanjo, Igbo Language and Culture (lbadan: Oxford University Press, 1975). Interesting on culture, history and proverbs. Uchendu, V. C., The Igbo of Southeast Nigeria (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1965). Accessible account by an Igbo anthropologist. Wauthier, C., The Literature and Thought of Modern Africa, translated Shirley Kay. Second English edition. (London: Heinemann, 1978.) Most com­ prehensive background study of the literature and thought of the period as a whole. Wren, R. M., Achebe's World: the Historical and Cultural Context of the Novels of Chinua Achebe (London: Longman, 1980). Useful material with exten­ sive glossary and bibliography. (III) CRITICISM Booth, ]., Writers and Politics in Nigeria (London: Hodder, 1981). Chapter on No Longer at Ease and A Man of the People. Brown, H. R., 'lgbo Words for the Non-Igbo: Achebe's Artistry in Arrow of God', Research in African Literatures, 12 (1981), 69-85. Brown, L. W., 'Cultural Norms and Modes of Perception in Achebe's Fiction', Research in African Literatures, 3 (1972), 21-35. Achebe's ironic treatment of Western views of Africa. Rpt in Critical Perspectives. Duerden, D. and C. Pieterse (eds), African Writers Talking: A Collection of Radio Interviews (London: Heinemann, 1972). Contains interviews with Achebe. Echeruo, M. ]. C., 'Chinua Achebe', in A Celebration of Black and African Writing, ed. B. King and K. Ogunbesan (lbadan: Oxford University Press, 1975), pp.
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