African Writers of Today; 4; Chinua Achebe

- Transcript
the national educational television resent the writers of today a series of programs are surveying the literary scene in contemporary africa today we feature an interview with the nigerian novelist it is you were showing me legos college
we can as we are sitting with him were part of that amount was the us or based company a regional parliament in writing here ought to be on you know one wants a simplicity in technique and a very complex technical college in the many lesser angle would like to add that you were all in production
the referees oh no representative that is kind of a strong spiritual quality revenue from you know this is the conscious creation of the sky with all of them
is the sense of the caucus that has really changed is that leaders like they're all this is that's right you
know me in this law thank you and they'll get caught up in houston now i'm really interested in what some people have described as well let the wall and i'll passing on your characters in the first novel that you wrote or things for our babies
who came in waves we have an update what were warned by why is protective of these men carry they saw the low fat he doesn't owe avoid doing so i love the way you look at that house it all things and thought that you were not able to make any judgment on that he is in the fire i'm renee montagne
thank you you're right well no lloyd it
you mentioned the economy i think that there's a kind of almost besides right now without a
question this song kind of went on the end of the month and that saudi here is a vision of where he wanted to be in the only moderate picture hawking traditional polynesian possible i mean we're well
bill in the oval office because so when you were going to draw our own records and medicine to you did you find any weaknesses and indeed in the west in the old people have a long weekend why not or
perhaps he will be held in the usual way out of those who don't get it on your own without knowledge about and is that knowledge and then a little bit about that yes indeed and
today's money involved in this right right they need it now all right unintelligible thank you
all right that's right it's big you're welcome that it is an island just wondering whether you own that there was something to be done with these devices that the buildings where they
wanted to do with it or not just going on in the world yeah it all right that's right i've been
good i mean nice going i don't you do yeah
right well i don't want to make a distinction between tradition and you know and the europeans all to be you are getting all of a sudden all of the option to use another one interrupting the cost of that but it can be enjoyed by a single person himself with odds of being together and a lot of other people that i met another listener juanita morris's own line instead in just home would also call in nigeria has only thing you know we lose
is a long day and that a lot of what happened in it all that has already been the reaction of said oh you know it's a very odd thing is this edition
of the politicians beginning in the good lie yeah yeah i think politicians over the world in addition to the polls
the whole business of writing physician assistance thank you no problem why
now if you invest in your work it's morning edition right right
to do it you can really see in those kind of tumult of the police in your appreciation and acceptance of you know in the most vicious are you like this what would you judge an artist i have a couple i mean a lot and he
was right did you think that that choice the commons
i know no idea you're welcome well
i'm gonna be in venice in nigeria
i don't know it is
that can watch a museum or stranded at albany ny asks building spirit which is all about the same kind of thing the foods in the novel like an arch of the hearth then gene autry that all critics agree as late on his promises to give us some of the best things that have been produced in a conviction today nigerian novelist nigeria
journalist i'm david greene
- Series
- African Writers of Today
- Episode Number
- 4
- Episode
- Chinua Achebe
- Producing Organization
- National Educational Television and Radio Center
- Transcription Center, London
- Contributing Organization
- Library of Congress (Washington, District of Columbia)
- AAPB ID
- cpb-aacip/512-b853f4mj6h
- NOLA Code
- AFWT
If you have more information about this item than what is given here, or if you have concerns about this record, we want to know! Contact us, indicating the AAPB ID (cpb-aacip/512-b853f4mj6h).
