Hopes and Impediments

Hopes and Impediments: Selected Essays, 1965–1987 is collection of essays by Chinua Achebe, published in 1988.^[1]

First edition (publ. Doubleday)

Several of the essays caution against generalizing all African people into a monolithic culture, or using Africa as a facile metaphor.^[2] The opening essay, "An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness", challenged the prevailing opinions in the west about Joseph Conrad's depiction of African people.^[3] He also discusses several notable authors and shares his opinion on the role of writers and writing in cultures. In a contemporary review, Chris Dunton wrote: "The essays in his new book remind us also how tough-minded, how properly insistent, he can be in exposing false and demeaning ideas about Africa and its culture."^[4] The book is dedicated to Professor Michael Thelwell.^[5]

Contents

• "An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness"
• "Impediments to Dialogue Between North and South"
• "Named for Victoria, Queen of England"
• "The Novelist as Teacher"
• "The Writer and His Community"
• "The Igbo World and Its Art"
• "Colonialist Criticism"
• "Thoughts on the African Novel"
• "Work and Play in Tutuola’s The Palm-Wine Drinkard"
• "Don’t Let Him Die: A Tribute to Christopher Okigbo"
• "Kofi Awoonor as Novelist"
• "Language and the Destiny of Man"
• "The Truth of Fiction"
• "What Has Literature Got To Do With It?"
• "Postscript: James Baldwin (1924-1987)"