50 Years On: David Kaiz Considers the Legacy of the Heinemann African Writers Series
In the latest issue of the Du Bois Institute’s Transition magazine, David Kaiz offers a critique of the Heinemann African Writers Series, which celebrates 50 years in 2012. The Heinemann series, revamped by Penguin Books in 2009 under the editorial eye of Chinua Achebe, has been home to many of Africa’s literary greats, including Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Ben Okri, Buchi Emecheta and Achebe himself.
According to Kaiz, the series’ “gift to literature” was the “introduction of a language, a climate of metaphor” – he refers, by way of example, to the “Eneke bird” of Nigerian fable, which can be found in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart.
The essay opens with a passage from Achebe’s No Longer at Ease:
In the oIl-lamp lit room, the father, sitting across from his British-educated son, attempts to assert his authority on a matter violently testing his faith. We can almost hear his voice tighten:
“You cannot marry the girl.”
“Eh?”
“I said you cannot marry the girl.”
“But why, father?”
“Why? I shall tell you why. But first tell me this. Did you first find out or try to find out anything about this girl?”
“Yes .”
“What did you find out?”
This “anything” about “this girl” (Clara, whom we do not dislike), concerns a resilient pre-colonial taboo. Just as Roman Catholicism had, nearly two millennia before, wound the revolutionary faith from Judea around pagan Roman rites, so too will Christianity not pry loose Obi’s family from old Igbo don’ts. And on this most ancient of ancient matters—passing the family seed—unyielding traction develops.
- Keep reading (pdf download)
Book details
- Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
EAN: 9780435909888
Find this book with BOOK Finder!
- Weep Not, Child by Ngugi wa Thiong’o
EAN: 9780435908300
Find this book with BOOK Finder!
- Arrow of God by Chinua Achebe
EAN: 9780435905309
Find this book with BOOK Finder!
- The River Between by Ngugi wa Thiong’o
EAN: 9780435905484
Find this book with BOOK Finder!
- A Grain of Wheat by Ngugi wa Thiong’o
EAN: 9780435909871
Find this book with BOOK Finder!
- The Beautyful Ones are Not Yet Born by Ayi Kwei Armah
EAN: 9780435905408
Find this book with BOOK Finder!
- God’s Bits of Wood by Sembene Ousmane
EAN: 9780435909598
Find this book with BOOK Finder!
- The Joys of Motherhood by Buchi Emecheta
EAN: 9780435909727
Find this book with BOOK Finder!
- Season of Migration to the North by Tayeb Salih
EAN: 9780435909741
Find this book with BOOK Finder!
- From a Crooked Rib by Nuruddin Farah
EAN: 9780435900809
Find this book with BOOK Finder!
- The Grass is Singing by Doris Lessing
EAN: 9780435901318
Find this book with BOOK Finder!
- Mhudi by Sol T Plaatje
EAN: 9780435902018
Find this book with BOOK Finder!
- Black Sunlight by Dambudzo Marechera
Book homepage
EAN: 9780143026204
Find this book with BOOK Finder!
- I Write What I Like by Steve Biko
EAN: 9780435905989
Find this book with BOOK Finder!
- House of Hunger by Dambudzo Marechera
Book homepage
EAN: 9780435895983
Find this book with BOOK Finder!
- Changes by Ama Ata Aidoo
EAN: 9780435910143
Find this book with BOOK Finder!
- The Blind Fisherman by Mia Couto
Book homepage
EAN: 9780143026921
Find this book with BOOK Finder!
- No Longer at Ease by Chinua Achebe
EAN: 9780435913519
Find this book with BOOK Finder!
- Distant View of a Minaret by Alifa Rifaat
EAN: 9780435909123
Find this book with BOOK Finder!
- The Interpreters by Wole Soyinka
EAN: 9780435900762
Find this book with BOOK Finder!
- The Street by Biyi Bandele
Book homepage
EAN: 9780143026464
Find this book with BOOK Finder!
- As the Crow Flies by Véronique Tadjo
Book homepage
EAN: 9780143026228
Find this book with BOOK Finder!
- A Shattering of Silence by Farida Karodia
Book homepage
EAN: 9780143026471
Find this book with BOOK Finder!
- Neighbours: The story of a murder by Lília Momplé
Book homepage
EAN: 9780143026211
Find this book with BOOK Finder!
- Patchwork by Ellen Banda-Aaku
Book homepage
EAN: 9780143527534
Find this book with BOOK Finder!
- A Question of Power by Bessie Head
Book homepage
EAN: 9780143528487
Find this book with BOOK Finder!
- Dangerous Love by Ben Okri
Book homepage
EAN: 9780143528265
Find this book with BOOK Finder!
- You’re Not a Country, Africa: A Personal History of the African Present by Pius Adesanmi
Book homepage
EAN: 9780143527541
Find this book with BOOK Finder!
- The Hangman’s Game by Karen King-Aribisala
Book homepage
EAN: 9780143026082
Find this book with BOOK Finder!
- Girls at War and Other Stories by Chinua Achebe
Book homepage
EAN: 9780143026235
Find this book with BOOK Finder!
- Weep Not, Child by Ngugi wa Thiong’o
Book homepage
EAN: 9780143026242
Find this book with BOOK Finder!
Please register or log in to comment