Chinua Achebe's 'Things Fall Apart' Among The 20 Best Books Of All Time

"The books you read in your high School English class are not necessarily the best novels ever written. What makes for great literature, anyway? Some could argue that all your book needs in order to be considered “great” is leather-bound packaging and microscopic print, but the truth is, you really can’t judge a book by its cover.Instead, you have to judge it by what’s written inside. Is the story meaningful, honest, moving? Does it transport you to another time or place? When it comes to ranking the best novels ever written, we had to look for all of these things…and just because you love a certain book doesn’t mean it made our list."

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Chinua Achebe's 'Things Fall Apart' @60: Inaugural Press Conference

This year marks the 60th anniversary of Professor Chinua Achebe's seminal novel, Things Fall Apart. 

Chinua Achebe At 86: A Tribute

By Dan Amor

When the celebrated and consummate novelist, Prof. Chinua Achebe died on Thursday March 21, 2013 in a hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America at 82, his loss was mourned not only by African writers but by statesmen and citizens of the world whom one would not readily accuse of an interest in literature. What this means is that the romantic emphasis upon the human ego which is implied in the last degree of subjectivity in romantic thought brought about a characteristic motif in the twentieth-century social life-the cult of the superman, the leader, the hero, the born man of genius, who can raise himself above the common herd and lead his people to greater height of attainment than mankind had previously reached. There seems to be a commonly held view, even among literary practitioners, that Achebe was a genius- the Eagle on Iroko in the African literature forest. He was a novelist. But there are novelists and there are novelists.

*Chinua Achebe 

In fact, there were great novelists before him in the vast cosmos of comparative literature: Henry James, Thomas Hardy, DH Lawrence, etcetera. Yet, Achebe was a logical successor to these great men of letters in the last literary generation of the twentieth century. Prof. Abiola Irele, easily one of Africa's most distinguished literary scholars and critics, noted in his reaction to the news of Achebe's death: "My first reaction when I heard the news of Achebe's death was of sadness. I am very sad to hear the news of the death of Achebe. It is a great loss. I have known him since 1962. He was a wonderful man personally. Somehow, he was not sentimental. It was Achebe who shaped African literature and gave it a standing in the world. It is something that should be commended".

There was indeed no African writer who ever influenced the thinking of his time, either in his literary output or political interventions, more than Achebe. By working so conscientiously at the interface between indigenous and English literatures, Achebe more than any living African novelist, has cultivated the English language with superstitious veneration. No writer has conceived it possible that the dialect of peasants and market women should possess sufficient energy and precision for a majestic and durable work. Achebe ventures African thought into the English language with remarkable simplicity. He detects the rich treasures of thought and diction, which still lay latent in their ore in the African traditional life. He refines them into purity and burnishes them into splendor thus fitting them for every purpose of use and magnificence.

Scholar And Novelist Isidore Okpewho Passes On at 74

By Nduka Otiono 
Africa’s foremost scholar of Oral Literature and award-winning novelist, Isidore Okpewho, has passed on at 74. He was a prolific author, co-author and editor of about 14 books, dozens of articles and a seminal booklet, A Portrait of the Artist as a Scholar.

Prof Isidore Okpewho

Prof. Okpewho died peacefully at a hospital in Binghamton, a town in Upstate New York where he had lived and taught since 1991. His teaching career spanned University of New York at Buffalo (1974-76), University of Ibadan (1976-90), Harvard University (1990-91), and State University of New York at Binghamton. 

According to family sources, the Distinguished Professor at State University of New York, Binghamton, passed away on Sunday, September 4, 2016, surrounded by family members. Although he battled illness recently, the scholar and humanist had demonstrated exceptional capacity to deal with his challenging health conditions. Indeed, only two years ago, his last book to which he had long committed his intellectual resources, Blood on the Tides: The Ozidi Saga and Oral Epic Narratology, was published by University of Rochester Press.

Born on November 9, 1941 in Agbor, Delta State, Nigeria, Okpewho grew up in Asaba, his maternal hometown, where he attended St Patrick’s College, Asaba. He proceeded to the University College, Ibadan, for his university education. He graduated with a First Class Honours in Classics, and moved on to launch a glorious career: first in publishing at Longman Publishers, and then as an academic after obtaining his PhD from the University of Denver, USA. He crowned his certification with a D.Litt from University of London. 

With his two earliest seminal academic monographs, The Epic in Africa: Toward a Poetics of the Oral Performance (1979) and Myth in Africa: A Study of Its Aesthetic and Cultural Relevance (1983), Okpewho quickly established his reputation as a first-rate scholar and a pioneer of Oral Literature in Africa. For his distinctive and prolific output he was honoured with a string of international academic and non-academic awards that included the Nigerian National Order of Merit (NNOM), in Humanities for the year 2010. 

