Introduction

Achebe’s own life merits examination as part of an analysis of language and politics in his narratives because he personally navigated, competing politically volatile structures of power. He demonstrated along the way a combination of respect and defiance toward tradition and authority that his fiction dramatizes. Achebe’s role as a late colonial and postcolonial African artist and spokesman, his perspectives on Metropolitan culture and Nigerian politics to a vast African and international audience, and his creation of a narrative counterpoint comprising African and Western traditions, paralleled the negotiations, and bridging, of contested spheres of discourse and influence in his fictional narratives. Achebe’s direct yet dignified efforts to speak truth to power earned him lasting international acclaim.