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From the end of colonialism to the beginning of the millennium, Chinua Achebe has made his pres-ence felt as a literary voice reaching into the future and the past. His groundbreaking novel, “Things Fall Apart” was written at the end of the colonial period (1958) and tells the story of the period’s beginnings, detailing the breakdown of tribal life in Nigeria against the en-croachment of European invasion.

Born in eastern Nigeria, Achebe was raised by Christian parents but grew up in a small village, so he had an opportunity to observe traditional village life. This melding of influences fired Achebe’s ability to give the novel life in his homeland.

Literary critic Bruce King, in his book, “Intro-duction to Nigerian Literature”, writes the following: “Chinua Achebe was the first Nigerian writer to suc-cessfully transmute the conventions of the novel, an art form European by design, into African literature.”

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While back in New York, I had the honor of meeting the great man, who has been teaching litera-ture and language arts at Bard College. It was from his home in Annandale, New York, where Professor Achebe recalled his artistic awakening in an exclusive for the Afro News.

AN: What inspired you to write “Things Fall Apart”?
CA: I knew I had a story in me. I didn’t know how it would be received-it just felt like it mattered enough to do so. So I thought, why not write it? This story seemed important to me and it worked. Even now I am still surprised with how well it has been received.
AN: You took your title from a quote by Yeats. Was he a favorite author of yours?
CA: I didn’t know much about him (Yeats) but there was something about the phrase that stayed in my head (smiles). I admit to a bit of showing off in the book because I had just finished my degree in English, and the quotation was like a finishing touch. In my first two books, I used quotations from English literature, but did not feel the need to continue in such a manner.
AN: It seems those three words are just as appropriate now as they were then, given the current state of Africa. “Things Fall Apart” indirectly referring to Kwame Nkrumah (president of Ghana, 1960-66) and his efforts to unite all of Africa.
CA: Yes. It is a very potent phrase, things fall apart-very powerful. I have discovered the story itself has a kind of resonance all over the world, wherever there is colonization or oppression. And what you say about Nkrumah is true. At the time “Things Fall Apart was written, there was something in the air and Nkrumah was right at the centre of it.
AN: As we fast-forward to present day, Africa is plagued by famine, pestilence and tribal conflict. As we speak, the lower half of the continent is fighting against an AIDS pandemic. The response to Africa’s call for aid has not been as expedient as one would imagine. What thoughts do you have on this?
CA: The way I look at the problems of Africa, it is clear that Africa has not had a good time for a long while. You look back over 500 years and Africa has been troubled-and that is sad. But when you are in such a position, you can derive a kind of sad confidence from it. We (Africans) have been knocking around for a long time. We are not new people; we are the oldest people on the planet. What’s happening now is not comfortable with me, but we are going to survive it. That is the sad hope one can gather from this long history. Colonization is the most recent problem we have.
AN: Colonization? Not AIDS?
CA: Many of the things you mentioned-like AIDS- are really part of the working out of the end of colonial-ism. People don’t want to accept the fact that Africa’s predicament may have something with the last hundred years, from 1884, when the continent was cut up by European powers at a conference. Although independence came, beginning with Nkrumah’s Ghana in 1957, just saying you are free after being in bondage mentally and spiritually for a century doesn’t work the magic. What you find you lose is the art of self-governing. African people actually forgot. You need no more than one generation of colonial rule to lose the habit of ruling yourself. When independence came, we thought it was going to work like magic, but obviously, it hasn’t. We are learning and making lots of mistakes. But now, in spite of AIDS, there are certain signs in some parts of Africa that we will see our way through.

