He is a vision of serenity. Set against the opulent decor of the lobby of the Inn at Harvard, he is dressed simply in a grey robe and matching pants, a crisp white collar clasped around his neck. Thick bifocals perch gracefully on his nose. Two tufts of snowy-white hair peek from beneath his characteristic red felt hat. He speaks with a soft, gravelly cadence, but carries himself with the gravitas befitting his stature.
Chinua Achebe stands as perhaps the most recognizable and lauded African author of modern times. Celebrating its fiftieth anniversary this year, his premier novel, “Things Fall Apart,” has sold over 8 million copies and been translated into 50 languages. He holds more than 30 honorary degrees, including one bearing the signature of former University President Neil L. Rudenstine. He visited Harvard this past Monday for the Harvard Distinguished African Studies Lecture.
Fifteen Minutes: How many times have you been to Harvard?
Chinua Achebe: Well, I think the number would be five or six times.
FM: What do you think of it?
Achebe: [Laughs] It is a great institution and it is also a very wealthy institution compared to other schools. You are lucky.
FM: Currently, you are a professor of languages and literatures at Bard College in New York. Would you ever consider becoming a professor here?
Achebe: Well, I think it is probably too late, [laughs] because I am quite comfortable where I am. To see Harvard from that distance seems to be quite useful.
FM: When you wrote “Things Fall Apart”, did you have any idea that it would have the impact that it has?
Achebe: No, it was impossible to have any such view because there was nothing to base it on. It had not been done before, exactly what I had a mind to do, so, I was hoping it would work, but that was about all. In other words, I wouldn’t have committed suicide if at the end of it they said “Well, this was not good enough to publish.” I would have been disappointed but I would not have killed myself.
FM: What role should the African author play in the political sphere?
Achebe: Well, I think the role is determined by the life that is going on around us at any moment. And the way one writer responds to this is always different from the way another writer responds. So it’s rather risky to lay down the law for writers in general. I wouldn’t dream of doing that because it is arrogant, to begin with, but, not only that, it doesn’t work. It shows a kind of unawareness which a writer should not be encouraging.
FM: You have been called the “father of modern African literature.” What do you think of that title?
Achebe: It’s not a title that I have adopted myself. I’ve tried to resist that title or something close to it, but I run into—for instance I run into people who say to me, “Well, even if you don’t agree I think that’s what you are.” So, what you do with that...and I also recognize the intention behind it. People are trying to say this is very important, and so on. You must welcome that, you know.
FM: What do you think of Barack Obama, a man of African descent, winning the U.S. Presidential election?
Achebe: Yes, well it was a most extraordinary event. I think it will turn out to be one of the most extraordinary events in the world. And I had my doubts all along. I couldn’t resist, I couldn’t put aside the feeling that someone is going to pull something at some point which will show that it was a dream. And I couldn’t get away from this. I mean, I tried very hard—all the evidence seemed to be strong that this is the way things were going. But we’ve had occasions in the past in which things seem to be going a certain way and then didn’t. The whole question of independence in Africa, for instance, was drowned one morning by the Cold War. So people who had followed Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, his exploits and where he seemed to be going, were suddenly disappointed. So this, I couldn’t avoid some such feeling, remember Nkrumah, or remember something. But this went on to the end. So the first thing is to be astonished. I am astonished. But if it turns out the way I hope, it is moving, then we would have seen one of the most important events of—I don’t know how long...centuries, really.
