[Christmas in Biafra], Chinua Achebe's first book of poetry, may turn out to be, like Things Fall Apart, a landmark in African writing…. Written during the long period of his silence as a novelist, the poems are a chronicle of the difficult years of a man and his nation, as well as a truly unified book of poetry which has much to offer for both African and Western readers. Divided into 5 sections, the book takes us on a journey which begins with dark omens of disaster, progresses into the nightmare of a fratricidal war, passes through the difficult transition period when both the writer's own voice and the nation of Nigeria were being reborn, and finally rises to the point where the poet has returned, full-blown, to both his power and his duty as a writer.
The book begins with a short poem, "1966."… The poem is rich in inference and reflects the duality of the poet's vision of Christianity. (It is the same Christianity which would be the forerunner of empire and yet also a faith possessed of a kind of gentle grace which would stir the heart of Nwoye, the son of Okonkwo in Things Fall Apart.) The oil which was an important reason for the involvement of the European nations in the Nigerian War, the disappointment of Christianity in Nigeria (a land which some of the early missionaries saw as a new Eden, an Eden they would create), the death of Abel at the hands of Cain and the forthcoming "war between brothers" are all conjured up by these few lines. It is the type of poem which we encounter throughout the book, simple, understated, full of irony and possessing of a depth which many may miss on first reading. (pp. 23-4)
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Read the rest of this Criticism with our Achebe, Chinua 1930–: Critical Essay by Joseph Bruchac Access Pass.
