Chinua Achebe's Negritude

Negritude is a technique to shift the traditional drama which speaks for the community as a whole to a drama for the educated elite and new middle classes. This genre, Negritude is an apt instance of the problem of mediation between elevated values of the old and its place in history. The issue of commitment is inescapable in a literature of black consciousness where freedom, social justice and racial equality are pervasive concerns. It is very difficult for him to affirm certain values and equally difficult for him to reform them. In this context Chinua Achebe’s negritude is known for its watershed in the development of the African literature in English, gaining new mastery of the emotionally charged theme of cultural conflicts with a balanced

Unlike the negritude in him; Achebe did not glorify or romanticize the past of Africa. His account of the continent was both realistic and objective. He also presented an authentic future of the crumbling past, its ancestry, its heritage, its warriors and men of titles. In the Ibo society individual dignity was always held in high esteem. Okoye was a rich man with a large barn full of yam and had three wives. He had to get his third highest title in the land called ‘Idemeli’. It was a typical example to prove that individual dignity would be ever protected and even the man was a debtor his opponent gave him his due recognition for his worth and talked on friendly terms exchanging proverbial expressions that was a sign of a culture of dignity, honour and mutual respect which was found among the Ibo community. This was not given focus in the writings in the European version of Africa and as a committed writer of Negritude, Achebe brought out the ethics and egalitarian values through this incident. Unoka received his guest Okoye and offered him “. . .a small wooden disc containing a kola nut, some alligator pepper and a lump of white chalk” (15) . Similarly, Ezeudo informs Okonkwo of