Chinua Achebe

Seminar paper from the year 2005 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1,0, University of Duisburg-Essen, language: English, abstract: [...] Although there is quite a number of reasonable arguments for not welcoming Turkeyto the European family , such as financial as well as political and ethical, the majority ofTurkish people consider prejudices against Turks as the actual reason for their rejection: theyare (culturally) too different and more than the half of the European citizens are against aTurkish membership in the EU. Instead, a privileged partnership is being proposed bysome conservative European governments (or opposing parties such as the German ChristianDemocratic party), instead of a full membership. I think full needs to be emphasised herebecause it means a real and well-meant friendship, a step closer to becoming a family memberone day rather than a mere political (or strategical) ally. Well, family implies that there areless differences, that one is almost alike. There are many European tenets as well astraditional views which hinder an honest dialogue since Europe has yet to rid itself of someof its dangerous ideas ( maleficent fictions) which set the world ablaze in the 20th century.Neither Nigeria is honestly acknowledged, nor is (in the minds of many a European critic)Achebe s writing universal5, nor is Turkey s fourty-year old endeavour to become a fullEuropean member acceptable. There is, intellectually, a problem on the part of Europe toaccept the idea of equality which Achebe has been persistently trying to point out both in hisnovels and in his essays (which is the same reason, I think, why Turkey is so hard done by):feeling of superiority. That is why Achebe s books lack the quality of universal European (orWestern) books and is only applicable to Nigeria and likewise the reason for Turkey being asecond-rate country. Both of these concepts reveal classical European ideas that will in allprobability prove to be false during the course of the twenty-first century. In order tosupport my thesis, which I admit sounds far-fetched at first glance, I will refer to ChinuaAchebe s accounts on colonial criticism and, wherever possible, compare them to the recentissue in European dealings with the Other, i.e. the Turk. I will later on focus on the novels Arrow of God and A Man of the People , particularly on the aspect of religion in Arrowof God and the post-colonial phenomena of Nigeria in A Man of the People .