Captain Elechi Amadi is the author of the widely acclaimed The Concubine among other literary works, a former Commissioner for Land and Housing, former Commissioner for Education and currently Chairman, Rivers State Scholarship Board. In this interview with Precious Dikewoha in his home at Aluu community in Ikwerre Local Government of Rivers State, he says Achebe can never be replaced. He also speaks about his school days with Achebe, his experience in the den of kidnappers, and a host of other issues.
How did you meet Chinua Achebe?
I got to know Achebe in 1948 at Government College, Umuahia when we were both students. We were not only in the same school we were in the same house – Niger House. At one point we were in fact in the same dormitory and he was the prefect. He was three years ahead of me.
He was soft-spoken, diligent, and hardworking and like most boys from that school, reliable and honest. Even in those days one habit of his became noticeable – he always carried a book. Even when he was marking out portions for our grass-cutting chores on Saturdays, he would have a machete in his right hand and a book in his left, with his forefinger buried in it to mark where he had stopped. This picture is particularly vivid in my mind. After school days, we went our different ways, but whenever we met, the passage of time will make no difference. We would recall incidents during our school days and laugh endlessly. He had an honest and rather infectious kind of laughter.
When he convened a meeting of authors at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka for the formation of the Association of Nigeria Authors, Chinua was his usual humble and unassuming self. Humorously he said he had convened the meeting not necessarily to form an association but for us to debate whether writers who are known to be half-mad and individualistic could in fact come together to form an association. His humble and relaxed approach fired our resolve to form an association, and ANA was born.
In 1954, Ekwensi published People of the City. I was thrilled that a Nigerian could write a novel. Then in 1958 came Achebe’s Things Fall Apart which received instant global acclaim. A novel written by my own schoolmate and friend! Wow! I rushed for a copy and did not put it down until I finished it. I have no doubt at all that I drew much of my inspiration to write from Ekwensi and Achebe.
Some critics refer to writers who published novels after Things Fall Apart as “Achebe’s children”. Well, Yes and No. Yes, in the sense that I and some others drew inspiration and the courage to write from him. No, in the sense that while there may be common features like proverbs for instance in his work and mine, my style and orientation are quite different. There are no white men in my books, and gods and the supernatural play a more powerful role than in Achebe’s books. Again, while Achebe deeply explores colonial politics, I am preoccupied with the intricacies of our people’s culture. As the general editor of the African Writers Series, Achebe described The Concubine when it was published as ‘an unusually successful first novel’. I could not have had a better encouragement than that.
I believe the Civil War affected Achebe very deeply and probably robbed him of the Nobel Prize. Between A Man of the People (1966) and Anthills of the Savannah (1987), Achebe’s creativity had a lull of twenty years which dealt a fatal blow to any Nobel Prize ambitions. But that apart, I am convinced that Achebe deserved the prize for his enormous impact on African Literature. When I met Chinua in January 1989, he gave me a copy of Anthills of the Savannah in which he wrote: ‘To Elechi with admiration, Chinua’. This book is one of my treasured possessions. This great literary icon admired my writings, so critics beware! I will always remember Chinua as a giant in African Literature, a literary role model, a consummate craftsman and above all, a friend.
Why is it that when people die, even those who disagree with their ideas and ideologies while alive would express appreciation and honour to them?
Well, that is because people don’t want to speak ill about the dead. When they know you are dead even your enemy will try to speak good about you. I will miss him, his death reminds me of the good days in Government Collage, Umuahia, but he is gone and his work will immortalise him. That is one joy of a writer. When you no longer exist, your work exists and speaks volume of you, but only when your work is good which can be determined by the readers.
The Concubine is more than 40 years yet people still ask for it, which means the work is good. Generation replaces generation, but Achebe will not be replaced by any one, but we can have people who want to be like him and people who are good in doing what he was doing but no replacement.
As a two-time commissioner and now Chairman, Rivers State Scholarship Board, you have no mansions, no expensive cars. You even deny yourself of lavish life style. Are you hiding your money somewhere?
(Prolong laughter) No, no, that is how I choose to live my life; it was the kind of life I was brought up with when I was in Government College, Umuahia. It is part of me and I cannot change it. There is nothing in this life that could make me live extravagant life. What makes people live above their means is that they want to have everything in the world which is still impossible. Before now I only have one Volkswagen car, but one day during the meeting of elder statesmen, Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi decided to give each of us a gift of Jeep. That is the jeep I am using today.
