Toni Morrison reads "English and the African Writer," by Chinua Achebe: Writing Frame:

           In his essay, "English and the African Writer" Chinua Achebe reflects on the role of language and power, focusing solely on the fact that it would be a disgrace to not develop linguistically using the English language and dwelling in what is precedent to modern society.

            Achebe's main purpose was to communicate the idea that African writers whom write in English or French should not be thought of as “unpatriotic smart alecks.” On the contrary, this is done because a “booming book” is characterized by having permeation of foreign cultures. By doing so, finding a sense of identity.

            Achebe’s view of the British/English language is that its today’s language and it will remain for an extensive time.  He asserts, “Today, for good or ill, that language is English. Tomorrow it may be something else, although I very much doubt it.” Also, he referred to “But let us not in rejecting the evil throw out the good with it,” which created the emotion/reaction of guilt within the reader for not giving the English language the credit it deserves.

             Achebe believes that the justification for using English as a means of communication in his novel is that by doing so he can communicate through his book with people across Nigeria (some of which are English speakers) given that they were granted with this language due to the Colonialism by the British. A further vindication of why he used a language other than his nation’s tongue is to allow his books to be read in the colonial ruling nations. As other writers such as, James Baldwin, struggle towards writing of their African experiences without the employment of their mother tongue, Achebe thinks, “English language will be able to carry the weight of my African experience.”

             The influence of the British led to a high socio-political change, including, a language for the African population to communicate amongst each other; English, “the former colonial language, chosen to facilitate the cultural and linguistic unity of the country (in this case Nigeria).” Achebe points to the irony at work when presented with work by authors such as Shabaan Robert, the Swahili poet of Tanganyika, as he could not understand his work, and would not, until it was translated into English. Achebe bluntly challenges Shabann Robert to translate his work to English to obtain a larger range of audience.

             Writers, who choose to publish in the colonial languages of English and French, are not, Achebe believes, "unpatriotic smart-alecks," they are in fact, "by-products of the same process that made the new nation-states of Africa.”

             Achebe draws to a conclusion by referring to the work of James Baldwin. He draws a parallel between this work and his own ideas by disagreeing with Baldwin. As I stated before, Achebe dares to in a sense degrade Baldwin by stressing that he can “carry the weight” of his African experiences in the English language while Baldwin states that he cannot.

Key quotes

 "If it didn't give them a song, it gave them a tongue."

“Where am I to find the time to learn the half dozen or so Nigerian languages, each of which can sustain a literature?”

“Let us not in rejecting the evil throw out the good within.”

"I feel that the English language will be able to carry the weight of my African experience. But it will have to be a new English, still in full communion with its ancestral home but altered to suit new African surroundings."

“Today, for good or ill, that language is English. Tomorrow it may be something else, although I very much doubt it.”

“I do not see African literature as one unit but as a group of associated units—in fact the sum total of all the national and ethnic literatures of Africa.”

“African writers who have chosen to write in English or French are not unpatriotic smart alecks with an eye on the main chance—outside their own countries. They are by-products of the same process that made the new nation-states of Africa.”