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AN: There are leaders in Africa who have added their footnotes in its history, for good or bad. Nkrumah, Patrice Lumumba, Idi Amin, Samora Michel. I know of your friendship with Mandela, who was part of your 70th birthday celebration. Is there someone from the new generation we are not privy to that will help Africa in the millennium?
CA: We may not have the personalities like Nkrumah and Lumumba; they belong to a very dramatic period in history. I think What’s happening now is the more of the quiet, technocrat kind of leader. Taking on the details of administration, financing, budgeting, etc. are not glamorous duties. Leaders who are business-like and will not be in the news for the wrong reasons, but leaders who will help keep their people moving forward.
AN: Your work seems to reinforce the fact that if an African-American’s feet never touch African soil, that does not make him less African than someone born there.
CA: (laughs): Yes! And you are absolutely right to feel that way because the connection is clear. During a discussion with James Baldwin, he pointed to me in front of a huge audience in Florida and said, “This is a brother I have not seen in 400 years.” And the theatre was wild with applause. But then his face and manner changed. As the applause died down, Baldwin then said, ‘Twas not intended that he and I should ever meet.” It became so quiet-as if cool water had been poured on everyone’s head. So it was intended for you or any other African-American to not feel connected with Africa. But we attempt to beat that intention. There are even signs of it here. When you say “eh-eh” you or anyone else probably don’t realize you are speaking Ibo (laughs). You never forget who you are. People may forget the externals, but deep down the humanity stays.
AN: How long have you been away from Nigeria?
CA: I went back two years ago. Even though things were not happy there, I saw signs of a new beginning. So I look forward to going back in the future.
AN: A symposium done in 2000 in honor of your 70th birthday brought forth some of the best and brightest in world culture. Since we used “Things Fall Apart” as a metaphor for present day, do you feel the gathering was an indication of things coming together?
CA: Yes. I am honored that some of this process began around my birthday. What it means is we are using any opportunity now to get together. Even among us who quarrel, for us to kiss and make up is a good thing. Africans and African-Americans must maintain the connection. You don’t have to go to Africa to feel you belong there because you are already there. That is something we will always share.

The Works of Chinua Achebe

Much of Chinua Achebe’s work is required reading in many American high schools. Vancouver and other Cana-dian cities could benefit from Chinua Achebe as well.

Novels: Things Fall Apart-1958 / No Longer At Ease-1960 / Arrow Of God-1964 / A Man Of The People-1966 Girls At War-1972 /Anthills Of The Savannah-1987

Poetry: Beware Soul Brother-1971 / Another Africa-1998

Essays: The Trouble With Nigeria-1983 / Hopes And Impediments-1988 / Home And Exile-2000

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Sudan’s “Architect of Hope” Dies in A Helicopter Crash

Sudan:
John Garang, 60, the man who was considered the architect of hope for continued peace in Sudan, died along with 13 others when their helicopter crashed in bad weather July 31st. Garang was returning from a meeting with Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni at his ranch in Kwakitura.

When news of his death reached Khartoum supporters rioted in the streets blaming the government for his death. 36 people died as the crowd smashed cars and shops. The Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), which was led by Garang, has stated the crash was an accident and dismissed talk of a plot. They quickly named longtime deputy Salva Kiir Mayardit as Garang’s replacement. The peace agreement signed in January states that whoever is the leader of the SPLM shall hold the position of Vice President.

Garang was inaugurated into the National Unity Government of July 9th. He had been working with the President and the 2nd Vice President to form a cabinet by August 9th. President Omar al-Bashir said Garang’s death is a “huge loss. He is a true peace partner and he has played a big role”. Three days of national mourning were declared.

John Garang was born in 1945 into a Christian family who were members of the Dinka tribe. He received an American education, studying at Grinnell College in Iowa and later returned to the U.S. for military training at Fort Benning, Georgia.

He became involved in Guerrilla warfare for the first time in 1962 with the Anya Anya Movement at the start of the civil war. Ten years later the Khartoum government signed a deal with Anya Anya and the South became a self-governing region. Oil was discovered in southern Sudan and 5 years later, in 1978, civil war broke out again involving government forces and SPLM and its military wing SPLA.

The SPLA’s strength grew from 12,500 armed men in 1986 to between 50-60,000 in 1991. Throughout the entire 22 years of the war, John Garang has been credited with keeping the hopes and inspirations of southern Sudanese alive and just prior to his death he was being seen as consistent and more approachable and as a politician and statesman. Many have said his premature death leaves an unfulfilled mission and great uncertainty in the South.

A Memorial for Dr. Garang will be held September 10th in New Westminster at Douglas College, 8th & Royal, 4th level, beginning at noon. Refreshments will be served following the service.
Please note: This is a change of venue from the one listed in the September issue of The Afro News. The change came after the paper was printed.

