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Quote by Chinua Achebe

“I think not just Nigeria but I think the whole of Africa has to turn back to the rural areas and that's where the majority of the citizens are and that's where the engine of of development has to be found.”

Quote by Chinua Achebe

Author

Nigerian novelist, poet, literary critic, widely regarded as one of the greatest African writers of the 20th century. Chinua Achebe is known for his profound insights into colonialism and African culture, with works such as 'Things Fall Apart' and 'Arrow of God'. more

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“The rural areas have been deprived by the cities in the past. Development resources and energy should be directed where the people live.”

People Should Has Beens Past Energy Cities Development Resources Areas Deprived Rural Areas

Author:Chinua Achebe

“I'm sure if one turned one's mind back from grandiose faults to what is happening to the average man or woman or child in the rural areas, we will probably find that's where the energy for development is.”

Ifs Men Mind Children Energy Development Happenings Areas Faults Average Average Man Grandiose Rural Areas

Author:Chinua Achebe

“For people who are coming out of an oral tradition, it is very exciting to get into reading and writing and it is quite interesting how frequently people want to write their own story. Sometimes it is straight history - this is how we came about, how our town was created, a lot of that kind of effort, as soon as literacy came. The first thing you wanted to do was to put something down about who you are or how you are related to you neighbors. Then the next stage would be the stories, the cultural part of the story: this is the kind of world our ancestors made or aspired to.”

“We don't want to be simply wandering about without some kind of reason, we want our presence here to have a purpose, and that we are not going to end here, we are going to proceed somewhere else, and also that we didn't begin here, that we began somewhere else and all that living, all that elaborate account of our presence seems to be quite basic to our nature and so this is what literacy taps into.”

Want Kind Ends Reason Seems Purpose Accounts Wander Literacy Somewhere Else

Author:Chinua Achebe

“The market literature, which was particularly strong in Igboland, in Onitsha, today it is no longer strong. It is one of the victims of the civil war, that market was actually destroyed and at the end of the war a new Nigeria has struggled to come into being and I believe that what is probably going to replace the market literature might be the video, which they have taken to in a big way, creating dramas. So that may be the next thing way we will see coming out of the local basic level in our society.”

Way Believe May War Ends Bigs Might Today Next Literature Strong I Believe Levels Taken Drama Creating Victim Locals Video Destroyed Civil War Our Society Coming Out Nigeria

Author:Chinua Achebe

“I do not think that there need be the conflict between books and videos, that one would drive out the other. It certainly is possible to watch the screen for some things and for others to sit down and read, because the screen is easier to do, to watch is easier than to read because you don't have to contemplate anything. Someone else has done the work of putting it on the video.”

Thinking Needs Book Done Watches Easier Conflict Down And Screens Video Contemplating

Author:Chinua Achebe

“If you were to loose the habit of making the effort to get the book and read the words one by one you would have lost something terribly important. So I think that we have a task to ensure that this doesn't happen.”

Ifs Thinking Important Book Happens Lost Effort Habit Tasks

Author:Chinua Achebe

“Naming is like putting a stamp on something and fixing it. A kind of formaldehyde sort of fixation, but it becomes dead, sitting there forever, frozen. So, I'm not a great one for these modernist, post modernist, post colonial labels. I think they serve certain purpose. You do need some kind of sign post here and there, but it can also become an end in itself.”

Thinking Needs Kind Ends Purpose Certain Forever Sitting Labels Posts Frozen Stamps Here And There Fixing Great Ones Fixation

Author:Chinua Achebe

“It is not quite true to say that I am not an advocate of writing in African languages. What I think is, one has to think about what is practicable.”

Thinking Writing Language

Author:Chinua Achebe

“I think that is one of the first things that I got clear in my mind when I began to play around with fiction, that I had to find a language and it was not in existance at the time. You have put it very well - it wasn't to be taken for granted. You had to go on and search until you found a way through the conversation of English and Igbo. The two languages stuck into each other and tried to find a way to express through one, the medium of the thoughts. That's a very exciting thing to do, a very difficult thing to do.”