Okonkwo, who are you cursing with Amadioha? Nna Anyi Achebe? Are your eyes well, is your head correct?
Achebe never called you Efulefu. It was your friend, Obierika who observed that many of the early converts of the white man were efulefus or men without titles whereas you had many titles - champion wrestler, husband of many wives, warrior, ebubedike, one born every minute, and yet your belly no full.
You are still badly brought up after all these years for you to continue saying that the man who raised you as a single parent and wiped your nyash, Unoka, is a weak man. You dey craze? You forgot that your father was a writer, poet and musician who entertained Umuofia and all other hamlets without charging a fee just as nwa dokinta Oha is doing here in the ilo. The fact that he charged no fees does not mean that he was not keeping records of all the big and small debts that Umuofia people owed him for all that free gigs and yet they had the cheek to go and trouble him for small fries without a word of gratitude and appreciation. The oracle of the hills was wrong in calling the poet a lazy man, that was Achebe's plea for people in his own trade to get some respect from a materialist society that wanted him to major in the artisan field of medicine before he rebelled and opted for the trade in mere words.
Okonkwo, you were the one who was weak or foolish enough to allow your loving papa to die of kwashiokor while you boasted of how your barn was full of yam, you were cowardly to kill a child who called you papa just because a woman of the oracle on the hill ordered you to do so, killing an African to show that you are strong is still the practice of genocidal strong men in Africa today but moral and intellectual leaders like Achebe are right to call your mumu iberiberism out. You no well o. Mechie onu. Anu Ofia.
Biko
On Sunday, 23 February 2020, 15:47:15 GMT-5, Obododimma Oha <obodooha@gmail.com> wrote:
I for long have tried to disallow Okonkwo from speaking through me to
state his case with Chinua Achebe. Maybe because Achebe was a kind of
hero to me. Now, I can't perpetuate this injustice any longer. I have
to allow Okonkwo to speak! Here is a link to a blog article that
presents his voice:
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Obododimma.
--
--
B.A.,First Class Honours (English & Literary Studies);
M.A., Ph.D. (English Language);
M.Sc. (Legal, Criminological & Security Psychology);
Professor of Cultural Semiotics & Stylistics,
Department of English,
University of Ibadan.
COORDINATES:
Phone (Mobile):
+234 8033331330;
+234 9033333555;
+234 8022208008;
+234 8073270008.
Skype: obododimma.oha
Twitter: @mmanwu
Personal Blog: http://udude.wordpress.com/
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