Achebe's audience is clearly indicated by the usage of his European learned English. For contradiction, his audience is both , for he tries to introduce the English speaking peoples to the Igbo cultural traditions and for the Ibo speaking people he is showing that "outside" people will take value in this culture through his inclusion of proverbs, stories, and etc. The language is very eloquent for those that are educated to appreciate, but Achebe's word usage for imagery shows he is involving the Igbo culture. Achebe makes a statement by including the Igbo words in the novel as a language force to be reckon with. In my opinion, he is setting up his defense for the African languages to get to a point of being part of the renowned languages. It is true that he writes this novel in English but he is keeping the western civilization from being ignorant. The question is would we have really cared or knew anything about the Igbo culture if we had not read this book? Achebe's use of English is trying to erase the image that colonialism had placed upon Africa, so yes his audience is the western civilization of English speaking peoples.
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I agree that by including certain Igbo words throughout the novel, Achebe has tried to create an inclusion of certain African words in the English language. Also, by providing this information about the Nigerian people to the Europeans in English, he is trying to show the Westerners how colonization will ruin the liveliness of the African culture. However, I do not understand what you meant by "Achebe's use of English is trying to erase the image colonialism had placed on Africa."Does it mean that Achebe is trying to erase the image of Africa as an uncivilized and barbaric place?
ReplyDeleteI believe he is in many ways. By showing the faults and progresses of the culture he paints us a realistic picture of the Igbo society. To have sugar coated it would have left us with a salty taste in our mouth. His language is real, and though it is written in proper English much of it is still tactile enough for us to glean his intention at creating a depiction of real African Society. By paralleling the two societies he augments both their similarities and differences which goes along way to erase the bigoted positions left to us from the Victorian age. English gives him access to an enormously wide audience and provides the scope and distance to truly rework many of these colonial biases.
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