To fix your gaze on African literature is to discover, in the first place, a Nigerian narrative on the cusp of that narrative of the great continent. Because since the middle of the XNUMXth century it was Chinua achebe who began to present to the general public an African universe full of vindication, of an approach to a tribal spirit already abandoned in the rest of the world and, therefore, to a sociological and spiritual richness that is difficult to rescue in other latitudes...
He is already followed in the XNUMXst century by the other illustrious Nigerian narrator, a Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie even more intense in the critical part that supports the relations of the first world with the third world... Thus, the etymology of the common country of these authors (with its reference to the Niger River, but also essentially to the black race), reaches into literature shared a kind of nuclear foundation. From the most remote and essential Africa for the world thanks to the two writers.
Returning to Achebe, beyond the novels that catapulted him to world fame, his creative side also includes poetry and essays. Hence, once he reached the heart of the West with his firm voice, he became a fundamental character on which any intention of social reunion with Africa historically exploited and abandoned to its fate pivoted.
Top 3 best novels of Chinua Achebe
Everything falls apart
In Mel Gibson's film Apocalypto, the protagonist manages to escape the clutches of cruel Mayan raiders. When he is finally free with his family, he discovers how the ships of Christopher Columbus arrive on the coast ...
On the other side of the world this story reflects the same harshness of the misfortune made by conquest and colonization. It is not that what already exists was better, but the mere idea of a future given over to exploitation and interests, capable of keeping an entire people under the yoke of tyrants by the simple will of maintaining exploitation, is certainly disconcerting ...
Okonkwo is a great warrior, whose fame spreads throughout West Africa, but by accidentally killing a great man of his clan he is forced to atone for his guilt with the sacrifice of his stepson and exile. When he is finally able to return to his village, he finds it packed with British missionaries and governors. His world is crumbling, and he can't help but rush into tragedy.
This passionate parable about a proud man who, forlorn, witnesses the ruin of his people was published in 1958 and has since sold more than ten million copies in XNUMX languages.
I'd be glad of another death
Obi Okonkwo returns to Lagos full of ideas and noble principles after studying in Great Britain. But he will soon be forced to temper his moral values and succumb to the pressures of his country's corrupt society.
Obi Okonkwo is an idealistic young man who, thanks to the privileges of having been educated in England, returns to Nigeria to work in the civil service. However, he comes across a government that operates with dirty tricks and bribes. When, to his parents' chagrin, he falls in love with the wrong girl, he is plunged into emotional and financial chaos. Easy money is now irreplaceable, and Obi falls into a trap from which he will find it very difficult to escape.
Arrow of god
Achebe's bibliography is dotted with a diversity of novels that take us into visions of tribal Africa, a sum of microcosms that make up a rich universe from which to rediscover notions of the human being clearly addressed in that life without the accessory, without the trivial of our modern existence...
Story of the high priest of Ulu who, armed with his beliefs, is willing to threaten and annihilate by feeling untouchable because he is the arrow in the bow of his God ... But his tribe will not make it so easy for him.
Ezeulu, the high priest of the god Ulu, is revered in the six villages of Umuaro, but begins to see his authority threatened by his rivals in the tribe, by the government of the whites and even by his own family.
Yet he feels untouchable: isn't he the arrow in his god's bow? Armed with his beliefs, he is willing to lead his people, even if that means destroying and annihilating, but perhaps the people will not let themselves be dominated so easily.
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