Crixxx:
Chinua Achebe is greater than Wole any time any day.. The European only favoured Sole just to spite China based on how deep and true his stories were.. Corruption began with the British.

You are ignorant.

One idiot here on Nairaland said Achebe was denied the Nobel prize because he supported Biafra. He had forgotten that Soyinka was jailed for supporting Biafra while Achebe was busy sleeping with college girls in America.

Chinua is a storyteller who excelled in writing beer parlour stories. Wole excelled in the 3 branches of literature and wrote intellectually stimulating books. Go and read The Interpreters by Wole Soyinka and see if you would remain the same.

Sahgs:
His by far Nigeria's if not Africa's GOAT.
I've always wondered why he never won the award too but am pretty sure is got to do with politics......
Loved his novels with the likes of Elechi Amadi, Cyprian Ekwensi, Chukwuemeka Ike etc they're my favorite writers no books today can compare to theirs

Your knowledge of literature is limited to Prose that's why you have no knowledge of poetry and drama which are the other branches of literature.

Chinua Achebe is a storyteller who got lucky. If it were in today's Nigeria or Africa, many young and better writers would have trounced him.

Soyinka on the other hand is in the category of Shakespeare. He excelled in Prose, Poetry and Drama. Mention a single anthology by Achebe that you know.

Achebe, the father of modern African literature

Achebe was good no doubt, but he was not greater than the noble laureate ok... if he was, he would hold one... there is different between being the best and being the greatest... as per naija standard, achebe is the best and soyinka is the greatest..

FrLukas:


Really?

You mean you actually read the Animal Farm by George Orwell and you couldn't find a comparison in the book with Nigeria's current situation?

I am very sure you've never read that book before.

Wrong conclusion.....I can relate sir especially in our politicians but we talking about culture here ....thanks

munchi:


Wrong conclusion.....I can relate sir especially in our politicians but we talking about culture here ....thanks

You mean the pervading culture of impunity, corruption, self-centerdness which has become the Nigerian motto and is fast destroying the morality of our youths isn't relevant in the analysis of Animal Farm?

FrLukas:


You mean the pervading culture of impunity, corruption, self-centerdness which has become the Nigerian motto and is fast destroying the morality of our youths isn't relevant in the analysis of Animal Farm?

And how does that relate to a WACE sitting kid ? Get my point ....

Hotfreezer:


You are ignorant.

One idiot here on Nairaland said Achebe was denied the Nobel prize because he supported Biafra. He had forgotten that Soyinka was jailed for supporting Biafra while Achebe was busy sleeping with college girls in America.

Chinua is a storyteller who excelled in writing beer parlour stories. Wole excelled in the 3 branches of literature and wrote intellectually stimulating books. Go and read The Interpreters by Wole Soyinka and see if you would remain the same.

Don't be dull.. Seems you hardly read. The depth and true facts of his books was most of the reason he was denied surely no government or body will want to award a writer that speaks against them and a critic.. You can term it bear parlour book to feel fulfilled but it doesn't change the fact that Achebe was a better man. Being a Nobel prize winner doesn't make him a master in his field neither is it a yardstick of feat... Things fall apart is a book translated in hundreds of languages. No one can deny Achebe is the Father of African Literature.. You can also read about Graham Greene and also read In response to Conrad's heart of darkness.

Hotfreezer:


Your knowledge of literature is limited to Prose that's why you have no knowledge of poetry and drama which are the other branches of literature.

Chinua Achebe is a storyteller who got lucky. If it were in today's Nigeria or Africa, many young and better writers would have trounced him.

Soyinka on the other hand is in the category of Shakespeare. He excelled in Prose, Poetry and Drama. Mention a single anthology by Achebe that you know.

Lucky indeed.....tribalism runs in your blood!
Soyinka and Shakespeare indeed

munchi:


And how does that relate to a WACE sitting kid ? Get my point ....

No I don't.

It is a piece of literature, so how isn't that relevant to a literature student?

