English and the African Writer

 In his essay, "English and the African Writer" Chinua Achebe reflects on the role of language and power, focusing on the motivation and purposes he had to write his novel we all know in the English language, Things Fall Apart. He also refers back to the idea that English is now part of the African culture and its superiority on top of any other African languages. This is even though the African community doesn’t want to accept that English is their official language. Using the following quotation, “"If it didn't give them a song, it gave them a tongue”, Achebe tries to prove to his fellow community that English language didn’t brought any negative effects on their culture, in fact, it allowed them to become more international and enabled them a new system of communication. Additionally, Achebe looks into the difference between African languages and how much they vary between locations of the continent, but also within the same country. If we realize something, there were a lot of languages spread throughout Africa in those times because of the vast amount of tribes and with this, it made it impossible for messages to be delivered in the continent. This is because no one had the time to actually learn that large amount of languages and even though someone tried to learn as much languages as possible, that is something not easy to do and it takes a lot of time.

Achebe's main purpose was to communicate the idea that the introduction of English language brought more positive actions and ideas than negative. With the introduction of the English language into African cultures, it enabled them to become more international as that was a worldwide language but it also provided them with a system for easy communication. Achebe mentions Joseph Kariuki, a famous Kenyan author, and he makes a point saying that he felt he had met and got to know him through his poems and publications. Unconsciously, he was alluding that the English language made all of this possible because it is through that language that it made the poem clear and expressive. We already know based on the novel of Achebe and history books that the English language arrived with the British missionaries as an imperialist language but it never brought any harm, in fact, it ended up being the main reason as to why the African tribes were able to unify and create the countries of Africa. Another positive action from the inclusion of the English language was that it helped them by giving them an international education. However, Achebe tries to get a distinction between Kariuki to a Swahili poet called Shabaan Robert, which writes all of his poems in Swahili and not English. He later then refutes his idea by criticizing that with this author, he didn’t feel any connection as suppose to Kariuki. One quote from the essay proves this when he states, “Where am I to find the time to learn the half dozen or so Nigerian languages, each of which can sustain a literature?” and this is where Achebe tries to criticize the use of language in the poems found because it is not normally used. With some many African languages, as it was stated above, Achebe believes it is really hard for an international person to understand all of this poems. Additionally, he believes that the languages have grown old because each time, less people are using them because now a days, in Africa only the imperialist languages where the ones to remain intact after the reform that Africa went through.

Achebe view of the English language is one that surprises many because he finds it has brought many positive things to his country and continent even though there was a strict imposition from the British when they came to conquer some lands. It was through this imposition and the positive effects that English language had on the African cultures, that it could be considered that they gained a new powerful language Achebe also tries to explain to his community that English has grown a lot in their cultures and it is now part of it, so he asks many of them to reason it out and believe in the effect that it has on the community. He wants his peers to accepted it because of the effective transmission purposes it fulfills in the community.  He asserts, “Let us not in rejecting the evil throw out the good within” and with this assertion he tries to refer to the idea that people must let go of the past and forget all of the harm that it brought with the inclusion of the English language, and now look at the positive aspects and not let go of this wonderful source of communication. Also, he referred to practice of English as the official language of the continent as it summarizes their present, which created the reaction of resentment within the reader, as they believe that one of their kind could only vote in favor of the English language.

Achebe believes that the justification for using English as a means of communication in his novel is that this language is part of their culture and they must respect that decision as nothing else has changed. With this statement, he tries to make the people that are against the inclusion of English to rethink all that has happened after the imperialistic period in their continent and they have to accept it, as is it part of their history. As it is part of their history, it would mean that all that has happened after this period, is new and that now all of the people are a complete reaction of this era in their history. Achebe tries to explain to his community that it is right to use English as way to communicate because it is the only tool that connect Africa with other continents as it has given them a new tongue. Moreover, due to the numerous amount of unused languages in Africa, Achebe makes a point by saying that it would be useless to continue with those languages as it will not give them anything productive in the future. With this being said, Achebe tries to make some people understand that Africa is no longer a continent with a vast number of unofficial languages and tribes, but in fact, it has reshape itself after the imperialistic period it suffered and that with the inclusion of the English language, it has brought many positive things like education and the unification of many tribes to form countries.

The influence of the British led to a high socio-political change, including, positive and negative aspects. First of all, due to the inclusion of the English language and the British Empire, it was able to teach the African communities about politics and now we see that many of the countries have a government instead of having a tribe leader as how they used to have that before. With the inclusion of the English language, as it is stated before, clans and tribes were able to unify and come together to create a powerful nation that will be ruled by a government in order to solve all of the problems that are presented to them. Achebe points to the irony at work when presented with work by authors such as Shabaan Robert, the Swahili poet of Tanganyika, as he could not understand his work, and would not, until he learned about the Swahili language and used this quote, “Where am I to find the time to learn the half dozen or so Nigerian languages, each of which can sustain a literature?” to create an imitation against these authors.

Writers who choose to publish in the colonial languages of English and French, are not, Achebe believes, "unpatriotic smart-alecs," they are in fact, " alecks with an eye on the main chance—outside their own countries. They are by-products of the same process that made the new nation-states of Africa."

Achebe draws to a conclusion by referring to the work of James Baldwin. He draws a parallel between this work and his own ideas by I recognize, of course, that Baldwin's problem is not exactly mine, but I feel that the English language will be able to carry the weight of my African experience. But it will have to be a new English, still in full communion with its ancestral home but altered to suit its new African surroundings.