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Gerd Meuer
Interview: C H I N U A A C H E B E
March 1991 - on his 60ieth birthday, University of Nsukka
Qu:
Professor Achebe, I still vividly remember when I came for my first interview with you. It must have been in the first week of September in 1965, when you were at Nigerian External Broadcasting in Lagos. And I came to do an interview prior to the fifth anniversary of Nigeria's independance on the first of of October. And I came to ask you: ‘Sorry, you as a writer what do you think is wrong with Nigeria?’ I was a student then at the University of Nigeria then , at the old university...1965. We have gone a long way since then ...200 scholars who have assembled here to celebrate the "Eagle on Iroko", who is perched high on that tree. But somehow I got the feeling that sometimes these contributions sounded almost like an obituary, as if Chinua Achebe was going to pass away...
Achebe:
Well, you never know...(laughter).
Qu:
It struck me as something very strange, as if you were being weighed down by footnotes...
Ach:
Well, I think that is inevitable in any celebration. I didn't feel that way myself. The thought in my mind is gratitude that so many people, friends and well-wishers, are here, celebrating what we have done. It's not me. That is probably what makes the difference really, and I am not saying this because it is nice to say. It's really not me in person, sixty or sixty-five. It's not that. It's what we have in common, what we have laboured to bring about that is being celebrated.vSo for me that's something that is ever-lasting.
Qu:
We know you Mr. Achebe. For you that is alright. But didn't you sometimes have the feeling that it is a bit too much praise in this celebration...you yourself said this...and also there was all the time this more than akward comparison bwith your brothe Wole Soyinka…Xan't Nigeria acconmodate 'two Eagles' or even more?
ACH:
Well, I don't know, I don't know how to answer that...Is this not my sixtieth birthday? ...What is wrong with that? What is wrong with having a sixtieth birthday celebrated here as a kind of tribute to what I have done in the aerea of African Literature? Most of these things come from you people...
Qu:
...us people?
ACH:
Yes, yes, these interpretations....because it really shouldn't even... I mean if you heard it, it should simple be one of those
Qu:
...divisive...
ACH:
Yes, I must say: why should this fact suggest what you have just said?
QU:
And Wole sent a white ram?
ACH:
Yes he did, he did. I don't ...
Qu:
In your talk you just said the two-ness of all things. Isn't this two-ness in our world ...that we have THEY , the Europeans the AFRICANS, isn't there more than two?
ACH:
Well, that is being literal like a European. When you say TWO, it doesn't really mean two, it could be three, or four or five, What it means is more than ONE. You can't say one thing stands. Three or four other things stand beside it, but you must go beyond the one. And if you beyond the one then it is possible to see three and four. The real problem is getting out of the one...
Qu:
I understand you, but it is just a question that came up in some of the papers I was listening ou...And got the idea that they took you very much into a kind of dualistic way, that they think that you have treated things a little bit too much dualistically. Some accuse you that you are to much man-sided, forget the women...
ACH:
That doesn't surprise me...
Qu:
That doesn't surprise you?
ACH:
This is all very well...
Qu:
Woman belongs to the one-ness too, doesn't it?
ACH:
You see the thing is, it is the one-ness attitude that creates ...I f you think that what I have done, is somehow in- adequate, you do more, or you produce the other one. you see. It doesn't really close the argument. What I am really against is fore-closing the argument, saying: that is the end. This is what you were suggesting, this is the end...It is not the end. We haven't even told our story. If what Achebe has told is not enough, then let's have some more. Let these other views. three, four, five, let them flourish! This is really what I'm saying. This is why I am against prescription.
Qu:
Professor, you said "We haven't even told ou strory". Then I want to refer back to Prof. Thelwell, who quoted you with a ´No to an invitation to Ireland’, where you said: No, I am not going to Sweden to discuss the "predicament of the African Writer" or the situation of African writing in Europe. Do you really mean this, that we have to exspeczô Chinuá Achebe not accept any more invitations to the Frankfurt Book Fair or to Berlin Horizons Festivals or others? Because we have always seen you as one of the most important contributors to the South-North flow of information...
ACH:
No, I think you got it wrong. I don't know how he presented it to you, but I think you got it wrong. It depends on the content of the meeting. If somebody says to me: come to Finland to discuss the future of African Literature, I would say No. If someone says to me: come to Finland and tell us about African Literature, I might say ses, if I have the time. You see, it's really a difference in the agenda. It's not the idea, since turning down that particular invitation I have been to Europe. I saw you after that, in Germany, and if there is another invitation and I have the time and I think that what is going on there is important I will go. But you can't ask me to come here and sit down and "map out" - those were literally the words - the future development of African Literature. I think that is arrogant. You see.
QU:
You will remember that when we were in Berlin together Mongo Beti met Camara Laye for the first time, shortly before Camara Lay died...
ACH:
Yes, I remember...
QU:
..it was a unique opportunity...
ACH:
Yes, yes, but I wouldn't for that advantage accept something which undermines my sense of my reality. Just for the sake of meeting other ...I know we have problems of setting up appropriate structures of our own, and some of the fault is ours. This is the other thing that that letter that I sent was saying. It was not only saying I wasn't coming. I was blaming ourselves for not creating the appropriate conferences, structures and platforms, where this thing could be discussed.
QU:
A final question, from me at least, Professor: everybody talks about book hunger. Only three days ago there was a two-page spread in the Daily Times about book hunger. I raised the question with Kole Omotoso last year...
ACH:
What is book hunger?
QU:
Yes, book hunger in Nigeria. And Kole Omotoso just reacted like you did...There is no book hunger, there is just hunger! And we have to talk about the economy not about book hunger, since this is a false problem. What's your...
ACH:
It's the same thing. When somebody says the house has fallen and you ask him: has the ceiling fallen too? It's the same kind of thing: the house has fallen! The ceiling is a very minor point. So when a house has fallen to keep asking about the roof is the same kind of thing, as when we are told that this thing has collapsed...our economy, and you are saying we don't have paper, do you have ink? And so on. So it is a more fundamental problem. This is really what we are saying, not saying that there is no book hunger or there is no...There is a bigger problem. We are being told: here is an elephant and you say: look at the foot-marks! These again are images from my culture. These are things people have thought about. Here is the elephant, this big thing standing there and you are looking at the ground looking where it passed. So it is like that. The major thing has happened, so let's not waste time talking about...
Qu:
Let's not waste time... people are waiting for you to read. Thank you very much from my side. Thank you so much.
ACH:
I hope that covers all sides.
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