Achebe's work, postcoloniality, and human rights

Abstract

In his article "Achebe's Work, Postcoloniality, and Human Rights" Eric Sipyinyu Njeng argues that Chinua Achebe exposes failings in the fabric of African society and engages with violations of human rights. Achebe is careful not to hurt the pride of Africans who in the Zeitgeist of the nationalist ferment of the 1950s were wary of European powers. Njeng posits that Achebe supports Edward W. Said's theory of cultural imperialism in the sense Achebe represents Africa as "darkness" thus inviting the West (the light) to bestow its civilizing role by implanting its institutions. Achebe does not "write back" to the empire: he writes the empire in. He lays bare the weaknesses in African culture inviting the civilizer and this is grounded in the father-son-grandson trajectory he narrates. Achebe presents what may be termed a cultural dialectics: the thesis (flawed African customs represented in violations of human rights) collides with its antithesis (colonialism and Christianity) leading to a synthesis (a recognition of colonial agency and appropriation of values). Purdue University Press ©Purdue University.