Nigerian novelist waives award in protest (Achebe)

[JoFerret]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4557726,00.html

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) - One of Africa's most famous writers has rejected a Nigerian national honors award, protesting conditions in the West African nation and saying renegades were trying to turn his home state into ``a bankrupt and lawless fiefdom.''

Conditions in Nigeria were ``too dangerous for silence,'' said Chinua Achebe, whose 1958 novel ``Things Fall Apart,'' sold millions of copies worldwide and was voted Africa's best book of the century.

The Nigerian government announced last week that Achebe would be one of six people to receive the country's second-highest award, the Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic.

In a letter to Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, part of which was published in Nigeria's Guardian newspaper Sunday, Achebe said: ``Nigeria's condition today under your watch is, however, too dangerous for silence. I must register my disappointment and protest by declining to accept the high honor awarded me.''

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[mitchum]

1. A great writer and a great man...

I re-read "Things Fall Apart" every year. If you have not read this brilliant novel, please do.

[keta11]

2. Great, great read! Did you read

"A Man of the People" or "Arrow of God"?

He is Africa's greatest writer in my opinion.

[XanaDUer]

3. Thanks.

Just put a copy on reserve.

[fudge stripe cookays]

4. I've been interested in reading it for awhile.

Can you tell me more what it's about?

FSC :-)

[JoFerret]

5. The impact of colonial change on a traditonal society

The destruction of a way of life by colonial forces led by commercialism and Christianity. Backed up with the imposition of foreign laws and the erosion of traditions that held society together. The title is a quotation from Yeats. The center cannot hold when under attack and things fall apart.

[fudge stripe cookays]

6. Thanks JF.

I'll pick it up on my next trip to Half-Price Books.

FSC