Chinese novelist, Mo Yan, has been named the winner of the 2012 edition of the Nobel Prize for Literature by the Swedish Academy
The Swedish Academy praised his work which “with hallucinatory realism merges folk tales, history and the contemporary”.
The 57-year-old is the 109th recipient of the prestigious prize, which was given last year to Swedish poet Tomas Transtroemer.
Presented by the Nobel Foundation, the award, only given to living writers, is worth 8 million krona (£741,000).
Nigeria’s foremost writer, Chinua Achebe has been in contention for the most coveted prize in the literary world but has failed to pick the award since his first book hit the book shelves.
Other writers including Haruki Murakami, William Trevor, Milan Kundera, Amos Oz, Philip Roth, Alice Munro, Thomas Pynchon, Ian McEwan, Salman Rushdie and Bob Dylan were also in the race to pick the prize. Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
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Thank God Chinua Achebe was not given this coveted award. He is not a Nobel candidate for waking up Chief Obafemi Awolowo and Chief Odumegwu Ojukwu from their peaceful rests
ReplyDeleteVery soon he will blame his failure on Yoruba race better still Great Pa Awolowo of blessed memory.
ReplyDeleteAward which a Yoruba trained man ( Prof Soyinka ) has dusted with Yoruba Atire since 190000000.
Appeal to sentiment denies Nigeria of accountaility from our 'infallible elders' why can't Awolowo and Ojukwu have been wrong? Let the facts be made bare let issues be addressed and brought to a conclusion rather than our judgment being shrouded by sentiments! If we continue with our sentimental blindness in 2 or 3 decades from now the likes of Buhari, Obasanjo and Babangida will be named heroes of Nigeria and their infallibility will be professed to our children
ReplyDeleteSo painful. Achebe should have won.
ReplyDeleteI hope Chinua Achebe will not blame this defeat on Awolowo and Yoruba people !!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteAppeal to sentiments continue to rub Nigeria of accountability from the olderr generation, let questions asked an facts be stated and let us stop this sentimental nonsense rrwhy can't we accept that our past leaders could have erred and try to correct their errors? If wwe continue like this in the next 2 or 3 decades we will have name people like Obasanjo, Buhari and Babangida as infallible heroes of Nigeriawhose decisions and steps shoukd never be questioned. Nobel prize or not these matters should be discussed and our lessons should be learnt. We are graduallyfallininto deep secirity challenges and our nationhood is getting threatened, when will we decide to learn from our past by making our leaders present and past accountable???
ReplyDeletei wonder why yorubas wont leave tribalism alone, just bcos somebody said the truth about awo, he is being crucified, am not yoruba niether am i ibo, am from the middle belt. achebe said the truth and if we dont learn from it, we will rot away. The same north that awo sided in the war was the north that killed abiola and sent many yorubas to either their early graves or jail, the same thing to middle belt, we are being blessed with bombs for supporting Nigeria, so is the south south when saro wiawa was killed and their oil being looted, pls wake up yoruba people, achebe said the truth, if u dont wake, we will keep suffering
ReplyDeletei wonder why yorubas wont leave tribalism alone, just bcos somebody said the truth about awo, he is being crucified, am not yoruba niether am i ibo, am from the middle belt. achebe said the truth and if we dont learn from it, we will rot away. The same north that awo sided in the war was the north that killed abiola and sent many yorubas to either their early graves or jail, the same thing to middle belt, we are being blessed with bombs for supporting Nigeria, so is the south south when saro wiawa was killed and their oil being looted, pls wake up yoruba people, achebe said the truth, if u dont wake, we will keep suffering
ReplyDeletei wonder why yorubas wont leave tribalism alone, just bcos somebody said the truth about awo, he is being crucified, am not yoruba niether am i ibo, am from the middle belt. achebe said the truth and if we dont learn from it, we will rot away. The same north that awo sided in the war was the north that killed abiola and sent many yorubas to either their early graves or jail, the same thing to middle belt, we are being blessed with bombs for supporting Nigeria, so is the south south when saro wiawa was killed and their oil being looted, pls wake up yoruba people, achebe said the truth, if u dont wake, we will keep suffering
ReplyDeleteIt is a shame Prof Achebe did not win this price...personally for me he is one of the greatest folk type literature writers of all time.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I did not support him in his last write-up the Biafra_Nigeria war where he blamed Chief Awolowo for the death of 1M igbos (Sentiments aside)...I think he did not criticize wisely and he knew the truth, apparently he was also in support of the War and he should expect what war could bring especially when you have an alternative to War(round table discussion) available at their disposal...He's got himself and supporters of the Biafra war with Nigeria to blame.
