Stories that carry oppressive subtexts should not be censored, but instead taught critically, said Chinua Achebe at an event last night on the University of Massachusetts campus, at which he read from his book Home and Exile, released last year. The author, perhaps best known for his 1958 novel Things Fall Apart, said that his most recent work is “a meditation on my life’s work: the business of stories, the importance of stories, the value of stories.”

Achebe, a faculty member of the UMass English department from 1972 to 1975, said that he was delighted to revisit the University, which he defined as a sanctuary full of friends. “This is the place where we came when we couldn’t bear our home anymore in 1972,” he said.

The excerpts he chose to read from Home and Exile contained quotes from Western writers about African stories and culture. A juxtaposition of critical readings on “The Palm Wine Drinkard,” a tale by African writer Amos Tutuola, provoked nervous laughter from the crowd. Achebe quoted from a 1954 essay by Elspeth Huxley, whose academic tone belied a pejorative view of the tale, which in her view symbolized “the darkness of the African mind.”

On the other hand, in the same decade, Welsh poet Dylan Thomas showed “recognition of Tutuola’s merit,” according to Achebe, who described Thomas as a “free spirit” able to understand the tale without ever having been to Africa. Conversely, Huxley, who had lived in Kenya, was a noted apologist for the cause of imperialism. Achebe called Huxley’s essays that sought to justify dispossession of African lands by whites a crime akin to “forging title deeds.”

He read a selection from Home and Exile that touched on his experience as an undergraduate student in Africa, taught by whites, reading books by whites and ultimately dissatisfied with the portrayal of African culture. He described the African protagonist of one critically acclaimed book as “a bumbling idiot. . . that was passed off as a poet.”

However, Achebe said that he believes such books have a place in literary history. He disavowed any desire to limit the freedom of writers, even if their ideas offend his sense of dignity as an African and a human.
“I don’t want any book banned. I want all books read so people can come to their own judgment,” he said, going on to say that he actually teaches many of the books mentioned in his reading for their misrepresentations of African culture.

The book is based on three lectures the distinguished Nigerian novelist gave at Harvard University in 1998. In it, Achebe makes forceful use of his personal experiences to examine the political nature of culture.