Cultural Expression and Achebean Language

Abstract

The study of language in the works of Achebe reveals how it can be used as a tool of social stratification and how the imposition of a foreign tongue on a community can lead them to internalizing the notion of their indigenous language[s] being inferior. The Achebean African characters conversing in English berate the fellow Africans using Nigerian Pidgin and Igbo, for they view them as being illiterate and uncivilized, a notion embedded in their psyche as a result of the British colonial regime’s suppression and the concept of self – hate that they propagated amongst the African natives. Achebe, however, skillfully ‘colonizes’ the colonizer’s language to display, simultaneously, the civil aspect of the Igbo tribal and counters the false narratives propelled by them in relation to the ‘uncivility’ of the tribal. His effective and innovative use of language to demonstrate the African culture is reflected through the fact that he uses it to display the rich African oral culture, folktales and the rich proverbial bank of the African Igbo culture. Analyzing Achebe’s language also reveals as to how it projects biculturalism, the collision between the African and British ideologies in his novels. Achebe’s language aptly captures the constant tussle faced by the characters in between the two cultures. This paper seeks to showcase how language can act as a conveyor of multiple notions and help one in developing a better understanding of the world.