Out of Africa: QUESTIONS FOR CHINUA ACHEBE

Interview by DEBORAH SOLOMON for the NY Times
Published: March 22, 2010

Since its publication in 1958, “Things Fall Apart,” the story of a Nigerian yam farmer who is unable to accept the changes wrought by British colonialism, has become the best-selling novel ever written by an African.
Well, I hear such exaggerated comments. I just leave them alone.

It’s a staple of American high-school English classes, and it has supposedly sold more than eight million copies.
That would be possible. I’m not grumbling; I have done well. But don’t imagine I’m a millionaire.

Things are again falling apart in Nigeria, which was in the news this month, when a predawn massacre occurred near Jos and all the world saw images of Christian villagers, many of them women and children, laid out in mass graves. Do you think the incident is related to the spread of Muslim extremism?
It is, but it is other things as well. My own explanation would be the failure of the authorities in Nigeria to address the issue. The nation cannot be trusted to use the machinery oflaw and order. And in that kind of situation, all kinds of people who are normally sort of put aside suddenly find an opening for evil.

What do you think of Nigeria’s acting president, Goodluck Jonathan, who just dissolved the cabinet?

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