I shall return home someday, Prof. Chinua Achebe tells CNN
By Tope Templer Olaiya

World acclaimed novelist, Prof. Chinua Achebe, best known for his first novel, Things Fall Apart, which is one of the most widely read book in modern African literature, has said he will breathe his last breathe in his homeland, Nigeria.






In an interview monitored yesterday on CNN, Achebe said: "I will live in Nigeria again; I will live and die there, once I have done what I have to do."

Currently engaged at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in the United States of America, he is set to publish his first new book in more than 20 years; The Education of a British Protected Child: A Collection Of Autobiographical Essays. Writing for him is both difficult and interesting, "because while it is work, it is also enjoyable for me. Again, it is the only thing I really wanted to do and have not been disappointed by my writing. I have been disappointed by all kinds of other things and people, but not by my writing."

Acclaimed for his unsentimental depictions of the social and psychological disorientation accompanying the imposition of Western customs and values upon traditional African society, he has refused to be called the father of African literature. He said, "I was never consulted before that title was given to me, so I am resistant in referring to myself as such. I don't think anybody owns the art, especially the art of a people, it is not mine it's ours."

Asked which young African writer he is excited most about, Achebe bluntly replied that he doesn't give answers to those kind of questions, "because I might forget my best friends and name somebody I didn't really intend to name, I don't think it is the business of writers, particularly senior writers to sit down, authenticate, and pass judgment on the younger generation of writers, and make it look like I have to go and bow to someone before I can claim to be a writer.

"Literature is a big house with many rooms and the possibilities of literature is limitless, which is why it is okay to tell your own story in your own language."
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