Chinua Achebe - The Education of a British Protected Child

The Education of a British-Protected Child by Chinua Achebe is a collection of essays he wrote at different points in his career and I am proud to have this pleasant read as the first book I finished this year.  I have always wanted to read a book by Chinua Achebe and maybe I will read more now, having gotten used to the idea of Chinua Achebe's views and style as a writer.

I was drawn to The Education of a British Protected Child because of its title. I honestly set out to read South African non-fiction this year but this title aroused my curiousity. I am curious about Nigeria's education system because I've heard about how Nigeria has the best education system in Africa as well as the highest literacy in Africa. I thought the book might provide some insight into how their education system was influenced by Colonisation. It did.

I am also curious about Nigeria's education system as a British colony in relation to other African colonies. I once read that the French colonized the Africans in a manner of trying to civilize them by making them French whilst the English did it simply to occupy and I am curious to what extent this is true.

I like this book for a couple of reasons. Firstly it is readable and I like readable books. The writer comes across as a man who would like to share his knowledge and insight by inviting readers to think about things.

Secondly I felt that Chinua Achebe comes off as an incredibly reasonable sort of guy who makes his point simply and quickly without rambling and I found his analogies useful.

The most interesting point he made, I found, is that colonizers tried to make the colonized seem inhuman to justify that they were stealing from them, that they were savages and could not govern themselves. One must always be wary of this.  In being human we are also subject to human weaknesses, but part of dealing with these weaknesses means being able to identify injustices and call them by their proper names.  I think this theory applies in all areas life too.

He also impresses on me that we should speak for ourselves about our history and cultures and not let writers who speak for colonizers determine our story, they can tell theirs, but they must not determine ours because not only will they exaggerate their successes, they will downplay their cruelties and exaggerate those of the conquered because no one wants to be seen as a villain in history.

I like how Chinua Achebe acted locally and globally.  He wrote, spoke, listened, read and all the while paying attention. He travelled as well as wrote and gave talks both in his country and abroad.

I also like that he was the first functional editor of Heinemann African Writers' series. I have loved and completely romanticized that book series ever since we had Maru as a setbook in high school. I would like to read as many books as I can from that series. 

I will probably read this book again. I enjoyed reading it and learning from it.