The influence of Igbo metaphysics on the writings of Chinua Achebe

Abstract

So far, the world of Ghinua Achebe's novels is unapologetically Igbo. N o t only do the events of his oeuvre take place on Igbo soil, the thought pat tern, cultural ethos, and the communal and individual character stance are essentially Igbo in conception, meaning, and significance. The writer himself has never hidden his Igbo origins or the Igbo sources of what he has so far written about . Achebe's works , according to him, are essentially centered on "the life I lived and the life that was lived around me, supported by what I heard in conversation—I was keen on listening to old people—and wha t I learned from my father, so it was all sort of picked up here and there" (African Writers Talking, 15). Many years after the interview wherein he uttered those words , our author had to insist during another face-to-face conversation that "the Igbo tradition . . . can claim 9 0 % " of wha t he writes because that is the tradition that created the framework in which this sort of thing can happen" (Conversation, 111). The relationship between the writer and his/her cultural milieu is akin to that between a baby and its mother 's breast. The baby not only clings to its mother 's milk because of its nourishing value, it finds in its action an assurance of acceptance, warmth , confidence, and relevance. In the case of a writer, his/her immediate milieu supplies the intimate life impressions, compels him/her to live with these impressions by using them to formulate the appropriate attitude to , and philosophy of, life for the whole of his/her lifetime. Yet as Achebe once said, these notions are neither obtrusive nor do their occasional contradictions constitute a source of worry to those w h o have been brought up in them. As he puts it, "Well, as a little boy it didn't worry me at all. I took most of these things for granted . . . even though I was brought up a Ghristian, the life of the village was there for you to see-it was only later that I began to evaluate, so to speak" (African Writers Talking, 5). Thus, it is safe to say that at the background of Achebe's works is Igbo philosophy and thought , Igbo weltanchuung.