Chinua Achebe Is Under Fire
The News (Lagos)
March 21, 2000
By Inno Uzoma Nwadike
Lagos - On 4 September, 1999, the literary giant of Nigeria and Africa, the
'eagle on the iroko' of African fiction, Professor Chinua Achebe, delivered
the 1999 Odenigbo Lecture organised by the Catholic Archdiocese of Owerri.
The title of his lecture was Echi Di Ime: Taa Bu Gboo ( which literally
means tomorrow is pregnant; today is early enough).
The cream of Igbo society that was there, and those who were not there, had
looked forward to a big harvest of Igbo philosophy, Igbo politics, Igbo
economy and Igbo social values etc., to be rendered by the literary guru but
were disappointed that Achebe had nothing to offer them except the throwing
of sand. Or did Achebe himself not say it on P11 of his lecture?
"I am afraid that I can't give you half of what you expect from me.
Therefore, I am pleading with you to accept my shortcomings and failings."
If only these 'shortcomings and failings' were just stylistic shortcomings
in presentation and delivery, one would have accepted everything in the name
of Igbo kwenu! But they turned out to be real throwing of sand which ended
in the pronunciation of the heresy of the last century of the second
millennium-the condemnation of Arch T.J. Dennis and Standard Igbo.
Achebe's tragedy and failure started when he descended from his Olympian
heights to copy without verification what one John Goodchild, an unknown
historian, had in an unpublished manuscript. Because Achebe was led astray,
he marshalled out many historical fallacies about Arch. T.J. Dennis, a
renowned linguist and classicist who accomplished so much for the CMS and
Igbo studies, a feat for which the University of Cambridge invited him for
an honorary Masters' Degree in 1917. Unfortunately, Dennis died on his way
to receive that degree.
Though Achebe has persistently stressed his unalloyed love for the Igbo
language, he has done nothing towards its promotion and growth except
continued destructive criticisms since the 1970s. In 1978, at a book launch
at AICE Owerri, Achebe said very little of the book he launched-The Rise of
the Igbo Novel-but said so much in condemnation of standard Igbo. In 1979,
he condemned Union Igbo in Anu Magazine in an article he entitled "The Bane
of Union: An Appraisal of the Consequences of Union Igbo for Igbo Language
and Literature." In 1984, he attacked the use of standard Igbo in Uwa Ndi
Igbo Journal of his Okike publication. In 1985, at a book launch at the
Enugu campus of the University of Nigeria Nsukka, he chose to speak ill of
standard Igbo in the very presence of Chief (Dr.) F.C. Ogbalu, the father of
standard Igbo. And finally in 1999, at the close of the 20th century,
instead of meeting the expectations of Ndi Igbo, he chose to speak
irreverently of a holy man of God, Arch. Dennis and his noble achievements.
Achebe cannot explain his revolt against all approved and accepted
grammatical and spelling rules-writing Igbo the way he likes and spelling
words against all conventions. Does he love Igbo when he still counts in the
old numeracy system which was abolished 28 years ago?
On page 14 of his lecture, Achebe made a very sweeping statement about the
backwardness of Igbo and the luscious bloom of Hausa and Yoruba over Igbo.
On what premise does he hinge these claims: on the number of speakers? On
the number of grammar books? On the number of novels, plays and poetic
anthologies? On the number of students studying the three languages and
offering them in WAEC and JAMB examinations? Or what? How did Achebe carry
out his research and investigations that proved that Igbo lags 250 years
behind Hausa and Yoruba?
Achebe should know that any language that is encumbered with a multiplicity
of dialects should lend itself to standardisation if such a language is to
become a language of education. Standard English is, as Lawrence Hilda puts
it, "normal English," that kind of English which draws least attention to
itself over the widest area and through the range of usage. It is English in
a written form. And according to Randolph Quirk, "a Standard Language is
basically an ideal, a mode of expression that we seek when we wish to
communicate beyond our immediate community. Standard English is the English
often associated with the public schools, Oxford and the BBC." This is the
brand of English Achebe uses in his writings. He never uses Cornish English,
Devonshire English, Lancashire English, Somerset English or Liverpool
English. The English Language has always been a heavily-dialectalised
language but the language has undergone many changes before achieving its
modern state. By the time of the Norman conquest in 1066, the three main
divisions of English-Northern, Midland and Southern-were perceptible. These
divisions continue today in British English. Out of them, the English
created the artificial 'King's English' or 'Received Standard' in which
Achebe writes. The same goes with French which remained an amalgam of vulgar
and broken Latin dialects till the 17th century when Malherbe and Boileau
vigorously introduced strict grammatical and vocabulary rules around one
dialect which became present day French.
