Civil Peace, by Chinua Achebe

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BIOGRAPHY

Chinua Achebe was born in 1930 in Ogidi, a city in the South East of Nigeria, the region that for a short period of time was Biafra. He was an Igbo, one of the multiple ethnicities of Nigeria. His father was a protestant missionary (one of Chinua’s first books was Pilgrim’s Progress, by John Bunyan). His family were decidedly pro-British while Nigeria was a British colony, even as they were poor –they lived in a zinc house. Chinua was baptised Albert, after Queen Victoria’s Consort. When he discovered what colonization was really about, he became anti-colonialist and changed his name to Chinua, which in Igno means “prayer”.

During the decolonisation in the 1960s, Biafra declared its independence from Nigeria, and a civil war ensued. Chinua fought for Biafra, but the state lasted only three years. The civil war wasn’t only about the independence of a region: in Nigeria there had been several coups d’état and massacres between ethnicities, mainly between Hausa people, Muslims, in the North, and Igbo people, Christians, in the South.

He studied at a Nigerian University and then he worked as a college teacher.

Politics and politicians with their corruption disappointed him, and he emigrated to the USA, where he taught at some universities. He went back to Nigeria for some time, to return to the USA for good, where he died at the age of 82.

His most famous book was Things Fall Apart, in 1958, written in English, although his mother tongue was Igbo. For this book, he was called the father of African literature.

He won the Man Book International Prize in 2009 and he was awarded the Dorothy and Lilian Gish Prize with a very important sum of money for an art prize.

There is also an annual event related to him: the Chinua Achebe Literary Festival.

 

SUMMARY

This story takes place after the Biafra War, in 1970.

One of the main difficulties after a war is to restore the legal and social order, and that means to dissolve or assimilate the defeated army; or, at least, to collect all their weapons. In these circumstances, groups of soldiers go on fighting and resisting, or most usually they become bandits. So, sometimes stealing and fighting get mixed together, and eventually it is difficult to know if they are rebels or only bandits.

In our case, the protagonist of the story, Jonathan Iwegu, was happy because the war was finished, because he was discharged and now could go back home. He also felt lucky because he had come out sound and safe of the war, and with his wife and three of his four children also alive. And their house, almost just a cabin, was intact, although a big and modern building near it was destroyed by a bomb. Furthermore, he was able to recover his old bicycle.

He was an optimistic man, and in every unexpected situation, he uttered: “Nothing puzzles God”.

Using his bicycle as a taxi, he earned some money, and this bit of money was, for him and in these times, a small fortune. His little house needed some repairs, and with a few coins and a bit of help, he was able to fix it and leave it again like new. The children helped their family collecting and selling fruits, and the wife cooked some food for take-away breakfasts. They could even open a bar for soldiers: they prospered. And one day, he could change his Biafra money for the only now legal Nigerian money. He got twenty pounds. So all went extremely well. 

But that very night, some problem knocked at their door. It was a group of soldiers turned into robbers and they wanted Jonathan’s money. Jonathan and his family shouted for help, but nobody answered their call, although he was a good neighbour. The bandits insisted at the door knocking even louder and stronger. They threatened the family, yet they said they were “good” thieves, good people. They asked for a hundred pounds because they believed they were rich people. Eventually, after a negotiation, they agree to go away with the twenty pounds deo-gratia (or egg-rasher) Jonathan got that very day.

The next day the family went on with his daily routines as if nothing had happened.

Jonathan was an optimistic man.

QUESTIONS

-What do you know about Nigeria and Biafra?

-Jonathan’s favourite sentence for unexpected events was “Nothing puzzles God”. Do you have one of your own? What is it?

-If you miss some money: what would you prefer, that it was stolen from you, or that you lost it accidentally? Are there “good” robbers, or are all the robbers bad?

-Do you consider yourself an optimistic person, or rather a pessimistic one? Do you have a “cornerstone” to determine this quality in a person?

VOCABULARY

biro, rummaged, retailed, plane, palm-wine, windfall, sandpaper, demijohn