Great storytelling & breaking down the essentials of complex structures, making it easier to comprehend. What an amazing woman & career. The kind of great personalities Netflix does not consider film material - we need Blackflix, Afroflix, Naijaflux - whatever you call it - as long as it brings the truly fascinating stories on screen because a lot of people are too lazy to read these days
Wole Soyinka is clearly the Father of African Literature. He has the Highest and most Coveted Literary Award in the World (Nobel Prize in Literature) amongst many other Prestigious Awards. He is a Lion who won all the Jewels needed to be won. I'm proud to be a Yoruba/Anago man.
Bro, I don't mean to burst your bubble. But do you know the meaning and geopolitical purpose of Nobel Prize whether in peace or literature or not? Hell will freeze over before Achebe wins the Nobel Prize in Literature even if he lives all over again. Please read: Chinweizu: The Black World and the Nobel (1987) to gain a better understanding of the world we live in.
@@taiwodosunmu7590 forget tribal sentiments how can he be the father of African literature when there have been so many inspirational African writers before him. He is not even the father of Nigeria literature. Achebe is the father of "modern" African literature. Am sure the Ekwensi work inspired Soyinka. WS is just the only Nigerian writer that won a Nobel prize but mind you there's other prestigious prize aside from the Nobel prize
I have heard so many non Nigerians audiences take a reference from Achebe. Achebe a giant of his generation and Soyinka a giant of another generation. I will give it to Tai Solarin.
It's always sad and intellectual laziness when people make comments without thorough research. This argument about Achebe and Soyinka is needless except for ethnic jingoism and intellectual dishonesty. There's really no comparison between Achebe and Wole Soyinka. While Wole Soyinka has done well in the literary enterprise, Achebe is much more ahead. First of all, the Nobel prize is an award. It's a prestigious one but it's an award all the same. There are other awards in the world. There are great writers who never won the award. One of such is Leo Tolskoy. Chinua Achebe did not win for obvious reasons of attacking the West. But he didn't need the Nobel prize to be who he was and is today. Achebe is globally celebrated as the Father or patriarch of Modern African Literature. No honor in literature is greater than that. He was honored with over 50 honorary degrees from universities around the world. Before Things Fall Apart Africa had literary works quite alright but there was no such characterization as African literature. On account of the genius of that work, the global appeal, the number of translations, the millions of copies sold, the opening of doors for other African works to be influenced, published. Achebe was the editor of Heinamans African Writers Series for years and he helped pushed, published and exposed alot of African literary works. Things Fall Apart is studied is colleges and universities across US and around the world. Achebe was the first living author to be included in Everyman's dictionary. Achebe's influence on upcoming African writers and world literature at large is unparalleled. When some say his writing is simple, they're only being mischievous. His writings can drown simpletons. His depth of ideology is not commonplace. His use of literary device is otherworldly. Achebe reinvented the English language and writes without the sheerest sense of anxiety or the burden to impress. He writes so naturally and freely. To say Soyinka"s writings are for intellectuals and Achebe's for common readers is laughable. Literature is meant to be read by many and not put in a museum. Achebe's works are loved by all and studied at all levels of academic pursuit - even the highest level. That's a mark of genius to achieve such a feat, a work that carries both a simplicity and depth that appeals to all. Someone said Soyinka' is bread. Achebe is air! I can't argue with that analogy! Things Fall Apart is on the list of several rankings - The 100 greatest books of all times. One of such rankings is from Times Magazine. Another is from BBC. Yet another is from the Norwegian Book Club, organized by the Nobel Committee. They gathered writers, Nobel lauretes, intellectuals on around the world to select the 100 greatest books of all time. Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart made the list. None of Wole Soyinka's works made it to the list. Note that Soyinka was part of those brought in by the committee to do the selection. Just in recent years, Achebe's Things Fall Apart is amongst the 12 greatest books ever written. This selection was done by Britannica Encyclopedia. Things Fall Apart, No longer at Ease, Arrow of God form the African Trilogy. Google African trilogy and see what comes out. One man's 3 books regarded as the African trilogy? No African writer alive, dead or dying compares to Achebe. Soyinka is great but Achebe is on a league of his own. No comparison!!!
It's abominable to even think that these literary doyens can weighed in some mindless GenZee scale. This is intellectual sacrilege. Respect yourself.Your restless age mates are similarly advised to heed the same.
You missed Ogundipe and Adebayo. All of them came through the ranks except Mamalari, who met all the names mention including Ogundipe and Adebayo on the seat!
As a graduate of African literature, i had the privilege of studying both men's works....while they're both great, Achebe is just something else. Achebe is a legend...!
Achebe books are reader friendly but WS works are made strictly for intellectuals. You can't read and comprehend the man's work easily. Infact if you want to buy a book by WS please buy a dictionary too.
All ibo comments are the same, but they're quick to accuse others of tribalism. Soyinka become their enemy for not supporting obi otherwise, how would you not know Soyinka is ahead of any writer from the east including the so called achebe
I think that Soyinka's Nobel prize was awarded as an affirmative action gesture. Who on earth will like to be called a racist? His body of work does not merit that prize at all. This has always been my position.
