Chinua Achebe Interview Meaningful Takeaway

During our Shared Inquiry Discussion in class today, I was struck by the lack of books recounting African stories from the point of view of an African individual. It was not a concept that I had previously considered, yet, the extent of it on the African culture must be considerably large. In the interview with Achebe, he explains that previous to his endeavours in literature, there were a significant amount of "authentically African" books written by European or American authors. He went on to say that "The last four or five hundred years of European contact with Africa produced a body of literature that presented Africa in a very bad light and Africans in very lurid terms. The reason for this had to do with the need to justify the slave trade and slavery." (p. 2-3) This seems to be a complete marginalisation of the voices of Africans, who are equally as able to recount African stories. Since Western culture had incredible power over cultural minorities, their ability to manipulate other Westerners opinions on Africans allowed them to justify their dismissal and ignorance towards African cultures. By Africans publishing their own books, and recounting their own stories and experiences, they are able to express themselves and their cultures in a more positive. Additionally, by using English in their literature, they are able to reach a wider audience, and perhaps humanise themselves to Western audiences, who have only ever been shown dreading images of African cultures.