_ For the colonised, there will always be guilt associated with knowing that you write better in a colonial language than in your own native language. Unlike Conrad or Nabokov, Achebe did not have a choice in adopting the English language. It was imposed on him from childhood. For many years, merely speaking your mother tongue at school in Nigeria was not only looked down upon but also formally penalised. They called it "speaking vernacular". But we have also made English our own - like people in Francophone Africa have made French their own. Achebe refers to this when he says in one of his essays, "Let no one be fooled by the fact that we may write in English, for we intend to do unheard of things with it."