"Proverbs are the palm-oil with which words are eaten..."

While searching for new books to read over the coming weeks, I came across some of the lesser known titles of Chinua Achebe.  Achebe caught the attention of the world in 1958 with his first novel, Things Fall Apart, widely read in classrooms across the globe (including mine when I was in college).  Raised in an Igbo town in southeastern Nigeria, Achebe excelled at school and won a scholarship to attend Nigerian’s first university.  His novels focused on the traditions of Igbo society, and the clash of Western and traditional African cultures during colonization.  He spent his years in both the United States and Nigeria, eventually teaching at Brown University until his death earlier this year.  His work “helped to revive African literature and rewrite the story of a continent that had long been told by Western voices”, and he is often called the father of modern African writing.  Many writers of succeeding generations of African authors view his work as having paved the way for their efforts.

Photo Credit: Stuart C. Shapiro, licensed under GNU Free Documentation License

I was looking back at an old copy of Things Fall Apart, where I had highlighted a phrase that I liked when I read it:  “Among the Igbo the art of conversation is regarded very highly, and proverbs are the palm-oil with which words are eaten.”  I always loved that – “proverbs are the palm-oil with which words are eaten.”  That community and the sustenance of interaction is as important as the food you need to live on.  That conversation and communication are as valued to our health as the nourishment our bodies need to survive. In our little community of Impact Network staff, volunteers, and supporters – may we always remember that.  We are a community, committed to providing a good education to the children in our care.  May we always communicate with each other and with the scholars in our schools, with that same resolve.

-Reshma