{"id":3891,"date":"2013-03-25T08:51:25","date_gmt":"2013-03-25T15:51:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/collinsunbound\/?p=3891"},"modified":"2013-03-25T08:51:25","modified_gmt":"2013-03-25T15:51:25","slug":"one-of-african-literatures-giants-chinua-achebe-passed-away-friday-march-22-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/collinsunbound\/one-of-african-literatures-giants-chinua-achebe-passed-away-friday-march-22-2013\/","title":{"rendered":"One of African Literature’s Giants, Chinua Achebe, Passed Away Friday, March 22, 2013."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Chinua\"<\/a>On Friday, March 22, we learned the sad news<\/a> that Chinua Achebe had passed away at age 82.\u00a0 One of the giants of African literature\u2014indeed, of world literature\u2014Achebe\u2019s 1958 novel, Things Fall Apart<\/i><\/a>, explores the tragic consequences of cross-cultural misunderstanding through the life and actions of an Ibo man named Okonkwo.<\/p>\n

To honor Achebe\u2019s memory and to encourage further exploration of African literature, we offer this sampling of novels by African authors as suggested reading.\u00a0 Each link will take you to the Puget Sound WorldCat record, where you can note the book\u2019s location in Collins Library or request a copy from SUMMIT.\u00a0 <\/i><\/p>\n

Arrow of God<\/i><\/b><\/a>, <\/i><\/b>by Chinua Achebe. <\/b>\u00a0During the 1920s in Eastern Nigeria, a son’s overzealous conversion to Christianity brings about a clash between his father, the Chief Priest, and the British District Officer.<\/p>\n

Everything Good Will Come<\/i><\/b><\/a>, by Sefi Atta. <\/b>\u00a0Enitan Taiwo and Sheri Bakare are two Nigerian girls in 1971, one who is prepared to manipulate the traditional system and one who attempts to defy it.<\/p>\n

So Long a Letter<\/i><\/b>,<\/b><\/a> by Mariama Ba.<\/b>\u00a0 Ramatoulaye Fall, a recently widowed Senegalese schoolteacher, writes a letter to a friend recounting her struggles to survive after her husband takes a second wife.<\/p>\n

Nervous Conditions<\/i><\/b><\/a>, by Tsitsi Dangarembga.<\/b>\u00a0 Tambu leaves her rural village in colonial Rhodesia to go to a missionary boarding school headed by her wealthier, British-educated uncle.<\/p>\n

Links<\/i><\/b><\/a>, by Nuruddin Farah.<\/b>\u00a0 Returning to Mogadishu, Somalia, from New York after a twenty-year exile, Jeebleh finds a troubled and devastated city ruled by clan warlords and patrolled by violent gangs of thugs.<\/p>\n

Bones<\/i><\/b><\/a>, by Chenjerai Hove.<\/b>\u00a0 Marita, a farmworker, goes to the city in search of her only son, but is killed by the government.\u00a0 Her death sets in motion of a series of additional tragedies.<\/p>\n

Ways of Dying<\/i><\/b><\/a>, by Zakes Mda.<\/b>\u00a0 Toloki, a professional mourner in South Africa, is reunited with a woman from his village.<\/p>\n

Beneath the Lion\u2019s Gaze<\/i><\/b><\/a>, by Maaza Mengiste.<\/b>\u00a0 After his physician father, Hailu, is jailed and his younger brother, Dawit, joins an underground resistance movement, Yonas prays to God for an end to the violence in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and the rest of the country on the eve of revolution in 1974.<\/p>\n

Efuru<\/i><\/b><\/a>, by Flora Nwapa.<\/b>\u00a0 After two unsuccessful marriages and the death of her only child, Efuru becomes a woman to suspect in her small Nigerian village.<\/p>\n

The Famished Road<\/i><\/b><\/a>, by Ben Okri.<\/b>\u00a0 The narrator, Azaro, is an abiku, a spirit child, who in the Yoruba tradition of Nigeria exists between life and death.<\/p>\n

Submitted by Peggy Burge, Humanities Librarian<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Friday, March 22, we learned the sad news that Chinua Achebe had passed away at age 82.\u00a0 One of the giants of African literature\u2014indeed, of world literature\u2014Achebe\u2019s 1958 novel, Things Fall Apart, explores the tragic consequences of cross-cultural misunderstanding … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-social-sciences"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/collinsunbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/collinsunbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/collinsunbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/collinsunbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/collinsunbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3891"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/collinsunbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3891\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3895,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/collinsunbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3891\/revisions\/3895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/collinsunbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/collinsunbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/collinsunbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}