This Presentation is prepared as a part of Classroom Presentation under paper named African Literature.

1. ‘Vultures’ by Chinua
Achebe
Prepared by : Rinkal Dangar

2. Table of Contents
1. About the Poet
2. Poem
3. Analysis of ‘Vultures’
4. Conclusion

3. Chinua Achebe
● Chinua Achebe (born November 16, 1930, Ogidi, Nigeria—died March 21, 2013,
Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.) was a Nigerian novelist acclaimed for his
unsentimental depictions of the social and psychological disorientation
accompanying the imposition of Western customs and values upon traditional
African society
● Achebe grew up in the Igbo (Ibo) town of Ogidi, Nigeria. After studying English and
literature at University College (now the University of Ibadan)
● Achebe taught for a short time before joining the staff of the Nigerian Broadcasting
Corporation in Lagos, where he served as director of external broadcasting in 1961–
66. In 1967 he co founded a publishing company at Enugu with the poet Christopher
Okigbo, who died shortly thereafter in the Nigerian civil war for Biafran
independence, which Achebe openly supported.
● In 1969 Achebe toured the United States with fellow writers Gabriel Okara and
Cyprian Ekwensi, lecturing at universities. Upon his return to Nigeria he was
appointed research fellow at the University of Nigeria and became professor of
English,
● In 2007 he won the Man Booker International Prize.

4. Novels:
● Things Fall Apart (1958),
● No Longer at Ease (1960),
● In Arrow of God (1964),
● A Man of the People (1966) and Anthills of the Savannah (1987) deal with corruption and other
aspects of postcolonial African life.
Collections of Short stories and Children’s books:
● How the Leopard Got His Claws (1973; with John Iroaganachi),
● Beware, Soul-Brother (1971), and Christmas in Biafra (1973) are collections of poetry.
● Another Africa (1998) combines an essay and poems by Achebe with photographs by Robert
Lyons.
Books of Essays
● Morning Yet on Creation Day (1975),
● Hopes and Impediments (1988),
● Home and Exile (2000),
● The Education of a British-Protected Child (2009),
● The Autobiographical ; There Was a Country: A Personal History of Biafra (2012).
Works of Chinua Achebe

5. In the greyness
and drizzle of one despondent
dawn unstirred by harbingers(announcement of
another arrival)
of sunbreak a vulture
perching high on broken
bones of a dead tree
nestled close to his
mate his smooth
bashed-in head, a pebble
on a stem rooted in
a dump of gross
feathers, inclined affectionately
to hers. Yesterday they picked
the eyes of a swollen
corpse in a water-logged
trench and ate the
things in its bowel. Full
gorged they chose their roost
keeping the hollowed remnant
in easy range of cold
telescopic eyes...
Vultures
Strange
indeed how love in other
ways so particular
will pick a corner
in that charnel-house
tidy it and coil up there, perhaps
even fall asleep - her face
turned to the wall!
Thus the Commandant at Belsen
Camp going home for
the day with fumes of
human roast clinging
rebelliously to his hairy
nostrils will stop
at the wayside sweet-shop
and pick up a chocolate
for his tender offspring
waiting at home for Daddy's
return...
Praise bounteous
providence if you will
that grants even an ogre
a tiny glow-worm
tenderness encapsulated
in icy caverns of a cruel
heart or else despair
for in the very germ
of that kindred love is
lodged the perpetuity
of evil.

6. ● The poem first appeared in Achebe's 1971
collection Beware Soul Brother, and Other Poems.
● In Chinua Achebe's "Vultures," a pair of grim
birds nuzzling each other after devouring a rotting
corpse become a metaphor for the uneasy fact that
human beings are equally capable of love and evil.
● Just as vultures can feast on death and still cuddle,
the speaker observes, the man who runs a Nazi
death camp might pick up chocolates for his
beloved children on the way home.
● Cruelty and tenderness can coexist in the same
person.
Analysis of ‘Vultures’

7. The Main Theme of the Poem
The Uneasy Coexistence of Evil and Love:
● The poem’s speaker observes a vulture couple nuzzling each other affectionately after a grisly meal. Recently, the
speaker notes, this pair were devouring a rotting corpse and “the things in its bowel,” and they’re still sitting
within “easy range” of the last of the body in case they want leftovers.Their cuddling thus strikes a macabre
contrast with their behavior and their surroundings. To the speaker, it seems awfully peculiar that “love in other /
ways so particular” doesn’t seem reluctant to show up among creatures who have just fed on something so
horrific.
● But this, the speaker reflects, is a metaphor for how things work among human beings, too. Just for example, the
“Commandant” at Belsen (a notorious Nazi death camp) would have gone home from his evil day’s work with the
“fumes of / human roast” still in his nose—and stopped at a candy store on the way to pick up a treat for his kids,
who’d be waiting innocently at home for “Daddy’s / return.” .
● The speaker thus doesn’t know whether to “praise bounteous / providence” (that is, a generous God) for the fact
that even the cruelest heart might contain a “tiny glow-worm” of “tenderness”—or to be appalled that “kindred
love” can rest so comfortably alongside “the perpetuity / of evil.”
● Worse still, perhaps a capacity for evil is inseparable from a capacity for love, “lodged” in it like a splinter.
● The exact same phenomenon, the poem thus suggests, leaves its observers in an uneasy bind, unsure whether to
find hope or horror in the simple fact that cruel and malicious people aren’t incapable of love. The poem’s
fascination with dreadful images hints that this speaker, at least, leans more toward horror than consolation.

8. ● The poet has witnessed the cruelty of Nigerian civil war
(the war was fought between the government of Nigeria
and the republic of Biafra, a state which declared its
independence from Nigeria in 1967). In the Nazi
concentration camp of Belsen, a commandant was given a
duty to observe the deaths of thousands of Jews. This
cruelty is explained by the poet with the metaphor of
Vultures
Inspiration of the poem:

9. ● The poem is in free verse.
● There is no particular rhythm and rhyme scheme in the poem.
● There is a use of punctuation (ellipsis and enjambment).
● The poem contains disturbing imagery with impactful diction and contrast.
● Alliteration - drizzle of one despondent dawn
● Personification - broken bones of a dead tree
Forms and technicalities:

10. "Vultures" by Chinua Achebe reveals the depths of human cruelty
through the metaphor of vultures, symbolizing the Nazi commandant's
actions. Despite the darkness, the poem suggests a glimmer of hope in the
presence of love, even within the cruelest hearts. Achebe prompts readers
to confront the complexity of human nature and the eternal struggle
between light and darkness within us.
Conclusion

11. Thank You!