The Parable Of The Madman (1)

By Dan Amor

In his short story, "The Madman", Prof. Chinua Achebe (of blessed memory), easily Africa's most celebrated novelist of the twentieth century, ventures into a poetic realization of a disturbing irony. The consuming paradox centres on the protagonist, Nwibe, a wealthy farmer who has so distinguished himself that he is about to be initiated into the select, dignified society of men who hold the highest and most venerable title in the land- the Ozo title holder.

*Chinua Achebe

Returning from an early morning work on his farm on a fateful Afor Market day, Nwibe stops to have a bath at the local stream. Meantime, a desperate madman comes along to quench his thirst at the stream; he sees Nwibe's loin cloth, gathers it and wraps it over his nakedness. Angered by the sordid affront, Nwibe runs after the madman in obvious nakedness thereby turning himself to the original madman.

Symbolically, this involuntary but tragic exchange of identity between a sane person and a madman is registered by the jeering, ironic laughter of a taunting madman. Nature, which seems to be participating passively in this tragic irony, solemnly echoes the madman's mocking laughter: "the deep grove of the stream amplifying his laughter." Nwibe, who has been appropriately compared to Okonkwo of Things Fall Apart as a man of "fierce temper whose judgement deserts him when he is under its full sway", fully recognises not only the outrageousness of the madman's affront, but more significantly, he understands the ominous import of the sacrilegious challenge. The words Nwibe screams out to the madman: "I will kill you ... I will whip that madness out of you today", convey, in fact, more than the obvious threat.

They also carry the veiled desperation of a man who realises that his precious life is about to take a certain tragic turn if nothing is immediately done to save the situation. The condition in which a stark-naked sane man pleads through a threat with a clothed madman for, of all things, clothes to cover his nakedness, is rife with a sweeping irony. In his stark nakedness, Nwibe pursues the fast-retreating clothed madman who is "spare and wiry, a thing made for speed." In a short while, what Nwibe has dreamed, swiftly becomes a merciless reality in the irony of mistaken identities. The involuntary transfer of clothes which only threatens possible disaster which, in fact, is still laughable, while it remains a private matter between Nwibe and the madman, suddenly assumes a tragic dimension the moment the first witness appears on the scene: "Two girls going down to the stream saw a man running up the slope towards them, pursued by a stark-naked madman. They threw down their pots and fled screaming."

Achebe Family Mourns Nadine Gordimer

*Nadine Gordimer 
(pix:southafrica.usembassy)

The family of late literary icon, Prof Chinua Achebe, has joined the rest of the world to mourn Nadine Godimer, a leading South African writer and Nobel Laureate, who passed away in Johannesburg on July 13, 2014, at the age of  90. In a statement issued on July 20 and signed by Professor Christie Chinwe Achebe for the Chinua Achebe Family and Estate, the Achebe family  said it was joining "the world in mourning the passing of Nadine Gordimer" whom it described as a "precious friend, great supporter of African arts and letters [and] an elegant soul..." 

British Expert On Terrorist Group Boko Haram To Open 2014 Achebe Colloquium

Chinua Achebe

The 2014 Achebe Colloquium on Africa] — African Literature as Restoration: Chinua Achebe as Teacher will be held at Brown University, from May 1-3, 2014. 

An International gathering of scholars, artists, musicians, writers, and officials will gather at Brown University May 1-3, 2014, to discuss and celebrate the cultural contributions of Chinua Achebe, the late Nigerian novelist and the David and Marianna Fisher University Professor and professor of Africana studies at Brown, who died in March 2013 at the age of 82. Achebe started the colloquium in 2009 to bring attention to issues affecting Africa.

On Thursday May 1, 2014, Elizabeth Donnelly, Assistant Head and Research Fellow, Africa Program, Chatham House, - The Royal Institute of International Affairs - London, Great Britain; will deliver the opening address at the Colloquium. Her talk will “focus on Boko Haram -what is known, what is not known, and the implications and what can be done.”  The event begins at 5:30 p.m. 

Chinua Achebe Colloquium To Explore African Literature

The 2014 Achebe Colloquium on Africa will bring together an international group of academics, activists, African government officials, and writers to examine the impact of the late Chinua Achebe’s writings on modern African literature. The colloquium will be held at Brown University Thursday, May 1, through Saturday, May 3, 2014.

*Achebe 

The 2014 Achebe Colloquium on Africa will be held at Brown University Thrusday, May 1, through Saturday, May 3, 2014, in List Art Center auditorium, 64 College St.

The Achebe Colloquium on Africa brings together an international group of academics, activists, African government officials, and writers for three days of intense examination of the impact of the late Chinua Achebe’s writings on modern African literature. The event is free and open to the public, but space is limited and registration is required.

