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A review by misspalah
Home and Exile by Chinua Achebe
5.0
In the end I began to understand. There is such a thing as absolute power over narrative. Those who secure this privilege for themselves can arrange stories about others pretty much where, and as, they like. Just as in corrupt, totalitarian regimes, those who exercise power over others can do anything.
- Chinua Achebe, Home and Exile
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Have you read something that made you feel so enlightened because the author wrote about post colonial literature subject in such an impeccable manner and at the same time you felt so enraged because the audacity of majority of classics authors captured Africa in their deluded and outdated perspective despite never visited the continent itself? I know i did. Dont let me start at these colonizers and white settlers whose not only felt superior but kept referring Africans as Savages and wild beast. It is so infuriating. I dont know whether i should have read his fiction books before reading this but ultimately this book made me want to read his books even more. There are only 3 chapters in this book and it can be considered a pretty short book because it is based on Chinua Achebe’s series of lecture about the reasons why he decided to write , the discourse of African literature and the problematic white gaze towards African in it and how to get a balance writing from these 2 colliding sides and why reclaiming back the narratives is important. It is important to point out that i don’t really read classics and i am glad i decided to maintain it. Few names has been pointed by Achebe in his second chapter “The empire fights back” which i believe i should have shared just in case anyone wanted to know. If you have these books, maybe just throw it away
- Chinua Achebe, Home and Exile
.
.
Have you read something that made you feel so enlightened because the author wrote about post colonial literature subject in such an impeccable manner and at the same time you felt so enraged because the audacity of majority of classics authors captured Africa in their deluded and outdated perspective despite never visited the continent itself? I know i did. Dont let me start at these colonizers and white settlers whose not only felt superior but kept referring Africans as Savages and wild beast. It is so infuriating. I dont know whether i should have read his fiction books before reading this but ultimately this book made me want to read his books even more. There are only 3 chapters in this book and it can be considered a pretty short book because it is based on Chinua Achebe’s series of lecture about the reasons why he decided to write , the discourse of African literature and the problematic white gaze towards African in it and how to get a balance writing from these 2 colliding sides and why reclaiming back the narratives is important. It is important to point out that i don’t really read classics and i am glad i decided to maintain it. Few names has been pointed by Achebe in his second chapter “The empire fights back” which i believe i should have shared just in case anyone wanted to know. If you have these books, maybe just throw it away