Nigerian Author, Chinua Achebe

      The common theme of Achebe's works, The Madman, Girls at War, and An Image of Africa, is how the Western World views the people of Africa and how Africans have been affected by colonization.   I have to admit that when I read his stories, I took a different message from what I think he was trying to get across.

      After first reading of  Girls at War, I thought the idea of the story was about women and their role in during a time of war.  As part of a military family, I am aware that women mostly play supportive roles in the military and only fairly recently have been permitted to fight in combat.  Women find themselves casualties of war even when they are not active participants in the actual war.  I thought that was point that Achebe was trying to get across; however, I realize that his writing is much deeper than that.  He is making strong political statements about the Western influence on his people and how colonization and war has essentially created a perception of African people that is quite unkind to say the least.

     Segregation has been happening in all societies for many years, but in An Image of Africa,  Achebe points his finger directly at Joseph Conrad for his portrayal of the African people in Heart of Darkness.  He says that Conrad is telling the rest of the world that people of the Congo are uneducated, savage beasts that should be feared.  He believes that this particular writing is an attempt to completely show the people of African as less than human and therefore, unequal to people of the white race.   My personal feeling about Achebe's response to Conrad, is that I would not have had this interpretation had he not pointed it out this way.  I feel that he was writing about the mindset of the Europeans of the time, not necessarily condoning it.  However, I live in a time when people are encouraged to explore many schools of thought not just one.

   The Madman was the story that I found to be the most entertaining.   To me, it is the simple message, "you are who allow other to think you are".  Achebe creates the main character, Nwibe, as a sensible man of good standing among his people.  The madman is an isolated individual who acts crazy because people think he is crazy.  The madman has the good sense to confront his antagonizer and then take from him the symbol of his status and run with it.  This left Nwibe running after him, literally stripped of his identity, through the market sreaming after him.  The result was that the madman was able to blend in with the people no longer appearing crazy, and Nwibe was left to appear out of his mind.  In all reality nothing had changed within these two men, just the perception of the people around them.  To me it was just a reminder that if you worry what people think of you, their opinion can be easily swayed.

Although my initial opinions have not been changed, my first response from reading usually stick with me, I now better understand his point view and how his life experiences influenced his writing.