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Rosa Parks: The Mother of the Civil Rights Movement Has Died at 92

Born February 4, 1913 in Tuskegee, Alabama to Leona Edwards, a teacher and James McCauley, a carpenter and builder. After her parents split up her mother moved Rosa and her younger brother Sylvester to Pine Level, a small town near Montgomery where they lived with family. She was home schooled by her mother until age 11 when she was sent to Montgomery Industrial School, founded and staffed by Whites to educate Black children. There she studied academic and vocational subjects. She entered high school - a laboratory school run by the Alabama State Teachers College for Negroes but was forced to drop out to care for her grandmother and later her mother. She returned to school in 1933 after her marriage to a Montgomery barber, Raymond parks.

Her husband was a member of the NAACP and helped raise money for the defense of the nine Black men accused of raping a White woman in the Scottsboro case - one of the most sensational racial trials of the Depression era. She became an active member of the NAACP, a graduate of Highlander Folk School in Tennessee, an integrated facility where she studied alongside Whites as an equal.

On December 1, 1955, after a long day working as a seamstress, she defied an order to give up her seat on the bus to a White passenger and changed the course of history. She was arrested, taken to jail in a squad car and fingerprinted. She was bailed out several hours later by NAACP activist E.D. Nixon, Civil Rights Lawyer Clifford Durr and his wife Virginia.

Rosa Parks was not the first woman to be arrested for defying the segregation laws, but she was the ideal plaintiff. She was the secretary of the Montgomery branch of the NAACP, considered a tireless worker, an honest upright church goes and a working class person with a “middle class demeanor”. Two other women had been arrested previously but reportedly both had questionable pasts.

Parks agreed to be the plaintiff in test case against bus segregation. The NAACP had been anxious to challenge the law and after she was convicted on December 5, fined $10.00 plus $4.00 court fees, plans were laid for the Montgomery bus boycott that would last 381 days before a U.S. Supreme Court declared the law unconstitutional on November 13, 1956. The boycott nearly bankrupted the city’s transit system which depended on Black people for up to two thirds of its revenues.

The boycott also catapulted the young Minister of the Dexter Ave. Baptist Church to national prominence. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was chosen to run the boycott and he launched it with a speech on the same night that Rosa Parks was convicted. In his first ever political address, Dr. King roused thousands that packed the Holt St. Baptist Church and the streets surrounding it. Sacrifices were made as the majority of people had to walk to their jobs and the few who owned cars were pressed into an elaborate car pooling system. Rosa Parks, who had lost her seamstress job was one of the car pool dispatchers.

After the success of the boycott in Montgomery, several other Southern cities including Birmingham, launched their own boycotts as the fight for civil rights for Blacks began in earnest.

Parks continued her participation in the movement, marching at Selma and in 1963 she was prominent in the March on Washington where Dr. King made his “I Have A Dream” speech. She eventually found a receptionist job in the Detroit office of John Conyer (Dem.Michigan) and retired in 1988 after 14 years.

Raymond Parks died in 1977. They had no children. Rosa, who had been suffering from dementia, died of natural causes at her home in Detroit. She is survived by 13 nieces and nephews.

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Dr. Apollo Milton Obote 1924 – Oct. 10, 2005

By Michael Okoth

A two time former President of the Republic of Uganda, Dr. Milton Obote, (right) passed away in Johannesburg, South Africa on Monday 10th October 2005 of kidney failure. He had suffered a mild stroke while living in exile in Zambia and decided to travel to South Africa, with his wife Miria, for a check-up, in preparation for his return to Uganda.

Obote remained President of Uganda People’s Congress (UPC) and was excited about the upcoming elections next year. His body was flown from South Africa to Lusaka, where he had lived in exile. The Government and people of Zambia wanted to pay their last respects to the man who had been their guest for 20 years. The Government of Uganda agreed to give Dr. Obote a state funeral with all expenses paid.

The exiled former president did not have any income. He relied on relatives and friends for financial support. His family said that it was his wish to be buried in Akokoro, Apac in Lango, next to his grandfather. Officials of the UPC state that they intend to preserve Dr. Obote’s body for 200 years.

In the 1950s, as a school teacher in Lango, Milton Obote (with others) formed the political party known as Uganda People’s Congress (UPC). He put together a loose coalition of several parties which led to Uganda’s independence on 9th October 1962. This makes Obote the father of Uganda. Obote loved his country and always hoped to build one nation and one people.

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