African American Experience

Name: Abdelaziz Stari I. Chinua Achebes biography Chinua Achebe was born in Nigeria on July the eleventh in 1930 in Orgidi. He was a teacher for some time. After that he worked for the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation in Lagos. He is a novelist and a poet. He wrote many books like: A MAN OF THE PEOPLE in (1966),
lANTHILLS OF THE

SAVANNAH in (1987). Among his best work was Things Fall Apart. He wrote

it when he at the age of twenty six and was translated to more than thirty languages. Most of his works are concerned about the influences of western people or cultures on the Ibo people, his home city. He is now a member of the American Academy of Arts and letters. II. The moral in the story of the Tortoise and the birds: Depending on what I have read in this chapter, I think, Achebe is trying to tell us through this that we need to know and understand ourselves, and be aware of what is going on around us when he states that if one fails to recognize his opponents by proper name puts himself at risk. That is what happened to the birds when they failed to recognize that the name You All which the tortoise named himself. The tortoise is like their enemy and because they could not recognize him he was dressed in their feathers and did what he wanted. Consequently, they couldnt eat anything and went back to the earth hungry. That is to say, people should not accept anything that

comes from the others or any one that could suggest anything before weighing it for themselves. They have to be reasonable and use their critical thinking so that no one can deceive them. In other words, people have to doubt everything so that they can realize the message behind it. They have to reflect upon everything before they can consume or accept it. Then it is ok for them to make their judgment.
III.

According to Achebe, oppressed people have to build the awareness of

self-knowledge and to know who their enemy is. These people need to know their capacities and potentials because knowing the self helps to know the others or at least make the person aware or his existence. Therefore, it will be much easier for these people to recognize who is to befriend and who is to be aware of.