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Chinua Achebe Wins International Booker Prize
by Joe Face, Account Processor

To the layperson, it must seem that the announcement that Chinua Achebe has won the 2007 Man Booker International Prize is little more than a blurb on Yahoo! News, and hardly noteworthy at that. After all, there are thousands of literary achievements possible for writers of all genres, why should any one be considered more prestigious than Oprah’s book of the week?

Let’s clarify something here.

The Man Booker International Prize is significant. It is not just another one of those contests where literary peons attempt to separate themselves from the rest of their fad-soaked brethren of fiction writers. It is most certainly not highlighted by a glitzy award show where celebrities talk about designer outfits or their favorite charities, nor is it a simple Blue Ribbon award. The Booker Prize is definitive proof of one’s worth to the literary establishment.

The Booker, as it is affectionately known, has a snobbish pride in itself (the official website declares the prize as being "the world's most important literary award" and that it "has the power to transform the fortunes of authors and even publishers"). You will not be seeing Stephen King’s name upon the shortlist of nominees, nor will J.K. Rowling’s bespectacled hero make himself comfortable around the likes of these books. Instead, you’ll be seeing names such as Salmon Rushdie, Margaret Atwood, and Phillip Roth. The biennial prize attempts to celebrate each nominee’s literary merit by pitting scholarly careers in competition. If you’ve ever debated whether Salmon Rushdie had a greater impact on the fiction scene over John Updike, this is the place to start. If the prize is nothing else, it is certainly prestigious.

So to say that Chinua Achebe, the eminent Nigerian author of Things Fall Apart and Anthills of the Savannah, has "only" won the 2007 Man Booker International prize is shortchanging it a bit. It serves to highlight a career that has brought prominence to the African literary scene. The Booker’s trio of judges chose Achebe’s work in part for its rich descriptions of African culture in the wake of Western colonialism, but also for his contribution to the voice of African literary, political, and philosophical thought.

Chinua’s fiction is often riddled with rhetorical questions resulting from the clash of Western and African cultures. In this excerpt he further questions the hypocrisy of the colonists, twisting the stereotype of primitivism upon the Europeans.

'"If we leave our gods and follow your god," asked another man, "who will protect us from the anger of our neglected gods and ancestors?" "Your gods are not alive and cannot do you any harm," replied the white man. "They are pieces of wood and stone." When this was interpreted to the men of Mbanta they broke into derisive laughter. These men must be mad, they said to themselves. How else could they say that Ani and Amadiora were harmless? And Idemili and Ogwugwu too?’ (From Things Fall Apart, 1958)

Achebe gained notoriety for lambasting Nobel Peace Prize laureate Albert Schweitzer for his supposition of superiority over his African patients, as well as for his criticism of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness for its depiction of Africa as little more than a savage harshland, a portrayal, he assessed, as being far too common among the European literary establishment: "I would be quite satisfied if my novels (especially the ones I set in the past) did no more than teach my readers that their past - with all its imperfections - was not one long night of savagery from which the first Europeans acting on God's behalf delivered them," he wrote in an essay in 1975.

Speaking from Bard College in New York, where he is professor of languages and literature, Achebe a responded to the news of his selection: "It was 50 years ago this year that I began writing my first novel, Things Fall Apart. It is wonderful to hear that my peers have looked at the body of work I have put together in the last 50 years and judged it deserving of this important recognition. I am grateful."

Achebe will receive the £60,000 prize on June 28 at a ceremony at Christ Church in Oxford.

Below is a list of titles by Chinua Achebe. For your convenience, this list is also available in a MS Excel spreadsheet. click here.

AFRICAN SHORT STORIES.