Most Meaningful Takeaway

The previous class discussion was based on Chinua Achebe’s interview and how he felt about the international success of his book. What I found interesting was the fact that even though english was the language that oppressed the Africans, they still learned it and used it to communicate and educate themselves. Chinua thinks that the english language can be used as a way to resist the forces of racism and the sense of superiority over them by knowing a language that they don’t. Also the fact that they were shown as a nation of problems and conflict that is dependent on the western nation to come and save them was pretty interesting, since I realized how biased the media has been for quite some time now. We discussed the reasons as to why the western nation would feel the need to portray the Africans that way and many of us agreed that it was done so in order to give a moral explanation to slavery. Overall the entire discussion had interesting ideas that widened my understanding of the racism and slavery that took place, and how the Africans dealt with it; through Chinua Achebe’s book.