Besides, the points raised in the book are as universally relevant as they are timeless.

[s]

ElectorAlexande:
Chinua Achebe has made a name for himself in the literary space and has laid a landmark only a few writers can match his prolific output and prowess in capturing and probating an image of Africa is beyond remarks. Lately, there has been a lot of contemplation on his echelon in the literary space - why he wasn't able to clinch the Nobel Laureate in his shelf of awards.

As Paul Samuel son posit; the dream of any scholar comes through by this award, The Nobel Laureate. Alfred Nobel's will in (1895) had it that the award was intended for the person who in the literary field, had produced 'the most outstanding work in a direction' one could easily conclude that Chinua Achebe and a plethora of writers like Graham Greene haven't fallen short of this criterium. Peter Jazzy Ezeh writes that Chinua Achebe and Graham Greene could have been omitted for the award due to their constant commitment in their support of the oppressed rather than the interest of the the interest of the big powers (the former especially in his pursuit of BIAFRA).


Various opinions have also perceived that those who receive the price lately haven't really done much to deserve it. Elfriede Jelinek (Austrian 2004) who herself felt she didn't deserve it ( a member of the Academy resigned in protest of the award) or is it Claude Simon the French writer whom ( the permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy - givers of the award) answered in an interview that he only heard of the name after he-Simon Claude won the prize.


Nevertheless, it would have made more weight for the stand of the Author, bit since the prize is not given posthumously, reasons, why Achebe didn't receive the award before he passes on, would still continue to be an open deliberation.



However, the Nobel Laureate would not decide the best of intellectual output the world has to bequeath us... Since it is recorded that Swedes have received more prizes than Asia put together, this could spark a reply that the Nobel Laureate now has a better meaning to 'a lofty and sound idealism'.

Chinualumogu Achebe has, however, earned himself much honour and reverence that has dwarfed the Nobel committee. His literary works can speak for it!

https://www.historicalville.com/2019/11/chinua-achebe-icon-beyond-nobel.html?m=1

[/s]

This comparism between Wole Soyinka and Chinua Achebe really has to stop.

This has nothing to do with tribalism or ethnicity.

The Nobel awarding body has awarded the prize to whom they deemed fit. Wole Soyinka is the best of them.

That Achebe never got one doesn't mean he isn't a fine writer.

Comparing him to Wole Soyinka is to lower the achievements of Achebe. Like, if we can't prove that Achebe is greater than Soyinka it would mean Achebe wasn't a good writer.

The right person got the award. Get over it already.

ElectorAlexande:
Chinua Achebe has made a name for himself in the literary space and has laid a landmark only a few writers can match his prolific output and prowess in capturing and probating an image of Africa is beyond remarks. Lately, there has been a lot of contemplation on his echelon in the literary space - why he wasn't able to clinch the Nobel Laureate in his shelf of awards.

As Paul Samuel son posit; the dream of any scholar comes through by this award, The Nobel Laureate. Alfred Nobel's will in (1895) had it that the award was intended for the person who in the literary field, had produced 'the most outstanding work in a direction' one could easily conclude that Chinua Achebe and a plethora of writers like Graham Greene haven't fallen short of this criterium. Peter Jazzy Ezeh writes that Chinua Achebe and Graham Greene could have been omitted for the award due to their constant commitment in their support of the oppressed rather than the interest of the the interest of the big powers (the former especially in his pursuit of BIAFRA).


Various opinions have also perceived that those who receive the price lately haven't really done much to deserve it. Elfriede Jelinek (Austrian 2004) who herself felt she didn't deserve it ( a member of the Academy resigned in protest of the award) or is it Claude Simon the French writer whom ( the permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy - givers of the award) answered in an interview that he only heard of the name after he-Simon Claude won the prize.


Nevertheless, it would have made more weight for the stand of the Author, bit since the prize is not given posthumously, reasons, why Achebe didn't receive the award before he passes on, would still continue to be an open deliberation.



