Becoming with Dr. Nwando Achebe
By Dean Natalie McKnight
On February 8, 2024, Dr. Nwando Achebe presented a lecture entitled “Becoming: Africanist, Oral, and Gender Historian” in the Jacob Sleeper Auditorium at the College of General Studies as part of the Stanley P. Stone Distinguished Lecture series, endowed in 1990 by alumnus Stanley P. Stone. Dr. Achebe is the Jack and Margaret Sweet Endowed Professor of History at Michigan State University, and author of six books on African history, including Farmers, Traders, Warriors, and Kings: Female Power and Authority in Northern Igboland, 1900-1960, and The Female King of Colonial Nigeria; Ahebi Ugbabe, as well as Holding the World Together: African Women in Changing Perspective, which she co-edited with Clarie Roberson, and Female Monarchs and Merchant Queens in Africa. Dr. Achebe mesmerized the packed auditorium with her presentation which she explained would be like a “dance,” in that she would keep moving seamlessly between the story of her personal journey and her advocacy for a multi-faceted, multi-voiced approach to history, particularly African history.
Achebe compared the practice of history to a dance as well, comparing it specifically to the Igbo masquerade dancing tradition. The only way to truly appreciate the beauty of the dance—any dance, really—is to constantly shift positions. Using dance as a metaphor for the study of history, she argued, is a direct “critique of monological thinking.” Rejecting the notion of any “fixed meaning,” Achebe cautioned that too often African history has been told by non-Africans and only from one perspective. She asked, more than once, “What histories? Whose histories?” are being told in traditional accounts. Illustrating her point with an Igbo (southwestern Nigerian) proverb, she proclaimed, “Until lions have their own historian, the story of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.”
Achebe’s research relies on sources that have not traditionally been foundational to historical studies: oral history, proverbs, fables, and personal history. Woven into her declarations about African history were multiple references to her own personal journey and her relationship with her parents, Christie and Chinua Achebe. She noted that they gave her a name that means “a child is a shade,” meaning a child can shade or protect her parents in their later years, and she made it clear that she has done just that, cradling her father’s head in her lap as he passed away 11 years ago and continuing to care for her mother who is now 88 years old. Later in the presentation she reflected on the impact of the publications of her father, Chinua Achebe, particularly Things Fall Apart, which is the most widely read work of African fiction to date, and one of the first to present colonialism from the perspective of the colonized. That perspective influenced her to disrupt the traditional canon (of literature and historical accounts), and to advocate for the rights of all members of society and give voice to the voiceless.
One false notion of Africa that Dr. Achebe disrupted in her lecture is the misperception that Africans look at love through a “provider” or financial lens, not a romantic one. In the week before Valentine’s Day, it was particularly fitting that she emphasized how that perception is simply not true; she traced the etymology of some of the Igbo and Kenyan words used for love, which come from a belief that love is truly seeing and knowing someone deeply. She also described intricate love beads that courtship partners used to engage their lovers and beaded love letters they shared to express their feelings. But she acknowledged that Nigeria has had an “embattled history with same sex desire,” with strict laws against same sex relationships, and she argued passionately that these laws blatantly defy the Nigerian constitution which protects the rights to private life, private family life, freedom of movement, and freedom of association. She referred to the laws against same sex relationships as a “legislation of harming,” and she illustrated her point with a Nigerian proverb which says that a person who holds another person down in the mud has to stay in the mud themselves to do so. The act of dehumanizing others dehumanizes the dehumanizer.
Dr. Achebe concluded her presentation by stating that as a historian, author and editor she aims to support other African scholars and works to add complexity and nuance to perceptions about Africa. She closed with a fable from Ghana about Anansi the spider, who had a pot with all the knowledge in the world. Anansi did not want to share the knowledge with anyone, so he climbed a tree with the pot hanging around his neck, but the climb was very difficult. His son called up to him and told him to hang the pot on his back instead, which would help him climb more easily, so he did. But when he reached the top, he was angry at his son for knowing something that he didn’t know, so he threw down the pot of knowledge in spite, and it shattered into many pieces. The pieces of knowledge went everywhere, which is why to this day no one person can know everything; everyone has just a small piece of knowledge. Dr. Achebe certainly added to the knowledge of all in attendance at her lecture, and she received a standing ovation when she finished, with many staying afterwards to speak with her individually.