New 09.30.02
To keep my sanity and to keep my brain cells functioning I must read something besides mysteries
Chinua Achebe, like Stephen Jay Gould, is one of my heroes. A wise and perceptive man, he's written
I picked up his most recent publication, Home and Exile at the Carleton bookstore. It's based on a
Achebe gave me hope and made me doubt that hope in the span of these few pages (105 to be exact).
He makes the case for the power of story telling. His thesis reminds me of George Orwell's.
He then cites an epiphanal experience he had in a university classroom as the
He and his generation of African students, scholars, and writers began recognizing
Even today, as "the empire writes back," Westerners fight a rear guard action to
V.S. Naipaul wins plaudits and is discussed in suburban book groups for
Achebe offers hope that more peoples will reclaim their own narratives,
My idealism was challenged directly in a humanistic way. The shock was a danger to
Dehumanization of Africans by Europeans began before slavery. It grew more powerful
This is an important book. If we're going to survive as a world, as a civilization, as a culture,
Here's a link to River City Books.
Tell them I sent you.
and depressing things like Michael Moore's commentary.
several beautiful novels about Nigeria. They may have been works of fiction, but they were true stories.
series of lectures he gave at Harvard a few years ago.
"In the end I began to understand. There is such a thing as absolute power over narrative.
Those who secure this privilege for themselves can arrange stories about others pretty much
where, and as, they like. Just as in corrupt, totalitarian regimes, those who exercise power
over others can do anything..."
central metaphor for a discussion of how the "civilized" world captured the
African narrative for over 400 years. At first it was done out of wonder, then to
justify slavery. Later, the civilized world wrote to rationalize colonialism and
then to defend its reputation.
their loss and began inventing their own narratives.
maintain possession of the Third World's narrative.
describing the depravity and deprivaton of the Third World and deploring
the childish resistance of Third Worlders to assimilation into Western civilization.
And conservative scholars react to multiculturalism as if recognizing validity in
something other than Judeo-Christian civilization threatens the importance
(not to mention the superiority) of Greek, Roman, and Anglo Saxon values.
but one bit of pessimism startled me. It's possible, he says, that the damage done
by "civilization's" control of the description of Africa and Africans for so many
centuries and the propaganda sown by those narratives has made it impossible
for us and them to see each other as equally human.
my naivete. At my age I shouldn't be vulnerable to such shocks. It does mean I'm still
learning, but has my idealism been that superficial? Perhaps so. When confronted by
Achebe's words, I knew I shared his fear.
and even scientific later. In the USA, slavery and the accompanying racism has shaped our
culture in powerful ways. Can we, the purveyors of the toxic myth, overcome it? I sure
don't know. We've made some progress in our civic behavior during my lifetime, but
internalizing common humanity may be beyond us. Furthermore, can the victims
of such description overcome the lies, the insults and the dehumanizating
treatment? I can only accept Achebe's doubts.
and as a nation, we need to learn the lesson taught by this wise man. Read the book. If your
library doesn't have it, as them to find it. If you can afford the $10 it costs, buy it. It's
Home and Exile by Chinua Achebe, published by Anchor Books A
Division of Random House, Inc. The ISBN is 0-385-72133-1.
Here's a link to independent bookstores
Here's a link to Barnes and Noble.
Here's a link to Amazon.
Write Tell a little bit of the world what you think.
By Ken Wedding. 09.01.02 Updated 09.28.02.
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