Literature

Achebe has made the biggest blunder of his life ? Maiwada

Chinua Achebe, the acclaimed father of modern African literature, recently released a memoir based on the Nigerian civil war. Titled There was a Country, the book touches on several sensitive issues including the roles of individuals, institutions and even religion in the execution of the war. A portion of the book reads: ?Throughout the conflict, the Biafrans consistently charged that the Nigerians had a design to exterminate the Igbo people from the face of the earth. This calculation, the Biafrans insisted, was predicated on a holy Jihad proclaimed by mainly Islamic extremists in the Nigerian Army...? In this interview with SUMAILA UMAISHA, Ahmed Maiwada, an Abuja-based lawyer and award-winning writer, expresses his views on the book.

What is your reaction to the contents of Achebe?s recently released Nigerian civil war memoir titled There was a Country?

I haven?t read Achebe?s newly released book, so I cannot react on its contents.

What is your take on his attributing the civil war to some Jihadist agenda?

If Achebe has attributed the Nigerian civil war to ?some Jihadist agenda?, then it is most unfortunate indeed. General Yakubu Gowon, who led Nigeria through the unfortunate war, was no less Christian than Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, who led on the Biafran side. This may not be the first time that Achebe had descended to the low level of trying to score a cheap religious point; but it is my first time of hearing it, and already it sickens to the bones, considering his eminent stature as a Nigerian and a writer.

As a student of History, I have read about only one Jihad that was fought on the soil of present-day Nigeria, and it was the world-renown 1804 Jihad, led by Shehu Usman Dan Fodio. By late 1860s, when Hugh Clapperton arrived Northern Nigeria, for the second time, Shehu Dan Fodio had died, his own son and successor, Muhammadu Bello, had also died, and the then Amirul-Muminun was struggling with pockets of rebellion all over the already established Caliphate. It was this distracted situation that the colonial administration arrived to meet, and eventually subdued, putting a final nail in the Jihad?s coffin, which never did rise till date. Chinua Achebe, who was born in November of 1930, was born over a century after the Jihad was fought; he cannot claim to know what it is when he saw one!

Besides this, the Nigerian civil war was triggered by what I consider as the wrong-headed declaration of Independence from Nigeria by the then Colonel Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, the Governor of the then Eastern Nigeria, before the creation of the 12 states in Nigeria by the Gowon administration. Upon the creation of those 12 states, the jurisdiction of Ojukwu narrowed to only Enugu State, leaving the rest of the former Eastern Nigeria outside his jurisdiction. One can therefore understand that, apart from declaring Enugu State an independent of Nigeria, assuming he had the right to so declare, annexing the other parts of the former Eastern Nigeria amounted to an act of forcefully annexing Nigeria?s territories.

Now, History is ever so clear that Ojukwu fired this first shot. The questions for Achebe are therefore these: in inviting the war with Nigeria, was Ojukwu acting the script of Usman Dan Fodio in the former Eastern Nigeria? Were the other tribes in former Eastern Nigeria and the Mid-West acting the script of Usman Dan Fodio when they opposed being forced by Ojukwu into his Biafra Republic? Were the other tribes in the rest parts of Nigeria, especially the very ones already rebelling against the Jihad when the colonialists arrived, acting the script of Shehu Dan Fodio when they joined forces, as Nigerians, to fight and defeat Ojukwu in the Nigerian civil war?

I can only conclude by saying that Achebe, the fiction maestro, has made the biggest blunder of his life by attempting to work outside the genre that had won him global acclaim. One does not need an iota of truth to write the best fiction; but history, albeit ?personal history? is a whole different kettle all together; it rests chiefly on truth, the ingredient palpably lacking in this attribution by Chinua Achebe.

How do you compare this book with Chimamanda?s Half of a Yellow Sun, which is also on the civil war?

Adichie?s Half of a Yellow Sun, which I have read, is a fictional account of an Igbo family during the Nigerian civil war. As with all fiction works, the novel is a ?made-up? story, with no claim whatsoever to being a compendium of hard facts on the period of Nigerian history within its span. From what I have read on Chinua Achebe?s new book, however, it is a ?personal history? of his account of the civil war. History makes no pretence on being a ?made-up? account; indeed, it demands to be trusted as the true account of the episodes it covers. Therefore, the two books are not the same at all.

Besides, Adichie did try to present a balanced story, to her credit, despite the caricature of the fictional Sardauna of Sokoto, bleating during his cold-blooded murder by Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu. There are some characters also in Adichie?s novel who criticized Ojukwu for dragging the Igbos into the senseless war. Adichie never did descend into the religious mudsling that you reported Achebe to have descended to. I would conclude that the older book, ironically written by the younger Nigerian writer, is more honest and faithful to history than the younger book, written by the older Nigerian writer.

