An African Voice Discussion Takeaway

Chinua Achebe's interview, "An African Voice," provides great insight on the impact of his literature as well as the ideas behind his work. When assessing Achebe's replies, we can infer many things about the implications of the literature in this field. One of the most interesting concepts that were discussed in this interview was that of a "universal civilization". During the discussion, we looked at the idea of our worldwide community becoming united despite any differences. First, we looked at the extent of this possibility with the existences of many different languages which each carry its own culture and ideals. However, a universal civilization should not be about a lack of differences, but rather an understanding and acceptance of these differences. It is true that English is the most dominant language nowadays and this allows it to transfer the culture of the countries that speak it. This is always true for some language and culture however unity can be achieved despite the existence of a dominant language. Therefore, we concluded that in order to achieve this idea of a universal civilization, differences should be understood and accepted. As a result, we could agree that this is not an achievable idea in our world. Another concept that we focused on was how African literature allowed us to expand our idea and perception of African life. Through works such as "Things Fall Apart", we are able to understand the lifestyle of the African person through their eyes. This contrasts with the negative portrayal that is created by Western literature. We discussed how African literature is a form of expression which allows the people to define themselves. This is a very interesting concept because it means that the African people were able to use the same tool that oppressed them in order to define themselves and break the stereotypes they are placed within. Further, they allow others who have also experienced colonialism to connect to their work and to express themselves through it. It is interesting how one thing can be experienced through similar ways despite the many differences. And perhaps this relates to the idea of a universal civilization, however in a negative way. In this situation, all the differences are set aside where they are able to agree on the impacts of colonialism.