However, the Nobel Laureate would not decide the best of intellectual output the world has to bequeath us... Since it is recorded that Swedes have received more prizes than Asia put together, this could spark a reply that the Nobel Laureate now has a better meaning to 'a lofty and sound idealism'.

Chinualumogu Achebe has, however, earned himself much honour and reverence that has dwarfed the Nobel committee. His literary works can speak for it!

https://www.historicalville.com/2019/11/chinua-achebe-icon-beyond-nobel.html?m=1

I love reading his books.
Achebe would have done well as a cultural historian than being a literary artist.

Foolish people

Fadomero:
You can say the man is good not beyond nobel laurel him brain then learn from wole

Show me any of Wole Soyinka works that sold over 10 million copies and was translated into over 50 languages

munchi:


The British greed doesn’t relate to the common Nigerian cultural problem .....haven’t you noticed the average Lagos or Abuja kid can’t speak her local dialect ? Our culture is going away that’s why our local masquerade is evil but Halloween is swag ....we need our culture back in any way possible ....

Which indomie generation kid knows about oduduwa or ofor?

We are still saying the same thing, good books can be translated to local dialect. Even good books from our shores are found in foreign shelves and in their language too

adamadwealthy:



I love reading his books.
Achebe would have done well as a cultural historian than being a literary artist.

His best literary works still resonates worldwide years after his death.

Things fall apart has sold over 10 million copies till now.

Things fall apart has also been converted to over 50 languages.

Wole Soyinka that people compare with Achebe isn't even close in anyway by any standard

Guestuser:

True

Which of Wole Soyinka works compared with things fall apart?

Throwback:
I still don't understand the repetitive wailing over the lack of a Nobel award.

Only 4 black people in history have won Nobel prize in an academic field. All other black men/women won the award in the Peace category.

The 4 academic black Nobel awardees are:

1. William Arthur Lewis. American (Economics 1979)
2. Wole Soyinka. Nigerian (Literature 1986)
3. Derek Walcott. St Lucian (Literature 1992)
3. Toni Morrison. American (Literature 1993)

Wole Soyinka has the distinction of being the first continental African to win the Nobel Prize in an academic field, and the first black person worldwide to win the Literature Nobel Prize.

Other Africans who have won the Nobel Prize in an Academic field are either Arab or White South African.

No single work of Soyinka comes anywhere close to Achebes things fall apart.

PrecisionFx:


His best literary works still resonates worldwide years after his death.

Things fall apart has sold over 10 million copies till now.

Things fall apart has also been converted to over 50 languages.

Wole Soyinka that people compare with Achebe isn't even close in anyway by any standard

Simple stuff
Go and collect the nobel prize for achebee

emapeteum:
Chinua Achebe was an outstanding scholar of international. But saying his plethora of other wards he got thwarted that of the Nobel Prize is laughable.

The nobel prize has been a useless award firbages now.

Many of its recipients have openly said they don't deserve it.

Chinua Achebe never won that bible price because he wrote against the white colonial masters

PrecisionFx:


No single work of Soyinka comes anywhere close to Achebes things fall apart.

Firstly, Nobel is not a popularity contest of the works of the awardees.

Secondly, the Prize is for Literature and not for just the Prose component of Literature that also includes Play (Drama) and Poetry, which are Soyinka's main strengths and for which specific reason he was awarded in 1986.

If other awardees before and after Soyinka had works that were more popular than Soyinka's, then we would have argued that Soyinka's award was an aberration.

So I reiterate, it is not awarded based on whose work is more popular or widely translated, or based on who is better at Prose.

South Africa's Nadine Gordimer, won the Nobel Literature Prize on the strength of her Prose in 1991. Maybe that was the year Achebe should have won it for being more popular in Prose than Nadine Gordimer.

Achebe wasn't even under consideration when Soyinka won it in 1986.

