Professor Chinua Achebe is dead
Information available to the press indicates that Renowed author and famous Nigeria novelist Professor Chinua Achebe is dead. According to report, it indicates that the author died at last night in a hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, United States.
Close family sources said that the Professor had been ill for a while and has been hospitalized in an undisclosed hospital in Boston. He died at the age of 82.
Prior to his death, Prof Achebe was the David and Marianna Fisher University Professor and Professor of Africana Studies at Brown.
The University Profile of Achebe on its website reads thus; “Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe is known the world over for having played a seminal role in the founding and development of African literature. He continues to be considered among the most significant world writers. He is most well known for the groundbreaking 1958 novel Things Fall Apart, a novel still
considered to be required reading the world over. It has sold over twelve million copies and has been translated into more than fifty languages.
considered to be required reading the world over. It has sold over twelve million copies and has been translated into more than fifty languages.
“Achebe’s global significance lies not only in his talent and recognition as a writer, but also as a critical thinker and essayist who has written extensively on questions of the role of culture in Africa and the social and political significance of aesthetics and analysis of the postcolonial state in Africa. He is renowned, for example, for “An Image of Africa,” his trenchant and famous critique of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. Today, this critique is recognized as one of the most generative interventions on Conrad; and one that opened the social study of literary texts, particularly the impact of power relations on 20th century literary imagination.
“In addition, Achebe is distinguished in his substantial and weighty investment in the building of literary arts institutions. His work as the founding editor of the Heinemann African Writers Series led to his editing over one hundred titles in it. Achebe also edited the University of Nsukka journal Nsukka scope, founded Okike: A Nigerian Journal of New Writing and assisted in the founding of a publishing house, Nwamife Books–an organization responsible for publishing other groundbreaking work by award-winning writers. He continues his long-standing work on the development of institutional spaces where writers can be published and develop creative and intellectual community.
247ureports.com
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Renowned Nigerian author Chinua Achebe has died at the age of 82 after a brief illness.
South
African writer and Nobel laureate Nadine Gordimer called him the
"father of modern African literature" in 2007 when she was among the
judges to award him the Man Booker International Prize in honour of his
literary career.
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A statement from his family said his "wisdom and courage" were an "inspiration to all who knew him".
One of Africa's best known authors, his 1958 debut novel Things Fall Apart, which dealt with the
impact of colonialism in Africa, has sold more than 10 million copies.
He had been living in the US since 1990 following injuries from a car crash.
The writer and academic wrote more than 20 works - some fiercely critical of politicians and a failure of leadership in Nigeria.
Continue reading the main story
“Start Quote
Nelson Mandela Centre of MemoryNelson Mandela referred to Prof Achebe as a writer 'in whose company the prison walls fell down'”
Things
Fall Apart has been translated into more than 50 languages and focuses
on the traditions of Igbo society and the clash between Western and
traditional values.
The Anambra state government in Nigeria first made the announcement about his death.
Analysts say in Igbo society the death of an important person must be announced by someone in authority.
His
home state was in mourning for the death of "the illustrious son of the
state, Nigeria and Africa", Mike Udah, spokesman for Anambra state
governor Peter Obi, told the BBC.
A statement released on behalf of his family said
Mr Achebe was "one of the great literary voices of his time".
"He
was also a beloved husband, father, uncle and grandfather, whose wisdom
and courage are an inspiration to all who knew him. Professor Achebe's
family requests privacy at this time."
Last
year, Mr Achebe published a long-awaited memoir about the brutal
three-year Biafran war - when the south-eastern Igbo region tried to
split from Nigeria in 1967.
After leaving Nigeria, he worked in the US as a professor. His 1990 car accident left him paralysed from the
waist down and in a wheelchair.
A statement of the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory said it offered its condolences to the Achebe family.
The
former South African president and anti-apartheid fighter, who spent 27
years in jail, "referred to Prof Achebe as a writer 'in whose company
the prison walls fell down'", the statement said.
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