You write as if you dont know how Nobel prize is awarded? But it is apparent that you know. But you make it look like a panel just sits and gives the award. That is where affirmative action can come in. Why write as if you dont know what literature is? Achebe is a great prose writer, Soyinka is a playwright, a poet and a prose writer too. That is total literature. There are people who have won Nobel prize in literature only by their prolific prose writing. And given the success of Achebe's prose works, he deserved the Nobel prize too. But to say Wole Soyinkas body of works does not deserve the award of Nobel prize is ridiculous. The Nobel prize is not just about how popular your work is among the street readers, but also about how the literary world views the content and appreciates it. Achebes works appeal to the common readers. The language of Soyinkas works are more profound. You mean the literary giants all over the world who voted for Soyinka did not know what literary works are all about? We are not talking about Nobel prize for peace.
@@limatglobaltemp7181 You have to consider the people who sit on the panel that decides who wins the prize. Do you think that these people would ever live with themselves without lowering the bar a little to accommodate some Africans? I think so and many other people think so too. I will try to find a video of an African gentleman who said as much9 I cannot promise that I can find it that easily but I am going to try). I just don't see that his body of work deserved such honour and that is my argument.
No matter your assessments and comments about these two great Nigeria writers, the fact remains, one used JSS 3 level English for his moonlight novels, while the other is still using Post Graduate English language for his playwright. You ought to know that, moonlight stories is different to playwright. By the way, why can’t you people let the sleep dog lying? Look here, when God crowned Lion in the jungle, who among you have audacity to question God? God has crowned the Lion, those that are still grumbling and murmuring can jump into lagoon on the third mainland bridge in Lagos. Make sure you jump into the sea when there is no passers by. Finally, go and read Achebe’s “There was a Country”
“I would argue that The Greatest Book in English Language is “Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe” ---------- British MP Tom Tugendhat, during UK Parliamentary Hearing November 26, 2020 on the aftermath of the EndSars Protest.
With the colossal impact Achebe has made on millions of readers dead or alive on the African continent basically through the publication of the spiritual Things Fall Apart which has sold over 12 million copies, the sheer immensity of it being translated into more than 50 languages of the world, and the near 100 awards or more that he won among which are over 40 honorary doctorate degrees from so many universities across the globe, do you think there is any other African writer with the same stature as Achebe, given especially that Emenyonu, while paying tribute to him, said “legendary writers like Chinua Achebe come perhaps once in a century”? First of all, check out the Nobel Prize qualifications. They claim in summary that they are looking for impact. The manner the whole world reacted to Achebe’s death affirms an impact which the Nobel laureate committee obviously missed. The prize has never been directed or determined by a numbers game. How many books did Toni Morrison write? I want you to note that in the past I predicted a number of times that Achebe would never get the Nobel Prize. See at least my interview in The Muse no 40, journal of the English Association of the University of Nigeria… Not after the really deadly onslaught at the citadels of white superiority racially and intellectually. Please go back again and read the end of Chapter 8 of Things Fall Apart where the white skin is compared with leprosy. Go back and re-visit Achebe’s attack of Albert Schweitzer, and then of course re-read Achebe’s destruction of Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, and tell me whether if you were white you would recommend Achebe for the Nobel Prize. Heart of Darkness, by the way, is one of the top 100 great books in the Western tradition. Those who thought they were the “custodians” of that tradition fought Achebe’s essay for many years. It was only a few years ago that a man as eminent as Professor Graff came to the conclusion that “Achebe was right” about Conrad’s book. Graff indeed encouraged his colleagues in the American academy to accept that fact! --------- Chimalum Nwankwo Professor of Literature, University of Nigeria. Vanguard News July 7, 2013.
In the UK where there are worldwide bestselling authors and Nobel winners, I am not aware of any comparisons or arguments as to who is best amongst them. They are all celebrated. In Nigeria we waste so much time on what divides us than what unites us. This Achebe/Soyinka thing has been going on for years and some people are hell bent on dragging Soyinka down especially since 2023 elections. Let them carry on.
@@PeoplePlacesThings. If you think so, why did karma brutally decimated him as the Biafran children end pregnant mothers were decimated by the government he was representing!? Why did he not go the way of the likes of Prof Wole Soyinka who went to jail for his out spoken stance against the genocidal war brought on the the good people Eastern region of Nigeria by the Federal government? God watching all of us , including you and I writing these comments.
Do you really think that a personnel file can be altered simply because a person left their job? If you do this many times over you'll be left with such a mess. I have to check my archives again but the last time I looked Ugbomah was still NA 1. I am not quite sure that Wellington Bassey made it beyond the rank of Lt. Col. You may also want to look closely at some discrepancies in promotions. For example Shodeinde was still a Lt. Col. in 1966 while Maimalari who joined the army three years later was already a brigadier by 1966. Also Adebayo who join the same year as Maimalari was a Col. in 1966.
