Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-v5vhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-14T23:40:13.411Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Reflections & Retrospectives

from EDITORIAL ARTICLE

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 April 2013

By
Chimalum Nwankwo
Edited by
Ernest N. Emenyonu  and
Chimalum Nwankwo
Ernest N. Emenyonu
Affiliation:
University of Michigan-Flint
Chimalum Nwankwo
Affiliation:
North Carolina A & T State University, Greensboro
Get access

Summary

POSTAL SERVICES ALL OVER THE WORLD are adept at selecting with uncanny acuity all kinds of iconic images, iconic moments, iconic significations for their mailing stamps. Those, sometimes cryptic, patriotic representations endure as part of either national imaginaries, or indelible and ineluctable and incandescent representations of the consciousness of the people. The words which follow from Chinua Achebe's Anthills of the Savannah, down the unfurling road of world history, will echo and speak on to all hearts like one of those innumerable and collectible special stamps as long as the tradition of storytelling, in all forms remain with human societies…

So why do I say that the story is chief among his fellows? The same reason I think that our people sometimes will give the name Nkolika to their daughters. Recalling-Is-Greatest. Why? Because it is only the story that can continue beyond the war and the warrior. It is the story that outlives the sound of war drums and the exploits of brave fighters. It is the story, not the others, that saves our progeny from blundering like blind beggars into the spikes of the cactus fence. The story is our escort; without it, we are blind.

Type
Chapter
Information
Reflections and Retrospectives in African Literature Today , pp. 1 - 7
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
Print publication year: 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×