This year’s colloquium, titled “African Literature as Restoration: Chinua Achebe as Teacher,” will center around the life and legacy of the late novelist. Achebe, the acclaimed Nigerian novelist and the David and Marianna Fisher University Professor and professor of Africana studies at Brown,died in March 2013 at the age of 82. Achebe started the colloquium in 2009 to bring attention to issues affecting Africa.

New York Senate Passes Resolution On Chinua Achebe

J1186-2013: LEGISLATIVE RESOLUTION Mourning The Death Of Paramount Novelist Chinua Achebe, Founder And Pioneer Of African literature

 

 A Nigerian National Newspaper Reports
Achebe's Passing (pix:Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye (2013))
 
WHEREAS, It is the sense of this Legislative Body to pay tribute to the lives of those esteemed individuals of international renown who distinguished themselves through their life's work; and
WHEREAS, Foremost novelist, Professor Chinua Achebe, died on Thursday, March 21, 2013, at the age of 82; and 
WHEREAS, Born Albert Chinualumogu Achebe, on November 16, 1930,
Chinua Achebe was a Nigerian novelist, poet, professor, and critic; he was
best known for his 1958 novel, THINGS FALL APART, selling over 12 
million copies around the world, and having been translated into 50 languages, 
 making him the most paraphrased African writer of all time; and

Achebe Bestrides Generations And Geographies - Ngugi

Chinua Achebe’s Passing Marks The Beginning Of The End Of An Epoch In African Writing 

By Ngugi wa Thiong'o 

Chinua Achebe

I first met Chinua Achebe in 1961 at Makerere, Kampala. His novel, Things Fall Apart, had come out two years before. I was then a second year student, the author of just one story, Mugumo, published in Penpoint, the literary magazine of the English Department. At my request, he looked at the story and made some encouraging remarks.

My next encounter was more dramatic, on my part at least, and would affect my life and literary career profoundly. It was at the now famous 1962 conference of writers of English expression.

Achebe was among a long line of literary luminaries that included Wole Soyinka, J.P. Clark, Eski’a Mphahlele, Lewis Nkosi and Bloke Modisane. The East African contingent consisted of Grace Ogot, Jonathan Kariara, John Nagenda and I. My invitation was on the strength of my short stories published in Penpoint and in Transition.

But what most attracted me was not my being invited there as ‘writer’ but the fact that I would be able to show Achebe the manuscript of my second novel, what would later become Weep Not, Child. It was very generous of him to agree to look at it because, as I would learn later, he was working on his novel, Arrow of God. Because of that and his involvement in the conference, he could not read the whole manuscript, but he read enough to give some useful suggestions.

Ngugi wa Thiong'o

More important, he talked about it to his publisher, William Heinemann, represented at the conference by June Milne, who expressed an interest in the work. Weep Not, Child would later be published by Heinemann and the paperback by Heinemann Education Publishers, the fourth in the now famous African Writers series of which Achebe was the Editorial Adviser.

I was working with the Nation newspapers when Weep Not, Child came out. It was April 1964, and Kenya was proud to have its first modern novel in English by a Kenyan African.

Or so I thought, for the novel was well published in the Kenyan newspapers, the Sunday Nation even carrying my interview by de Villiers, one of its senior features writers.

I assumed that every educated Kenyan would have heard about the novel. I was woken to reality when I entered a club, the most frequented by the new African elite at the time, who all greeted me as their Kenyan author of Things Fall Apart.

Years later, at Achebe’s 70th birthday celebrations at Bard College attended by Toni Morrison and Wole Soyinka among others, I told this story of how Achebe’s name had haunted my life. When Soyinka’s turn to speak came, he said I had taken the story from his mouth: He had been similarly mistaken for Achebe.

The fact is Achebe became synonymous with the Heinemann African Writers Series and African writing as a whole. There’s hardly any African writer of my generation who has not been mistaken for Achebe.

I have had a few of such encounters. The last such was in 2010 at the Jomo Kenyatta Airport. Mukoma, the author of Nairobi Heat, and I had been invited for the Kwani? festival whose theme was inter-generational dialogue.

As he and I walked towards the immigration desk, a man came towards me. His hands were literally trembling as he identified himself as a professor of literature from Zambia.

“Excuse me Mr Achebe, somebody pointed you out to me. I have long wanted to meet you.”

“No, no I am not the one,” I said, “but here is Mr Achebe,” I added pointing at my son.

I thought the obvious youth of my son would tell him that I was being facetious. But no, our professor grabbed Mukoma’s hands grateful that he had at last shaken hands with his hero.

 The case of mistaken identity as late as 2010 shows how Achebe had become a mythical figure, and rightly so. He was the single most important figure in the development of modern African literature as writer, editor and quite simply a human being.

