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The Irish for a Prime Minister is Pr\xedomh-Aire; Taoiseach is specifically the title of the Prime Minister of Ireland and it comes from the old word for a tribal chief. This word is still used on the Nuacht on those occasions when an African tribal chief is in the news - older listeners might remember references to \u201cAn Taoiseach Bhutelezi\u201d.\xa0\n\n\nThis isn\u2019t the only time that Irish and African imaginations have dreamed the same dream. When Chinua Achebe set about to write his great novel, Nigeria was not yet an independent state and gripped by a debate on language not unlike that in Ireland. He chose a line from a poem by W.B. Yeats to name his story about the collapse of a social order. What inspired him to do so?\n\n\nIn today\u2019s episode, Ola Majekodunmi chats to Darach about \u201cTiteann Ruda\xed as a Ch\xe9ile\u201d, Irene Duffy Lynch\u2019s Irish language translation of \u201cThings Fall Apart\u201d. She tells Darach about the place of the novel in Nigerian culture in contrast to European novels set in Africa, the positive and negative lessons that Achebe took from Ireland and considers other African novels she\u2019d love to see translated as Gaeilge.\n\n\nToday\u2019s episode also includes a contribution from the lads at \u201cPints of Malt\u201d, Headstuff\u2019s Nigerian-Irish podcast, on Achebe\u2019s masterpiece and their experiences with Irish.\xa0\n\n---\n\n\nContact the show:\n\n\ntwitter - @motherfocloir and @theirishfor\n\n\nemail - motherfocloir@headstuff.org\n\n\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices