Morning yet on creation day: Essays

Morning yet on creation day: Essays

Morning Yet on Creation Day collects fifteen of Chinua Achebe’s essays. The first part of the book focusses on the literary, the second a bit more generally on Africa.
Several issues stand at the fore: concerns about ‘African literature’ (is there such a thing ? should there be such a thing ?), the question of what language to write in, the role of the writer in African society. Written between 1961 and 1974, the essays offer an interesting historical perspective too. Achebe was among the first African authors to achieve true success as an author, both abroad and domestically, and literature seemed very much in the ascendant in the Africa of that time. Many of what are still the best-known and most acclaimed African novels were published during the period when Achebe wrote these essays; indeed, many of these books were published in Heinemann’s African Writers Series under his stewardship (1962-1972).
Achebe saw great promise at the time — though he also focussed on areas of difficulty, such as the lack of indigenous publishers. He had grand ambitions: