410 Quotes by Chinua Achebe

Writing has always been a serious business for me. I felt it was a moral obligation. A major concern of the time was the absence of the African voice. Being part of that dialogue meant not only sitting at the table but effectively telling the African story from an African perspective - in full earshot of the world.

What I can say is that it was clear to many of us that an indigenous African literary renaissance was overdue. A major objective was to challenge stereotypes, myths, and the image of ourselves and our continent, and to recast them through stories- prose, poetry, essays, and books for our children. That was my overall goal.

Es cierto que los hijos pertenecen a los padres. Pero cuando un padre le pega a su hijo, éste busca consuelo en la cabaña de su madre. Un hombre pertenece al país de su padre cuando las cosas van bien y la vida es dulce: Pero cuando hay pena y amargura, encuentra refugio en la tierra de su madre. Tu madre está ahí para protegerte. Está enterrada ahí. Y por eso decimos que la madre es suprema.

─El mundo está cambiando ─le había dicho─. No me gusta, pero soy como el pájaro eneke-nti-oba, que cuando sus amigos le preguntaron por que volaba a todas horas respondió: "Los hombres de hoy han aprendido a disparar sin errar y por eso yo he aprendido a volar sin posarme en las ramas".

Es posible que en el fondo Okonkwo no fuera cruel. Pero toda su vida estaba dominada por el temor, el temor al fracaso y a la debilidad. Era algo más profundo y más íntimo que el temor a los dioses malignos y caprichosos y a la magia, que el temor a la selva y a las fuerzas de la naturaleza, malévolas, de dientes y garras rojos. Los temores de Okonkwo eran peores que todo eso. No eran externos, sino que yacían en lo más hondo de su ser.

I believe myself that a good writer doesn't really need to be told anything except to keep at it. Chinua Achebe

The white man is very clever. He came quietly and peaceably with his religion. We were amused at his foolishness and allowed him to stay. Now he has won our brothers, and our clan can no longer act like one. He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart.

He saw himself and his fathers crowding round their ancestral shrine waiting in vain for worship and sacrifice and finding nothing but ashes of bygone days..

Proverbs are the palm oil with which words are eaten