- Description
- Episode Description
- As this program begins the viewer sees three men walking through one of the halls of the Nigerian National Museum in Lagos. They are: series host Lewis Nkosi, Wole Soyinka, and the featured guest, Chinua Achebe. The interview, which focuses on the craft of Achebe himself, begins as Soyinka and Achebe discuss a carving of Ikenga, a symbol of manhood in Ibo society. Soyinka likens the spirit of Achebe's character Okongkwo from the novel Things Fall Apart to that represented by the carving. Achebe says he poured the essence of the aggressiveness and showy masculinity, traditionally so admired by the Ibo society into Okongkwo, and had his character's ultimate downfall represent the shortcoming of a culture which places a premium on brute intransigence. Is one critical assessment of Achebe's work - that in his books he deliberately attempts to avoid passing moral judgment - a true one?, ask Nkosi. Not at all, replies the novelist. Achebe says that while he presents a balanced picture of the Ibo society in Things Fall Apart, including its many admirable attributes (its music and art,"...the poetry of life, the simplicity... the communal way of sharing in happiness and in sorrow..."), and while he does not attempt to draw a moral lesson on every page, the total effect at the end of the book - the disintegration of his hero - illuminates a very strong moral position on the author's part. After dismissing an evaluation of his work as being "unrelieved competence" rather than "genuine artistic inspiration" by pointing out that Things Fall Apart was written as a single draft with no polishing, Achebe goes on to discuss the influences which have shaped his artistic life. He speaks of the village, of the colorful tribal festivals, and of the way the old people talked. Coming from his own background, he points out, his fiction is the result of direct observation, not research. He also refers to the negative influence of Joyce Cary's Mr. Johnson which angered him deeply when he was a student at the University College Ibadan. Achebe also briefly discusses: his recent trip to the United States, where he met with the Harlem Group of writers - among them Langston Hughes and John Killens - and with a number of white writers including playwright Arthur Miller; his strong opposition to "people preaching from a position of ignorance," a position which, he claims, is characteristic of most present day critics of African literature; and his new novel Arrow of God. In Arrow of God which concerns the relationship between an African god and a village priest, Achebe feels he is handling a group of more complex themes than he has in the past, and that he is progressing in the direction of a more highly developed treatment of character. The author sees the Nigerian novelist's position in his society as one of growing influence. As a literary form the novel is comparatively new in the country - only ten years old - but if book sales are any indication, Achebe feels the novel has caught on. The three writers discuss the form of the novel as an "alien" form and consider its relation to the African writer. Is it possible, they wonder, that African traditions of storytelling could combine with the European novel traditions and evolve a new African novel form? (Description adapted from documents in the NET Microfiche)
- Series Description
- That Africa is a simmering continent is no surprise to anyone these days. The number of African nations which have, during the past few years, stood up to declare their independence and their desire to be counted in international trade circles and forums of political arbitration in an unprecedented phenomenon in history. And, as part of the continent's adolescence in its rapid evolution into modernity, there are the current touchy events in the east African countries of Zanzibar, Tanganyika, Kenya, and Uganda; the continued racial suppression in South Africa; and the recent wooing your of Chou En-lai. These are political situations and economic situations - and, in these areas, the American public is reasonably well informed. But a simmering continent is not all politics and it's not all economics. There is an emerging culture as well, and, in this case, a body of literature which demands to be called "African." For all of the information that comes to the United States from the African continent, so little is known about their writers. Who are they? What are their backgrounds? What are their reactions to the cultural revolution which surrounds them? For whom are they writing? Are they turning to the forms of the tribal oral traditions or are they rejecting them? How do the individual writers react to the philosophy of "Negritude?" What is the influence of current European literature and of the literature of the American Negro on their works? And what is the reciprocal influence of African novels, stories, plays and poems on the literature of these other cultures. In African Writers of Today, National Educational Television is giving US audiences an opportunity to find out about the contemporary literature of Africa and to meet some of the most significant African figures in the literary world. Devoted primarily to interviews with the writers themselves, the 6 half-hour episodes were filmed in Ghana, Nyasaland, The Cameroon Republic, Nigeria, Senegal, England, and France, the home settings of the featured personalities. African Writers of Today is a 1964 production of National Educational Television in collaboration with the Transcription Center, London. (Description adapted from documents in the NET Microfiche)
- Broadcast Date
- 1964-00-00
- Asset type
- Episode
- Genres
- Talk Show
- Topics
- Literature
- Race and Ethnicity
- Media type
- Moving Image
- Duration
- 00:29:16
- Credits
-
-
Guest: Achebe, Chinua
Guest: Soyinka, Wole
Host: Nkosi, Lewis
Producer: Dor, Henry A.
Producing Organization: National Educational Television and Radio Center
Producing Organization: Transcription Center, London
- AAPB Contributor Holdings
-
Library of Congress
Identifier: 1833873-2 (MAVIS Item ID)
Format: 16mm film
Generation: Copy: Access
Color: B&W
-
Indiana University Libraries Moving Image Archive
Identifier: [request film based on title] (Indiana University)
Format: 16mm film
If you have a copy of this asset and would like us to add it to our catalog, please contact us.
- Citations
- Chicago: “African Writers of Today; 4; Chinua Achebe,” 1964-00-00, Library of Congress, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC, accessed June 10, 2023, http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-512-b853f4mj6h.
- MLA: “African Writers of Today; 4; Chinua Achebe.” 1964-00-00. Library of Congress, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Web. June 10, 2023. <http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-512-b853f4mj6h>.
- APA: African Writers of Today; 4; Chinua Achebe. Boston, MA: Library of Congress, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-512-b853f4mj6h