quote by Paule Marshall

2 of 7 books I love. This is my Igbo father inscribing a benediction in his book on our subject 9 days before mine, Life Turns Man Up and Down, was published. We hadn’t met until I’d written but not yet published and I blame editorial incompetence for LTMUAD’s not benefiting from his corrections. Grrrr.
Achebe’s best friend from youth, Emmanuel came into my life as my father, with all the ceremony of dark old men, left. I am a student of such things. My new friend made things better, fathering me toward better fathering myself.

With Emmanuel and Marie Obiechina, Cornwall, New York, 2001.

I’d read Igbo history and literature with his guidance long before we met, Chief of the imaginary Africa I’d acquired reading the Onitsha Market Literature I’d then collected for 24 years. As best I could I wrote around and through his critical study, ‘An African Popular Literature’, and anthology of the street lit, ceding to his authority without usurping it – meaning it as a compliment.
Which was how he took it. To meet his approval was the real measure of success and with it came the man’s enormous gravitas. In the Biafra War, Ojukwu entrusted Chinua and Emmanuel with the heavy lifting of nation building, mobilizing an intelligencia to create the democratic dream out of ashes.

With Chinua Achebe, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, 2001.

These guys were the revolutionaries I have always sided with and they taught me. Before we met I’d taken to heart everything they’d written toward understanding the phenomenal things that happened when Things Fell Apart. Which is where we continue to meet. It was a blessing to know such true gentlemen. also see: http://www.lifeturnsmanupanddown.com