Tola Adeniyi makes it clear that his tribute was a personal one to Chinua Achebe- a man who was graciously kind to him as an artist and friend. He lays bare some of the many essences of Achebe’s difference, distinction, and greatness not just as a very successful writer but more importantly as a true believer in the siblinghood of the human race. He gives the impression that for him, Achebe was a brainy and moral man which is indeed a lot to write about a man behind his back, albeit after he has joined his ancestors as the Igbo say. His tribute reads to me more like a eulogy. Tola Adeniyi like many all over the enlightened world seems touched by Achebe’s passing.
I am struck by Tola Adeniyi’s ample praise of Achebe as a man of character and virtue. For him, character is as much a measure of a person’s greatness as is their intellectual accomplishments and esteem. For him, greatness, measured by kind thoughts and service to others, is a lot more than impressive works of art, science, and technology. Greatness is also about self-discipline, humility, and respect for others and empathy, especially the lowly and powerless. It is about not taking advantage of others. There may not be many who would seriously disagree with him. Tola Adeniyi’s tribute for me, is a call to deep self-reflection, action, and perhaps change. Tola Adeniyi deserves to be commended for his thoughtfulness, courage, and candor.
I am more struck but not surprised by the vitriolic attacks on Tola Adeniyi by some who impute discontent with and grudge against an “unnamed” person in his Achebe tribute. I have some questions. Is there really such a one? Has Tola Adeniyi made any non-factual statements or written evident untruths? Has truth ceased to be justification for slander and libel? If Tola Adeniyi lied, his critics should take him on fairly on the accuracy of his assertions, rather than crudely disparage and vilify him on the basis of presumptions and suppositions, for writing his mind. I am not sure that the “unnamed” person whoever they are, would have need for any of Tola Adeniyi’s critics to defend them. The person may not care. Achebe himself is reported to have said, if you do not like somebody’s book, write your own.
One other fact of Achebe’s fruitful life we may need to embrace is the great man’s absolute rejection of the resort to disrespect, verbal and other abuse of those with whom we disagree, in conversation and debate. Achebe believed and “preached” that thought and opinion should be free.
oa
From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com [mailto:usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Michael Afolayan
Sent: Tuesday, March 26, 2013 7:02 AM
To: USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
Cc: NaijaPolitics@yahoogroups.com; naijaintellects; nigerianid@yahoogroups.com; Ra'ayi; Yan Arewa; NaijaPolitics@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: TOLA ADENIYI ON ACHEBE!!!
Based on this write-up, Tola Adeniyi is at the very best, a poor analyst and at the very worst, a restless gossip. My uncle has always warned that a good idea badly presented could be easily dismissed as a bad one altogether. What could have been a great tribute to a revered icon now reads like an emission of nonsense. Apparently, Adeniyi failed to recognize that Achebe and Soyinka, two fairly good and close friends, wrote from two different genres, for two different audiences and, logically, in two different styles. He took personal vendetta to a new low! This is a typical idle village women's syndrome, which only reminds one of Lanrewaju Adepoju's poem that he rightly titled, "Ede Aiyede I &II." In it, the poet made it clear that only the Yoruba are the living army that would shoot at its own wounded soldiers. Listen to him here, if you speak Yoruba: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqNa3JcNklc and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fISc4GBpNYg. . . O ma se o!
Michael O. Afolayan
From: Mobolaji Aluko <alukome@gmail.com>
To: OmoOdua@yahoogroups.com
Cc: "NaijaPolitics@yahoogroups.com" <NaijaPolitics@yahoogroups.com>; naijaintellects <naijaintellects@googlegroups.com>; "nigerianid@yahoogroups.com" <nigerianID@yahoogroups.com>; Ra'ayi <Raayiriga@yahoogroups.com>; USAAfrica Dialogue <USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com>; Yan Arewa <YanArewa@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, March 26, 2013 5:02 AM
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: TOLA ADENIYI ON ACHEBE!!!