Igbo language is saturated with a multiplicity of dialects which people from
various parts of Igboland do not understand with ease. When these dialects
are used as the medium of teaching, broadcasting, writing of books, there
will be no mutual intelligibility among the various segments of people for
our schools, books, and the news media. It is this brand of Igbo-the Union
Igbo-that the CMS, through Dennis, came up with from 1906. Achebe is against
this brand of Igbo. He wants all writers to write in their respective
dialects. He wants every teacher to teach his pupils in his dialect whether
they understand him or not. He wants every broadcaster and programmes
personnel to speak his dialect to his audience whether they understand him
or not. Achebe expects examination syndicates like the WAEC, the JAMB and
the NECO to set as many language papers as there are Igbo dialects for their
Igbo examinations! How can anyone advocate dialectal writing within a
language that is fraught with a multiplicity of dialects?
Dennis did not invent or manufacture a new brand of Igbo. What he and his
team of translators did was mere intralanguage borrowing- introducing
certain words from dialects into the mainstream of Igbo in order to enrich
it, and adopting the more universal versions of lexicals to become the
standards. For example, the word 'market' is variously called in Igbo
'ahia', 'afia', 'avia', 'azhia', 'ashia', 'awhia', 'ephia' etc. So, the
translation bureau having surveyed the geographical spread of speakers of
each version, decided to adopt 'ahia' which had most speakers instead of
allowing for a fluidity in the written form. Any brand of standard language
does not prohibit people from speaking their dialects; its primary focus is
the written form. So, Achebe or any other Igbo person is free to speak his
Ogidi, Isu, Oguta, Izii, Afikpo, Ikwerre, Ohafia, Aboh, or Kwale, but when
it comes to the written form, everybody is expected to yield to the
standard, and nobody is exempt.
We acquire our immediate dialects according to the laws of nature- learning
it directly from our mothers, baby sitters, siblings, relations and
environment, but we acquire the standard form differently. According to
Emenanjo, "Standard Igbo is used by people who are educated in Igbo. It is
not everybody's cup of tea. It is the subject of study, and is learnt in
schools, colleges and universities, from well-edited books. It does not come
naturally no matter our exposure to or our interest in Igbo. It is a variety
that is 'received' just as 'Received Standard English" or Francais Ecrit.
From the foregoing, we discover that Achebe's problem with Igbo is that he
has not learned, and does not know Standard Igbo. He has to subject and
humble himself to learning it. There is no other way. If he masters it, he
will realise himself, and his antagonism with Dennis and Igbo studies will
be a thing of the past.
In the course of his lecture, Achebe levelled many false accusations against
Dennis, and very heartbreaking are the lies he told against the dead.
Perhaps, he does not know that Dennis did not only give us the Union Bible,
he also gave us the Union Hymnal, the Union Reader, and as well revised and
enlarged some books that existed from the era of Isuama studies, one of
which was Crowther's Isoama-Ibo Primer (1857) which turned from a 17-page
document to a 66-page reader, and became popularly known as the Azu Ndu.
Anyone who reads Achebe's lecture will notice an air of superiority and
worldly triumphalism exhibited by the author, almost arrogating to himself
transcendental power which belongs to God alone. One had thought that he
would have exhibited an attitude of humility and thanksgiving to God for the
planting of the Christian faith in Igboland. By attacking Dennis, Achebe was
indirectly pointing accusing fingers at the CMS which commissioned Dennis on
his mission to Egbu in 1904.
In his lecture, Achebe made a very remarkable statement: Asusu di nso, di
omimi, di egwu. Odi (sic) ndu na-eku ume (language is sacred; it is
mysterious, it is wonderful, it is alive and breathing). We agree with
Achebe in toto. But how does he expect the same language, a dynamic entity,
to be static, not making changes and progress? Anything that is alive and
breathes, is capable of reactions at any given time. It is because of those
attributes of language Achebe marshalled out that Igbo language, and indeed,
any other progressive languages of the world, are changing-adding and
subtracting-on daily basis. It is because of those attributes of languages
that Igbo scholars are moving the language forward in every conceivable
direction and manner.
But, it is necessary to outline some of Achebe's fallacies against Dennis
and Union Igbo. First, Dennis did not mandate himself to Egbu for the
translation of the Bible. The executive committee of the CMS at Onitsha
(1904) resolved "that Dennis should be sent to Owerri with the sole purpose
of producing a Union Igbo which would be used in both Onitsha and Owerri
districts."
Professor D. Westernman did not come to Nigeria in 1929 to deal with Dennis'
Union Igbo (p. 24), rather, as an influential member of the International
Institute of African Languages and Cultures (IIALC), he was invited by the
then colonial government of Nigeria for advice on the standardisation of the
orthographies of Efik, Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba, and he advised the adoption
of the "Africa Script" which the Nigerian Board of Education accepted and
adopted.
Dennis selected his team of translators from five distinct areas of
Igboland: Arochukwu, Bonny, Onitsha, Owerri and Unwana (Afikpo) and not just
four (p. 17).
>From what Chukwujekwu Ilozue, The Guardian correspondent at Owerri reported
on 11 September 1999, (and it was Achebe who fed him with the facts), Rev.