Although, this does not take away my respect for Professor Achebe as a very gracious and brilliant academician and writer!
To all of you who criticise Achebe,epecially my yoruba brothers,I think that tribalism has clouded your senses of judgement.Is it that you people dont read or you simply misrepresent Achebe out of ignorace and crucified out of malice?Achebe has not said anything new,he only stated what has been there,securely recorded both locally and internationally.Ok,let me give your memories a jug:1:it is on record that the tribal Yoruba leader Obafemi Awolowo was the vice chairman of that council that initiated and implemented the genucidal policies against ndi igbo,second only to Gowon,a young man of about 29years of age,with little education and exposure to his credit.The fact speaks for itself-Awolowo was certainly his think-thank.2:It is also on record that the same Awolowo was the finance minister when the decision to give every igbo man who operated a bank account with Nigeria,no matter how much he had only 20pounds.Obviously,the hand writing on the wall is very clear.Awolowo championed all those policies because he was envious of the qualities and the giant strides of the igbos,hence,the need to stop them by all means.I challenge all of you the Awo apologists to show or produce any record to exornarate Awolowo.It is not recorded anywhere that he spoke against such unspeakable policies against his fellow countrymen;instead the news media of that time was awash with his shameful support and defence of his brain child.A statesman indeed.Ndi igbo are indeed unstoppable,do you know that the Guinness book of record has it that the igbos have recorded the fastest recovery after a genucidal civil war than any other people in the world.No wonder,we are the most successful tribe in Nigeria and just like the jews,that earns us the anger and jealousy of our less endowed neighbours!Who jah bless,no man can cause.Achebe will forever be remembered for always calling a spade a spade.Ad multus anos!
ReplyDeletereply to :The Sage Said : 10:16 AM... ' why can we accept that our past leaders COULD HAVE ERRED'.... here we go again!!!...it is this kind of dangerous assumption without recourse to hard fact that led to the brutal killing of the ALUU 4. why is it always hard for us in this part of the world to argue with fact rather than sentiment? how can any one suggest that the people should accept a single privilege man DECLARING HIS OPINION AS FACT WITH AN ISSUE THAT CONCERNS MASSIVE LOSS OF LIVES? i dont know if you read some part of the book... in addition to the above,the prof by implication was saying that awolowo needed to hold the IBOS down in order for his people i.e. YORUBA to develop? so that is the kind of mind set that the prof is teaching his student in US? do you have any idea of the implication of what the prof is insinuating? HOW ON EARTH CAN HE THINK HE WILL GET A PRIZE FOR THIS?
ReplyDeleteFOR ME PROFESSOR ACHEBE WILL ALWAYS BE REMEMBERED AS A COWARD WHO KEPT QUIET FOR 42 YEARS & DEMOSTRATED HIS COWARDICE CHARACTER BY ACCUSING A DEAD MAN 25 YEARS AFTER HIS DEATH. NOBEL PRIZE IS NOT MEANT FOR COWARD BUT FOR BOLD INDIVIDUALS WHO ARE CONVINCE OF THEIR CRAFT AND STOOD FOR WHAT THEY BELIEVE LIKE PROF WOLE SOYINKA...
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