The late Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe was a key figure in the rise and persistence of anti-colonial ideology in Africa. Yet in his final work, Achebe made a clear statement about the positive legacies of colonialism, praising the British project of state formation and nation building in the lower Niger basin. A careful study of his writings and comments from 1958 until his death in 2013 shows that Achebe was never the simple anti-colonial figure that most assumed, and that his seeming reversal could be read as the culmination of a lifetime’s meditation on African history and politics. Achebe’s final views have significant paradigmatic implications for the knowledge relevant to national identity formation and state building in Africa today. THE BEST-KNOWN OF AFRICAN WRITERS, Chinua Achebe, published in 2012, a year before his death at 82, a mournful recollection of the Biafran war that tore his native Nigeria apart between 1967 and 1970. Given Achebe’s stature and his recent death, There was a country attracted more than the usual number of reviews, most of them paying homage to the man and his legacy. While the book is mainly a personal memoir of war, it is also a longer meditation on the history of Nigeria and the reasons for its weakness as a state and nation. Achebe’s arguments about the failures of the country’s political leaders are familiar ones. However, what is surprising is that Achebe also argues that a key reason for the weakness of the Nigerian state is that it repudiated too much of the colonial legacy inherited from the British. A man best known for his anti-colonial views claimed in his final work that colonialism in the lower Niger River area left legacies that remain both beneficial and relevant, alongside its harmful ones. Perhaps more surprising, no one seems to have noticed. Virtually all of the reviewers of There was a country ignored or downplayed Achebe’s *Bruce Gilley (gilleyb@pdx.edu) is Professor of Political Science and Director of Graduate Programs in Public Policy in the Mark O. Hatfield School of Government at Portland State University. 1. Chinua Achebe, There was a country: A personal history of Biafra (Penguin Press, New York, NY, 2012).

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奇努阿·阿契贝谈殖民主义的积极遗产

已故的尼日利亚作家奇努阿·阿契贝是非洲反殖民意识形态兴起和持续的关键人物。然而，在他最后的作品中，阿契贝对殖民主义的积极遗产做了明确的陈述，赞扬了英国在尼日尔盆地下游的国家形成和国家建设计划。仔细研究他从 1958 年到 2013 年去世的著作和评论表明，阿契贝从来都不是大多数人认为的简单的反殖民主义人物，他表面上的逆转可以被视为一生对非洲历史和政治的沉思的高潮. 阿契贝的最终观点对当今与非洲国家认同形成和国家建设相关的知识具有重要的范式影响。最著名的非洲作家奇努阿·阿契贝 (Chinua Achebe) 于 2012 年出版，即他 82 岁去世的前一年，对 1967 年至 1970 年间将他的家乡尼日利亚撕裂的比夫拉战争的悲痛回忆。鉴于阿契贝的地位和他最近的去世，有一个国家吸引了比平常更多的评论，其中大多数人向这个人及其遗产致敬. 虽然这本书主要是战争的个人回忆录，但它也是对尼日利亚历史及其作为一个国家和民族软弱的原因的较长时间的沉思。阿契贝关于该国政治领导人失败的论点是众所周知的。然而，令人惊讶的是，阿契贝还认为，尼日利亚国家软弱的一个关键原因是它否定了太多从英国继承的殖民遗产。一位以其反殖民观点而闻名的人在他的最后作品中声称，尼日尔河下游地区的殖民主义留下的遗产既有有益的又有相关性，也有有害的遗产。也许更令人惊讶的是，似乎没有人注意到。几乎所有评论者都忽略或淡化了 Achebe 的 *Bruce Gilley (gilleyb@pdx.edu) 是波特兰州立大学马克 O. 哈特菲尔德政府学院政治学教授和公共政策研究生课程主任. 1. Chinua Achebe，有一个国家：比夫拉的个人历史（企鹅出版社，纽约，纽约，2012 年）。几乎所有评论者都忽略或淡化了 Achebe 的 *Bruce Gilley (gilleyb@pdx.edu) 是波特兰州立大学马克 O. 哈特菲尔德政府学院政治学教授和公共政策研究生课程主任. 1. Chinua Achebe，有一个国家：比夫拉的个人历史（企鹅出版社，纽约，纽约，2012 年）。几乎所有评论者都忽略或淡化了 Achebe 的 *Bruce Gilley (gilleyb@pdx.edu) 是波特兰州立大学马克 O. 哈特菲尔德政府学院政治学教授和公共政策研究生课程主任. 1. Chinua Achebe，有一个国家：比夫拉的个人历史（企鹅出版社，纽约，纽约，2012 年）。