There was a Country: A Personal History of Biafra by Chinua Achebe

Chinua Achebe has been given the accolade "the father of modern African writing" and very few critics can dispute this fact.

I have over the years read numerous works by Achebe the `master story teller' and to date, Things Fall Apart remains my favourite - this novel depicted the life of an `Igbo Man' called Okonkwo. Okonkwo was a tragic leader and a die-hard African traditionalist with a firm conviction in the destiny of his people, yet he was a man who failed to accept the inevitable changes in his world. The book ended with Okonkwo finding totally unacceptable the influence of British colonialism and Christian missionaries on his Igbo community, culminating in his unfortunate suicide. Conflicts between modern societal beliefs and Igbo traditionalism continue to exist.

Achebe's book `There was a country - A personal History of Biafra' will not disappoint his numerous fans - it is is in my opinion a beautifully written account of his personal experiences of the Biafran War. He takes us on a journey of his early life in Nigeria. He speaks candidly about his personal experiences and discusses the principal actors and major players at the time.

The book in itself is a lament on the failure of a giant that never was; Achebe mourns Nigeria's failures, the greatest and most devastating of which in his opinion was Biafra; a nation and a vision that did not come into fruition.

Achebe being Achebe is brilliant in interweaving his narration with proverbs and idioms. He got straight into the act right from in the `Introduction' using the well known Igbo proverb - `A man who does not know where the rain began to beat him cannot say where he dried his body'. He then set out his stall by saying that the `rain' or to put it concisely `the problem' of Africa started four to five hundred years ago by the `discovery' of Africa by Europe through the transatlantic slave trade; to the Berlin Conference of 1885 which precipitated the `Scramble for Africa''. The colonisation that ensued created artificial boundaries leading to tension-prone modern states due to the merging of people from diverse ethnicities and tribes with little or nothing in common. The plethora of nations created were without a doubt dysfunctional, recipes for disaster, catalysts for chaos, anarchy and ticking time bombs.

Part one of the book deals with Professor Achebe's family life, Part 2 and 3 provide an insight into the Biafran war and Part 4 is an analysis of Nigeria's present situation which profoundly illustrates that the country is tethering on the brink as it is currently saddled with the burden of "corruption, tribalism, nepotism and political ineptitude."

Achebe however does not conclude that the game is over but challenges Nigerians to throw down the shackles and embrace the spirit of change.

I strongly recommend this book and give it a Five Star rating.

- Chuka

This book is listed on Amazon UK HERE.