Even when it was given to me I did not make use of it for a long time until my driver and family started complaining that I should make use of it. In my philosophy you can’t live in two houses or sleep in two beds at the same time. All one needs in life is to live a simple life. Nigeria is not progressing because one man has decided to accumulate the resource that could change the lives of ten communities while pretending to be serving the people. But philosophically when I analyse life, I thought it is a waste of time being busy taking what does not belong to you. Why not use that time to do other things that could benefit society? I mean the time you want to spend thinking on how to get 40 houses in Nigeria and abroad, use that time to think on how to create a positive impact on your environment and society at large, especially in touching lives of the less privileged.
You love your village so much and prefer going to work in Port Harcourt from your village. What is your relationship with your people?
It gives me joy that I can live among my people; it would have been something else if I was living in the town then sneaking to the village every month or once a year. I wouldn’t have been comfortable because it is like living in exile. Why should you be running away from your people? Don’t forget I was brought up from the village and I enjoy walking in the forest. I like the atmosphere of the environment. For more than twelve years I stayed in the village, I know my people and they know me. Each morning I will open my gate for free movement. I have no security or body guard. Before now I don’t have wall in my compound. It was when I was kidnapped that my friends said no you must fence your compound. That was how I fenced it. If not, I prefer the type that my neighbour can walk into my house from any corner to see me.
Look, your best protection is the good will of your people and not just arming yourself. It is very difficult for anybody to hurt you when you are good with your people. Your people are your best protection. I enjoy the village so much, though there is this challenge that the villagers believe because I am working with the government there is enough money in my house. So, every day you will see some school children coming to my house, asking for help. Some of the requests by the children are minor and I try by the grace of God to attend to their needs. And every market day, the widows will come knocking asking for money to buy fish and I also attend to them. Maybe because I attend to them that is why they feel I am harmless, of course I am, (laughter).
Wouldn’t you consider that it is because of lack of security around you that made the kidnapers to abduct you; could you tell us your experience when you were kidnapped?
No, it was not because I had no body guard or security apparatus that made the boys to kidnap me, because even those who surrounded themselves with military armour are being kidnapped. The fact is that the people who did this to me were small boys from my community who went to hire gunmen to kidnap me. They are three in number and none of them is finding peace because the community did not support them. One of them is dead, the other one jumped bail and the last one has been running from one place to the other. The parents came begging me to plead with the police to forget about the case. But I said no if I didn’t prosecute intelligently I may end up encouraging kidnapping in the community. But that did not scare me because as I earlier said, I am a village man. I was brought up in the village and I love the village. If not my experience as a village man I would have suffered so much finding my way out from the forest when I was released by my abductors.
I was kidnapped at 8pm and blindfolded to unknown destination within the community, as they drove me to the forest I didn’t know when it was morning. Even when they bought fast food and water for me I did not know. It was later when I requested for water that they gave me but I could not eat the food because I did not know what they gave me. Though the water I drank helped me a lot, it gave me the strength to walk for two hours in the forest to get to the village. The kidnappers were not ready to harm me but only interested that I should tell government to bring money. When they asked for ransom I told them that I don’t have money and they said they know I don’t have money but I should tell the government to bring money, though at the end I was allowed to go. But what I am trying to say is that if I was not brought up in the village it would have been hell for me to direct my steps out of the forest.
As scholarship board chairman, how do you cope with desperate politicians and individuals who want the names of their children to appear on the scholarship list?
Everybody knows I am methodical. I don’t give scholarship. I am only the board chairman. What we do is that when we receive allocation, we advertise and people will apply, those who applied will be handed over to a competent examination body. It is the body that examines candidates and submmit the list of successful ones to us. Some times people will come to my office pleading for assistance to ensure that the names of their children came out but I always tell them that it is unethical to change somebody’s name for someone else’s name. If your child did not make it this year let he or she wait for another opportunity. The process of application is transparent. For now, we don’t have money to send people for study. We have 154 overseas scholarships but they have since been reduced because some are graduating. Three hundred local scholarship beneficiaries receive N250,000 annually while their counterparts abroad receive N5m due to the courses they are studying over there. By the grace of God some of the students will be graduating late this year and by 2014 more will also graduate.
How do you cope with your wives and children, managing to maintain peace among them?
I have three wives and they are all doing well. I try as much I can to look after them. Things I can do I tell them, the ones I cannot do I also tell them. Yes, I have more than one wife but they are living in peace with one another and the secret is that I am honest and open to them. What I give to one I try as much as possible to give it to the other. I have also made them comfortable in a way that they could take care of themselves and their children. All I need is to relax and they pass food for me to eat.
Are we expecting any literary work soon?
Yes, very soon it will be unveiled to the public. It is a collection of science fiction titled: When God Came and the Song of the Vanquished.