But their stay dragged on as political conditions in Nigeria deteriorated. Elections were held and annulled. In 1995 the writer Ken Saro-Wiwa was hanged. Nigerians, Mr. Achebe is fond of saying, saw how far the bottom really was. In all these years Mr. Achebe has not lost touch with Nigeria.
People call, they write.
But it doesn't make it easier to be away. At Bard Mr. Achebe spends much of his day reading in the college library or writing letters by longhand, which a colleague transcribes. He writes when the spirit moves him, he says. Assessing Mr. Achebe's work is a daunting task for many scholars of African literature. It was one of the first books to present European colonialism from an African point of view and to express in English the way Africans spoke in their native tongues.