FOREMOST African writer, Professor Chinua Achebe, has denied allegations that his books are pornographic.

In a BBC report monitored in Lagos yesterday, the literary icon expressed sadness that a parent group in Kenya wants his book, A Man of the People, dropped from schools' syllabus there.

The Kenya Parents Caucus says it has begun a campaign to kick out pornography in schools, and objected to Achebe's A Man of the People and two other books used by Kenya's secondary schools.

Meanwhile, there have been other reactions in Kenya condemning the push by the Kenya Catholic Church to ban Achebe's book in that country.

The country's most reputable newspaper, The Nation in an editorial wrote that if the church carries out its threat then " Kenya will certainly become a laughing stock of the world."

The editorial said it would take an exceedingly prurient mind to find anything even remotely sexually offensive in any of the three widely read books planned for delisting.

According to the report: "Ever since A Man of the People was published in 1966, there has never been objections raised on account of any allegedly sexual content until a group of Kenyan Catholics happened onto the scene."

It continued: "If just the mere reference to sex and sexual relations is in itself offensive, then there is hardly any book, newspaper or magazine in today's world - leave alone film and television - that would be deemed safe - not even the holiest book!

Mchanga and Kiu may not be as well known as Achebe's offering, but all the three books are noted principally for their socially redeeming themes. That is why they were chosen as literature set book in the first place."

A Man Of the People, it said, describes a fictional post-colonial African state. It tackles the issue of political representation in a corrupt nation, the problems of finding a collective will in an ethnically diverse, economically stratified nation. It takes a look at the corruption, immorality, exploitation, the hunger for power and the ever-present threat of political instability that defined the newly-independent African states.

"Those issues are as pertinent to us in Kenya today as they were in Achebe's Nigeria of 1966. Anybody who missed the big picture and instead saw only the sexual references - and those, really, are about abuse of power - must have a really prurient mind indeed.

"It is possible to see a corrupt and repressive Government banning A Man of the People. That will be on the grounds that its own venality is exposed rather than on moralistic posturing."

The Church, the newspaper said, has been a valuable partner in the struggle for democracy and enhanced civil liberties, adding that it is really strange that it should now be at the forefront of a campaign that goes against all the freedom people struggled so much for.

"It is only under odious totalitarian regimes that book banning, and burning, is routinely practised. We must not go down that road again under pressure from any morality police.

Another sad thing about the whole episode is that many of those who might be asked to sign a petition asking for the removal of the three books from schools have probably never read any of them. They should at least demand the right to read them and determine for themselves whether there is anything they find objectionable."