To be progressive as an individual or a Nation, we have to look back to where we are came from and remind ourselves of our roots as we behold the beauty and the glory of the future: “A man who does not know where the rain began to beat him cannot say where he dried his body,” says an Igbo proverb.
Below is a book on Nigeria History for your reading pleasure as we celebrate Nigeria at 60.
There Was a Country: A Personal History of Biafra – Chinua Achebe
Every student of art and literature should have read or heard about this book one way or the other. There Was a Country: A Personal History of Biafra is an account of what happened during the Nigerian civil war from the (book) view of Chinua Achebe. It is inevitable to have a chronicle of Nigeria History without mentioning the civil war that started in 1967 and ended in 1970.
The late African Literary icon did well to document his knowledge and what he learned about the civil war for posterity. Chinua Achebe personal account of the Biafra should be the foremost and the go-to literature for Nigerians and non-Nigerians that want to have a comprehensive understanding of the war. It was well written. And the beauty of the book lays in how Achebe was able to marry his memoir with Nigeria history of the war and the medley of prose with poetry. The book is largely prose but you will find poems in between chapters adding variety to the structure of the book. The book is written in 4 parts. The first part chronicles the family background, birth and upbringing of Chinua Achebe; the second and third parts document the Nigeria civil war and the fourth part detailed the post-war.
Holistically, There was a Country is a beautiful literature worth reading at the eve of Nigeria’s 60th Independence anniversary.
Have a good read.
Paul McPetros
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Email: paulmcpetros@gmail.com
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