A PARADISE LOST LONG AGO: A STUDY WITH REFERENCE TO CHINUA ACHEBE’S THERE WAS A COUNTRY: A PERSONAL HISTORY OF BIAFRA

This paper discusses Chinua Achebe’s attempt to confront the historical and spiritual roots of Africa's crisis. The author, one of Africa's greatest intellectual giants was consistent in courageously criticizing the misrule on the continent for decades, stances which put his life at risk and forced him to flee his native country. His great disappointment manifests itself in his last and latest book “There was a Country-A personal History of Biafra”. Achebe mourns Biafra, but his anger is directed at the failures of Nigeria. This book is a fascinating and gripping memoir of Biafra where he relates his experience of the war, both as he lived it and how he came to understand it. The end of Biafra didn't bring an end to the pogroms against the Igbo, nor to Nigeria's problems. He has also offered a solution to resolve these problems, by invoking the Negritude embedded in the mbari of his own Igbo culture, which emphasizes mutual respect and coexistence. He declares that the solutions to Africa's problems can be found in Africa?her bosom, her humanity?and that Africans must rebuild their own indigenous institutions.