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Article: `Home and Exile,' by Chinua Achebe; Oxford University Press.(Knight Ridder Newspapers)
- Article from:
- Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service
- Article date:
- August 16, 2000
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2000 Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Early in "Home and Exile," an elegant, flinty memoir based on lectures given at Harvard two years ago, the majestic Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe shares "a charming little Igbo story" from his childhood.
One evening, the town crier summoned all animals to a meeting the next morning. When the time approached, only the chicken headed away from the public square. Asked why, the chicken explained that he had to attend to an urgent personal matter. Still, he urged his neighbors and friends to convey to the assembly his good wishes and support for whatever they decided.
The emergency prompting the meeting, it turned out, was the "rampant harassment" of ...