J.C. Taylor, a Sierra Leonean Igbo, wanted to correct some anomalies in
Dennis' work but could not succeed because Dennis had strong connections
with the leaders of the Church," was a great sin committed against Dennis
and Taylor. Which J.C. Taylor? Rev. Taylor was the pioneer and architect of
the Onitsha Mission from 1857 when Crowther founded the mission. He quit the
mission in 1871 out of anger and frustration and returned to Sierra Leone.
By the time Achebe was talking of, Taylor might have long been dead or too
old (about 100 years) to venture out of Onitsha. Moreover, Taylor was not a
linguist, and he knew only his Isuama dialect. How could he have been asked
to assess a monumental and technical linguistic work as Dennis'? But agreed
that the CMS invited him to critique that work, how could Dennis have
prevented him?
Achebe knows very well that since the Igbo race had not, and still does not
have any central political authority as is obtainable in Hausaland or
Yorubaland, it was not, and still not possible to impose any one dialect on
the Igbo just as Crowther did to Yoruba by imposing Oyo dialect on Yoruba
studies. Crowther understood early enough what perils lay ahead of Yoruba
education had every dialect of Yoruba been encouraged to spring up in Yoruba
studies. So, missionaries like Dennis, in order to avoid these problems,
sought a way out through standardisation. Afterwards, standardisation does
not mean the imposition of any dialect on the Igbo. But if Dennis had opted
for Ogidi, Achebe's dialect, I believe it, Achebe would not have been crying
wolf, today. He could have been all praises for Dennis whom he is
castigating as the number one enemy of the Igbo. In fact, Logon Pearsall
Smith got it very well when he said that when idealists come downstairs from
their ivory towers, they are apt to walk straight into the gutter.
One does not understand Achebe when he asks whether one could create
poetry-lyric and elegy-with Union Igbo (Iga-ejinwu (sic) asusua (sic) gu
egwu anuli ma obu (sic) kwa akwa alili (sic)? (p. 19). This is an absurd
question. Why can't people create literature in standard languages?
Certainly, Achebe cannot use Standard Igbo for a song because he grew up in
his own dialect and does not know Standard Igbo just as a John Osborne or an
Albert Camus (English and French contemporary writers respectively) cannot
sing in the language of Boweoulf or Roman de la Rose (old English and French
texts respectively). But, he Achebe, should realise that his own son or any
other Nigerian child of today who has studied Standard Igbo will easily
sing, cry and laugh in Standard Igbo. A popular example of a lyric in Union
Igbo is O Meworo m ya. And on p. 13 of his lecture, Achebe did not realise
that the elegiac hymn he wrote out is based on Union Igbo.
If we leave Achebe unchallenged, and fail to inform the generality of our
people on what Standard Igbo is all about, he might lead us into another
language controversy. And getting worried over the orthography controversy
that raged among the Igbo during the 1940s and 1950s, Miss. M.M. Green, an
English educationist, researcher and writer among the Igbo stated as
follows: "Suppose that the following English sentence, "He walked into the
garden" were sometimes to be spelt: 'hewalk ed in to the gar-den' or 'H'
walked into the' garden' or 'Hi work edin too the garrdenn,' the
inconsistencies would hardly facilitate either writing or reading. But such
variations are common in the writing of an Igbo text by the same writer, to
say nothing of the variations between one writer and another. If Igbo people
are to make any contemporary contribution to literature, if they are to
record the riches of their traditionally unwritten literature, if their
language is to take its place as a fit subject for study in a university
degree course, steps must be taken to reduce the present chaos in spelling
to some approaching order. For purposes of mass literacy, the need is not
less urgent."
Such awkward versions of that sentence-'He walked into the garden'- are what
Achebe stands for in Igbo studies, and such are the sort of things with
which he filled the pages of his 1999 Odenigbo Lecture. Is it not
embarrassing that an academic like Achebe should recommend such a system of
writing for his beloved Igbo?
It is relevant to draw Achebe's attention to this genuine warning of
Professor Nwoga ". we must think of the future of the language. A resistance
to any change in one's style of speaking Igbo is natural but then we have to
think of written Igbo and think of easing the problems of future generations
in the use of language for written communication.
Finally, thanks to God that Achebe's Odenigbo Lecture is entitled: Echi di
Ime: Taa Bu Gboo. Let him, as from today, learn to respect his people and
all constituted authority. He should be humble enough to bend down to learn
the rudiments of Standard Igbo so as to contribute meaningfully to its
growth in order that Igbo does not lag behind any other Nigerian language.
Shall we continue to dwell in the past? Shall we not move Igbo forward?
Thanks also to God that Achebe told the story of a man who was very
stiff-necked that he tried to stop the march of progress, and was swept away
in the course of events. Let not Achebe constitute himself a cog in the
wheel of progress like one Chief Nwakpuda of Old Umuahia who tried to stop a
locomotive engine from passing through his village. We believe also that
Achebe will not be like the legendary Canute who wanted to stop the march of
the waves, Achebe should stop embarrassing himself, for, a beautiful face
does not deserve a slap, as the Igbo say.
Dr. Inno Uzoma Nwadike is a Senior Lecturer of Igbo Literature at the
University of Nigeria Nsukka.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L
Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
