Response to "English and the African Writer," by Chinua Achebe

In his essay, "English and the African Writer" Chinua Achebe reflects on the role of language and power, focusing on the paradox of using the language of the oppressor to express the people being oppressed. Achebe also justifies his use of English as a mean of communication in his novel Things Fall Apart.

The usage of English language in African Literature, including Achebe’s book Things Fall Apart, is conflicting since the ideas cannot be communicated naturally. For example, when Achebe refers to the term agbala, it has many different meanings that have to be explained since there is no exact translation. When explained, it looses its nature and seems strange. This strangeness causes a separation with the reader, which further contributes to the separation that we already have with Africa. James Baldwin asserts that “[english] reflected none of my experiences”.

However, in Achebe’s essay, he states that this English can be modified so it is able to “carry the weight of African experiences”. He believes that inside English, writers can find a sense of identity. Writers, who choose to publish in the colonial languages of English and French, are not, Achebe believes, "unpatriotic smart-alecs," they are in fact, "by-products of the same process that made the new nation-states of Africa”. He further argues that colonialism “didn't give them a song, it gave them a tongue”, which means that the process of colonialism, despite its ills, gave rise to a language to talk to each other.

We can conclude that Achebe's main purpose was to communicate the idea that writing in English provides a worldwide audience and can be altered to suit its African surroundings.