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Achebe or Soyinka?: A Study in Contrasts (New Perspectives on African Literature)

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Kole Omotsho tried to define the size of two Elephants with much success but can he get the best of these to Giants is a very strong point.

Wole Soyinka and Chinua Achebe are the best brains from Africa particularly Nigera and it is difficult to evaluate which one of the writer is better. Soyinka is more academic than Chinua who is more to the grassroot.

Soyinka is much more into politics than Chinua but Chinua remains a shinning star with his Book Things fall Apart. that can never be taken from him but Wole remains a better brain, a balance writer often misuderstood in all areas like Poems, Plays and fiction.

My love remain for Wole for his Poem on ABIKU in West African Verse I read in 1973 for the West Africa School Certificate Examination,while Wole made me as a Yoruba to appreciate my culture Chinua gave the opportunity to appreciate the culture of the Igbos which is very similar to mine particularly on Ogbanje (Abiku) and Amadiora (Sango god Of Thunder).

Both have received glories through their works and they will remain a standard for all writers in Africa for a very long time.

As an educated African American male who has travelled to Nigeria multiple times, I found the title "Achebe or Soyinka" quite pathetic. What the author (Omotosho) is hoping for is that the readers of his " literary analysis" are ignorant of the Ethnic hatred that robs many an academic from Nigeria of being able to critically and fairly analyze literature that is written from "outside their world view" (read as outside their tribe). Omotosho, a Yoruba, is so heavily jaundiced by this scourge that the book in several parts reads as a promotional pamphlet for Yoruba culture. As a reader you often find yourself asking "why must we choose?...Why can't we celebrate them both?" Achebe and Soyinka are two of Africa's literary Giants and are friends. They happen to come from different Ethnic groups in Nigeria Igbo (or Ibo) and Yoruba. They have different Literary styles..so what? They are both quite certainly above Omotosho's petty ethno-social literary politics. For true unbiased analysis of African Literature and indeed Achebe and Soyinka's work, I suggest the interested reader read works of literary critism by Bernth Lindfors, Ernest Emenyonu, K.A. Appiah or G.D. Killam. The chapter on Tribalism in Achebe's "The Trouble with Nigeria" eloquently supports this readers point. Indeed read the whole book for a full understanding of Nigerian politics and problems. Also pick up Soyinka's "Myth, Literature and the African World". TP

Kole Omotsho tried to define the size of two Elephants with much success but can he get the best of these to Giants is a very strong point.

Wole Soyinka and Chinua Achebe are the best brains from Africa particularly Nigera and it is difficult to evaluate which one of the writer is better. Soyinka is more academic than Chinua who is more to the grassroot.

Soyinka is much more into politics than Chinua but Chinua remains a shinning star with his Book Things fall Apart. that can never be taken from him but Wole remains a better brain, a balance writer often misuderstood in all areas like Poems, Plays and fiction.

My love remain for Wole for his Poem on ABIKU in West African Verse I read in 1973 for the West Africa School Certificate Examination,while Wole made me as a Yoruba to appreciate my culture Chinua gave the opportunity to appreciate the culture of the Igbos which is very similar to mine particularly on Ogbanje (Abiku) and Amadiora (Sango god Of Thunder).

Both have received glories through their works and they will remain a standard for all writers in Africa for a very long time.