Achebe: Still No Longer at Ease Written by Adekunle Yusuf

Ironically, as the late Chinua Achebe is widely celebrated as a prescient man of ideas whose literary pouch brims with warnings that can chart a new course for national rebirth, the essences of his works and most of his warnings went unheeded

Although there is no loud drumming yet, dancing feet have taken to the floor in many places near and far away. Even in the absence of any formal burial arrangement, orgies of jubilation roar on, as the streets have suddenly started dancing in honour of the passage of the quintessential literary icon. The celebration is understandable. Despite the fact that the demise of Albert Chinualumogu Achebe, novelist and essayist, seared many souls around the world, his obituary hardly turned the global literary space into a huge mourning chamber. Much to the chagrin of those wanting to wear mourning clothes, the news of the death of the acclaimed literary genius instantly jolted the global literary clan into revelry. Yet, by the time the man died at 82 on March 21 at a hospital in Massachusetts, United States, US, he died with the burden of a seer – a change agent whose warnings largely went unheeded by the same people he laboured all his stunningly illustrious life to transform.

If the novelist fondly called the iroko of African literature were around to witness the long queues of praise-singers jostling to pour encomiums on him, he would probably have declined in his usual polite manner to have people drink themselves silly because of him. One of the brightest literary stars of his time, Achebe would have probably tutored that the best way to celebrate him and acknowledge his genius is to return to the essences of his works, debate them, and learn from them so that his nation can successfully navigate the darkness of its national life. As a man who lived and died in the service of humanity, the literary prodigy distinguished himself from his peers because of his uncanny knack for constantly peering into his country’s rabidly complex political and cultural milieu, deeply foraging into the mystical, and dwelling in the epiphanies of human experiences and life struggles to churn out messages that illuminate the dark recesses of his fractured society.

Culled from Tell Magazine