Lol dude didn't win Noble Laureate simple why belabor the issue?

kokomilala:
I think we should just stop politicising the Nobel Prize. Yes, Achebe didn't win it, but it didn't diminish his status as a literary giant.
Achebe changed the wrong perception of the West about Africa.His iconic Things Fall Apart was a reaction to Joyce Carey's Mister Johnson and Joseph Conrad's The Heart of Darkness.
Things Fall Apart is the greatest African novel ever.It's also on the list of the 100 greatest novels ever written in English language. And talk of the 10 best English novels of all time,it's also on the list.Not quite long,the British public voted it as the 5th greatest novel written in English language.
I'm a Yoruba and I love Soyinka style of writing, but when it comes to prose narrative, set forth in a compelling and moving fashion, it's got to be Achebe in Africa and elsewhere. Not many tell stories like him.

Yeah... Achebe is king when it comes to prose narrative. He made me more interested in learning more about the Igbo culture then, Adichie came and she toed the same line. Soyinka and Achebe are not the same thing, despite their works. We don't need the Nobel to tell us what books to read.

PrecisionFx:


Which of Wole Soyinka works compared with things fall apart?

Ok

Hotfreezer:


You are ignorant.

One idiot here on Nairaland said Achebe was denied the Nobel prize because he supported Biafra. He had forgotten that Soyinka was jailed for supporting Biafra while Achebe was busy sleeping with college girls in America.

Chinua is a storyteller who excelled in writing beer parlour stories. Wole excelled in the 3 branches of literature and wrote intellectually stimulating books. Go and read The Interpreters by Wole Soyinka and see if you would remain the same.

My brother, you get time. It is their stock in trade, so these lamentations should not surprise you. Suddenly the prestigious Nobel award is being watered down just to fit their low self esteem.

FrLukas:



No I don't.

It is a piece of literature, so how isn't that relevant to a literature student?

Besides, the points raised in the book are as universally relevant as they are timeless.

So animal farm is a better book for a NIGERIAN wace student than things fall apart ....you win bro

While I easily agree with the obvious, that Chinua Achebe is arguably the best Nigeria has ever produced in the literary field, OPs piece is a very lack-lustre, unprofessional, inarticulate attempt at conveying that. He deserves a more in-depth, professional critiquing than this. As for those who ignorantly downplay his achievements because of a nobel award he didn't get, shame on you. Be emancipated from mental slavery and slave mentality. A group of men create an award system and set their standards and by so doing, you let them take away and redefine your sense of judgement. Don't the intelligent know that any system created by man is designed for compromise as man himself is a compromise? Or have you not seen even the very fault lines of democracy, the supposed epitome of freedom now being used to impose a greater slavery than any other political system? Think for yourselves, his works are so impactful in shaping men's thinking and preserving truth and freedom for the African race far more than even Wole Soyinka's(not taking anything away from him though), as well as some other Nobel laureates, going by facts(having been reprinted in over 50 languages alone) and inspiring protégés from all over the world like Chimamanda and many more. The greatest achievement a man can have on earth is his influence in shaping the thinking of others for positive results and conquering the limitations of societal structures to do this. And that's regardless of whether he is given a medal by men or not. Like Socrates, like Chinua Achebe. They live on, even inside of you.

chiboy1116:
why would u say " him brain de learn from wole" ? Can't u just read and appreciate him without making baseless comparisons ?

The camouflaged objective of this article is actually the "baseless comparisons". it is a needless attack ,borne out of jealousy against Prof Wole Soyinka.

The piece is a mere emotional outburst from a bitter mind.

munchi:


So animal farm is a better book for a NIGERIAN wace student than things fall apart ....you win bro

Bro, did you study in Nigeria at all?

Ask past literature students if they had only ONE book for literature.

They had various. So there's no "better than" here. Before leaving the secondary school as an arts student, you must have been introduced to various Nigerian, other African and international writers, as you should. That's the norm.

He is just an excellen story teller. And as there many of such, he is not qualify for more. Thomas Hardy was a better story teller...

IvarTheBoneless:


e pain am.

He said the truth ogah..

I studied Eng & Literature and guess what? No Eng. student would dare rate Wole works to the Almighty Achebe's.