Where the Rain Began
to Beat Us
“A man who does not know where the rain began to beat him
cannot say where he dried his body” (Achebe, 1). The next generation wants to
bring Nigeria forward, we want to progress in healing the wounds of this nation
and making it healthier, peaceful place. We need to know where the rain first
began to beat our people, before we can begin to dry our people. According to
Achebe, the rain first began to beat Africa when Europe “discovered” the
continent (Achebe, 1). The problems faced by this present generation, some of
them have their beginning during Chinua Achebe’s early. Achebe tells his story
as a way of informing the next generation where to begin to heal our hurts.
His book seeks to act as a Genesis story to the joys and
problems of Nigeria. He tells personal stories of his experiences of Nigeria as
a freshly-minted country. He creates complex characters with comedic anecdotes
and tragic endings and is careful to place them as well as himself with the
historical framework of Nigeria’s short political history. He is careful to
give both sides of each story a hearing and to include the world’s response to
Nigerian events. His book is full of references, he is careful to point out to
his audience that his memories are not misremembered or conjured up; rather his
memories are based carefully researched historical fact. These facts include
the many layered relationships and ruptures that led up to the Biafran war and
the textured response to the subjugated Igbo people that included both mercies
and continued injustices.
“There Was a Country” does not seek to answer specific
questions of Nigeria’s often bemoaned political state. It does provide a place
for those with questions to begin searching for answers. He seeks to place
Nigeria’s pains and impediments in relation to the socio-political history of
itself and of the world. He is careful to include inter tribal and intra tribal
political considerations that went into the sometimes atrocious actions of
communities. As a diplomat Biafra Achebe considers the response of Western
nations. However, his writing is never academic. He always uses personal
stories that portray the very human people that he worked with.
Chinua Achebe has many features that deepened my
understanding and respect for his material. He started each chapter with one of
his poems in order to further communicate the “particular tension of war”
(Achebe, 2). He also includes two appendices. One praises the servant-leadership
of Nelson Mandela. The other provides a full transcript of the Brigadier
Banjo’s, the leading ground officer Nigeria’s invading force, first inaugural
radio transmission to the conquered Midwest. He provides a full bibliography of
his references to historical events and an index of terms.
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