His novel, Things Fall Apart, the most widely read novel in the history of African literature since its publication in 1958 became an inspiring model. As the general editor of the Heinemann African Writers Series, he had a hand in the emergence of many other writers and their publication.

As a person, he embodied wisdom that comes from a commitment to the middle way between extremes and, of course, courage in the face of personal tragedy!

Achebe bestrides generations and geographies.

Every country in Africa claims him as their own. Some sayings in his novels are quoted frequently as proverbs that contain universal wisdom. His passing marks the beginning of the end of an epoch.

 -----------------------

Ngugi wa Thiong’o is a creative writer and distinguished professor of Comparative Literature and English at the University of California, Irvine.

--Africa Review 

 

Achebe's 'Things Fall Apart' Translated Into Persian

Translated into Persian by Ali Hodavand, Things Fall Apart a novel by Nigerian author Chinua Achebe has been released in Iran.

 Things Fall Apart is an English-language novel by Nigerian author Chinua Achebe published in 1958. It is seen as the archetypal modern African novel in English, and one of the first African novels written in English to receive global critical acclaim.

Chinua Achebe

It is a staple book in schools throughout Africa and widely read and studied in English-speaking countries around the world. The title of the novel comes from William Butler Yeats's poem "The Second Coming".

The novel depicts the life of Okonkwo, a leader and local wrestling champion in Umuofia—one of a fictional group of nine villages in Nigeria, inhabited by the Igbo people (archaically, and in the novel, "Ibo"). It focuses on his family and personal history, the customs and society of the Igbo, and the influence of British colonialism and Christian missionaries on the Igbo community during the late nineteenth century.The novel is studied widely in Europe and North America, where it has spawned numerous secondary and tertiary analytical works. It has achieved similar status and repute in India, Australia and Oceania. Considered Achebe's magnum opus, it has sold more than 8 million copies worldwide. Time Magazine included the novel in its TIME 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005. The novel has been translated into more than fifty languages, and is often used in literature, world history, and African studies courses across the world.The Persian translation of Things Fall Apart has been released in 1650 copies by Jeyhoon publications.

Chinua Achebe was born in Nigeria in 1930. He was raised in the large village of Ogidi, one of the first centers of Anglican missionary work in Eastern Nigeria, and is a graduate of University College, Ibadan. His early career in radio ended abruptly in 1966, when he left his post as Director of External Broadcasting in Nigeria during the national upheaval that led to the Biafran War. Achebe joined the Biafran Ministry of Information and represented Biafra on various diplomatic and fund-raising missions. He was appointed Senior Research Fellow at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and began lecturing widely abroad. For over fifteen years, he was the Charles P. Stevenson Professor of Languages and Literature at Bard College. He is now the David and Marianna Fisher University Professor and professor of Africana studies at Brown University.

Chinua Achebe has written over twenty books – novels, short stories, essays and collections of poetry. His latest work There was a country – A personal history of Biafra will be available from Penguin publishers in September. Achebe has received numerous honours from around the world, including the Honourary Fellowship of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, as well as honourary doctorates from more than forty colleges and universities. He is also the recipient of Nigeria's highest award for intellectual achievement, the Nigerian National Merit Award; the Peace Prize of the German Book trade (Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels) in 2002; the Man Booker International Prize for Fiction in 2007; and the Gish Prize in 2010.

National Honours Controversy: Chinua Achebe's Reaction...

On November 16, 2011, Professor Chinua Achebe, author of the classic, Things Fall Apart, and Africa's best known writer turned 81.

Chinua Achebe

While his family, readers and admirers across the globe rejoiced with him on that day and thanked God for his life, Dr. Chidi Achebe,  the President/CEO of Harvard Street Neighborhood Health Center, Dorchester, MA, and son of the literary icon, was asked what Professor Achebe's reaction was to the hullabaloo from the Nigerian Presidency surrounding his rejection of the Commander of the Federal Republic (CFR) – Nigeria's Third Highest National Honour—offered to him by the Goodluck Jonathan's Administration.

His Reply:

"Today is Prof's 81st birthday, the family and well wishers around the globe are giving thanksgiving to GOD almighty!

The last I saw, Professor Achebe was digging into a delicious piece of cake.

What reaction? I will honestly tell you that Professor Achebe does not know who Reuben Abati is; has not read his reaction nor does he care to do so.

Professor Achebe loves his native country Nigeria; he did what he has done all his life -  told the truth as he sees it. Many will accept it, some will not, and that is the way it is."

President Goodluck Jonathan and Vice President

 Namadi Sambo

Professor Achebe whose works have been translated into many major languages of the world is the David and Marianna Fisher University Professor and Professor of Africana Studies, Brown University, Providence, Rohde Island, USA. 

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