Dear All:
Chief Tola Adeniyi is weirdly and apparently ATTACKING the only man whose name is missing in this tribute below, but he (Adeniyi) appears just too frightened to mention by name.
This is the reverse of the Yoruba adage where you are all but mentioned but for name, but out of cowardice, you say "No it is not I" for lack of a will to fight the abuser, in this case Adeniyi, who should name the abused and let the devil be ashamed.
One wonders why...and I am surprised, not at his commentary - to which he has a right - but at his cowardice as well as timing.
And there you have it.
Bolaji Aluko
Shaking his head
And Scratching it....
On Tue, Mar 26, 2013 at 9:34 AM, Adebayo Adejuwon <adeadejuwon@yahoo.com> wrote:
Gbosaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!
Thank God for you a jare my brother.That Chief Tola Adeniyi is a brown envelope journalist is well known by all and sundry. That he was an apologist to OGD is no news. That he is still doing boy boy to OGD at his old age is not something people are not unaware of. This same Tola Adeniyi who used the his Till Death Do us part column in the Nigerian Tribune to deceive Nigerians only to become errand boy for IBB in the movement to Abuja scandal, and later Abacha is not lost on Nigerians.
One would have thought that people like Chief Tola Adeniyi aka Deto Deni would have gained some wisdom now that he is above seventy years.
From: Iyke Ajitona <ajitonaiyke@yahoo.com>
To: "OmoOdua@yahoogroups.com" <OmoOdua@yahoogroups.com>; NIgerianWorldForum@yahoogroups.com; NaijaPolitics@yahoogroups.com
Cc: "adeadejuwon@yahoo.com" <adeadejuwon@yahoo.com>
Sent: Tuesday, March 26, 2013 1:10:16 AM
Subject: [NIgerianWorldForum] Re: [OmoOdua] TOLA ADENIYI ON ACHEBE!!!
Alagba,
Oh, yes, atanpako in ju'we ookan; we sure know the disguised object of Adeniyi's vitriol, bushy hair, and all. But Adeniyi represents to me the character in one Hausa adage that goes: "He who calls his wife a prostitute must not be surprised when his children are called bastards." Adeniyi, himself a "brown envelope" journalist characteristic of his current employer, has by this stupid comments done more damage to Achebe's memory, grouping him with the likes of Rotimi, Okigbo, Osofisan and excluding the most prominent of these literary giants; what does that say of his logic? Should he, a coward, be brave enough, he should mention the suspected name and face the invocation of thunderous and fiery response. Enough on the lousy "egunje" journalist, he should henceforth be disregarded. The one with the "bushy hair" will remain our icon and hero.
Iyke Ajitona
Sent from my IPad
On Mar 26, 2013, at 7:32 AM, Adebayo Adejuwon <adeadejuwon@yahoo.com> wrote:
Who exactly is Tola Adeniyi attacking in the name of writing a tribute? What would have passed for a good tribute in the memory of Late Prof.Chinua Achebe, in my opionon sounds like a direct attack on somebody Tola Adeniyi cannot confront directly.Read and form your opinion.
Chinua Achebe: The uncrowned nobel laureate
By TOLA ADENIYI
The motto of Obafemi Awolowo University is ‘For Learning and Culture’. No one academic in Nigeria reflects and personifies that maxim more than Professor Chinua Achebe. The grandfather of modern English literature in Africa was both a colossus in learning, as he was a thoroughbred and highly cultivated individual in manners and character. Chinua Achebe’s transition last week took the world by storm and he was genuinely mourned by all those who appreciated the worth, both of his writings and his character. His passing on into eternity was a personal loss to this writer. It was in July 1965 that Uncle Segun Olusola took me to Chinua Achebe, somewhere on Broad Street, Lagos, to seek his permission for me to adapt his most celebrated classic, Things Fall Apart, published in 1958 into a play.