Would you classify Soyinka?s The Man Died with these two in terms of viewpoints?

Wole Soyinka?s The Man Died can well belong with Achebe?s new book, There was a Country,viewpoint-wise, if I can rely on the excerpt of There was a Country which I read online. Both writers use the first-person narrative technique, viewing everything from their real person?s points of view and perspectives. Both writers offered their opinions of persons and events they have observed; and, judging from the excerpt of There was a Country, it followed the same biased judgment that characterized The Man Died. What Soyinka did not do in The Man Died, however, was to sink himself in bigoted religious cheap-shots which Achebe, going by your account, had sunk.

Half of a Yellow Sun is, however, a work of fiction parading several narrators and several perspectives, albeit written in the eye-of-God point of view. In my view, the writer?s personal views are well buried under the views of her characters that you can hardly be correct to point to Adichie?s personal opinion of anything contained in the novel. Also, Half of a Yellow Sun is not a personal history of Adichie, unlike The Man Died and There was a Country. So, while the two older masters chose non-fiction to present their personal histories, Adichie chose fiction to narrate a researched history of her kindred; her fiction achieved a level of detachment from herself that would otherwise have been impossible writing in the manner of The Man Died and There was a Country.

When your Musdoki was published there was some criticism about it being biased; what do you say to your critics in the light of these Achebe and Chimamanda?s books?

Musdoki is a work of fiction, just as Half of a Yellow Sun is, but unlike There was a Country. I did enjoy and appreciate all the criticisms made on Musdoki,especially those made on my unbiased take on the issues abutting on Nigeria?s ethnic and religious relations. A section of those critics, however, did express themselves clearly on the ignorant premise that the contents of fiction are hard truths rather than made-up truths. This section, resting on their ignorance, proceeded to label me an ethnic bigot, just on the basis of an episode where my characters, who had lived in Kano before the outbreak of the civil war, narrated their personal experiences of escaping by a hair?s breadth from murderous Igbo youths, reacting to the coup that claimed Aguyi Ironsi?s life. But then, this was a fictionalized fact, well researched by me, before I went to print. I have meant, by that account, to initiate further discussion on the civil war; the real truths of what really happened that led to the killings of the Igbos in the then Northern Nigeria by the people of that Region. Yet, I wish my readers and critics to accept one hard fact: fiction is not meant to be history, and can never pass as history, no matter the amount of facts imbedded in it.

What do the contents of these books say about objectivity in creative writing?

Objectivity in creative writing can be discussed only in relation to Half of a Yellow Sun; and to be objective in fiction is not to write the hard truth, but to achieve a level of detachment from the views expressed by your characters, and also to try and avoid expressing opinions outside the seams of your story. The point of view a fiction writer chooses to work with does help, and it is agreed that the eye-of-God narrative is about the best style by which a writer can achieve a high level of objectivity. Adichie, in Half of a Yellow Sun,chose the eye-of-God narrative style. And, in my own opinion, she did substantial justice towards achieving for herself a high level of objectivity. However, for the reason that I have not read There was a Country, and the possibility that it is not a work of fiction, being Achebe?s personal history, discussing its objectivity will be going outside the question.

Do you think this kind of publication is appropriate at this time of our history when everywhere seems to be boiling with ethnic and religious hate?

I will fight for my freedom to express my opinion the way that I please, which is the reason why I chose to become a writer. Achebe and Adichie are the bosses of their pens and mouths, and so their freedom to express their opinions must never be challenged or denied. What time of our history are we in that mere expression of opinion can be unwise? We are maturing as a nation that discusses issues rather than take up arms and fight over them. Let the dialogue continue, from across all the various nationalities; let us ventilate our grievances. I am one who believes that violent reactions to published opinions eventually die off to allow a more serene atmosphere for deep reflections, when it is likely that some of the things that we have denied, or objected to in the heat of passion, may well settle down inside us as the truth and, having accepted that, we may reach out a hand across to our injured brother or sister and offer a genuine apology.

But, the greatest sin a writer can commit is to sell falsehood for the truth. Doing so is disservice to himself and to the people whose opinions he might assume himself to be spreading by such writing. And, for all you know, such writer might be smiling his way to the bank, (Achebe not least), for people will love to buy and read that controversial book for themselves. But then, that is nothing but blood money, in my opinion.

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