I had seen the dramatic elements in the novel and decided to make a drama out of it. Achebe asked me a few questions and satisfied with my answers, approved my proposal to adapt the novel for both stage and television. Ambali Sanni’s Muslim College, Ijebu Ode, provided the funds while the students made up the cast. The production was taken round the whole Western region, including Lagos (minus the colony) and was given loud applause by the likes of Derek Bullock and Dapo Adelugba. That was the beginning of the romance with this giant of letters, who, seven years later, hosted me and my wife on our honeymoon to his official residence at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, in 1972. Achebe gave pride to African writing and to Africans. For the first time, he provided a lens into Africa and presented Africa from the African perspective.
His writings were African-based but with monumental universal appeal. Hence his maiden novel Things Fall Apart got translated into well over 50 languages and sold over 12 million copies. Apart from being the greatest writer of prose to emerge from African continent, Achebe wrote for the masses. Achebe spoke so that he could be understood. The beauty of his writings was that he was a most excellent communicator, believing that the over all purpose of any work of art is communication. Your work, be it dance, song, speech, drama, gesture, painting must convey a message and that message must be comprehended by your listener, your viewer or your audience. Anything short of that is intellectual garbage. In fact, Achebe could easily pass for a playwright of immense stature.
There is so much drama in all of his novels. And this was the reason I started work on The Theatre in Achebe’s novels. All the characters in his writings are alive and touchable. The trees, the mountains, the rivers and valleys in his novels speak. Chinua Achebe gave dignity and personality to art. For him, you do not need to grow a bush on your head or grow rodents in your hair to impress on the world that you are an artist or a writer. Achebe was a man of character. He taught for many years at Nsukka and no one ever heard that he drove his female students nuts, nor was he ever accused of befriending or marrying his students. Achebe taught us what a great mind should be. Achebe never went round state governors with beggar’s bowl, soliciting for money or gratification nor was he ever accused of sleeping with his friends’ widows.
Twice Achebe was offered national honours. Twice he rejected them, arguing that he was not one that would pose as holy in the day time and be in cosy alliance in the night with people he accuses in the day time. The millions, who have continued to mourn Achebe since his transition, do so in deep sorrow and in sincerity, having discovered in the literary colossus a most genuine and sincere human being. Achebe identified with his Igbo nation. He shared the pains and sufferings of his people. And never for once did he treat them with condescension that he was in any way superior to his clan. Achebe was mature. He showed maturity in all his dealings. He did not exhibit childishness. He was never petty or small-minded. All those who had anything to do with him ended up respecting him because he commanded respect.
Even when he was in his thirties, he displayed unusual maturity and mastery of human relations. As far as Achebe was concerned, a writer or any artist for that matter was first and foremost a human person with deep human feelings and ethos. Chinua Achebe eminently qualified for a Nobel Prize before that hitherto prestigious prize got politicised and became not a reward for distinction but a reward for those, who had mastered the art and science of boardroom politics or global arm-twisting. Although Achebe mentioned lizard in almost all his works, the honourable man of letters never learnt the art of lizarding. Prose writer Chinua Achebe shared the distinction of being the best in their arts with John Pepper Clark and Christopher Okigbo, who, up till today, are the best writers of poetry, with Professor Ola Rotimi, the best in playwriting and play production, with Ene Henshaw, Wale Ogunyemi and Professor Femi Osofisan as playwrights with greatest relevance and profundity.
This explains why, to me, Achebe remains the uncrowned Nobel Prize winner with most authentic claim to that crown. The Federal Government of Nigeria must immediately commence the process of creating a national monument to immortalise this rare genius of both learning and character. Chinua Achebe was not just a writer; he was a distinguished writer with the best and noblest of human virtues. A non hypocrite. A non bully. Achebe was both a great ambassador of Africa and a true and respectable specimen of the finest humanity. •Do not submit your happiness to the whims and caprices of others…
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