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Celebrating Chinua Achebe's Achievements by TheBookWorm: 3:29pm On Mar 22, 2013 |
Chinua Achebe, African Literary Titan, Dies at 82 Chinua Achebe, the Nigerian writer who was black Africa’s most widely read novelist and one of the continent’s towering men of letters, has died after a brief illness, his publisher and agent said in London on Friday. He was 82. Few details were immediately available. Besides novels, Mr. Achebe’s works included powerful essays and poignant short stories and poems rooted in the countryside and cities of his native Nigeria, before and after independence from British colonial rule. His most memorable fictional characters were buffeted and bewildered by the conflicting pulls of traditional African culture and invasive Western values. For inspiration, Mr. Achebe drew on his own family history as part of the Igbo nation of southeastern Nigeria, a people victimized by the racism of British colonial administrators and then by the brutality of military dictators from other Nigerian ethnic groups. Mr. Achebe burst onto the world literary scene with the publication in 1958 of his first novel, “Things Fall Apart,” which sold millions of copies and was translated into 45 different languages. Set in the Igbo countryside in the late 19th century, the novel tells the story of Okonkwo, who rises from poverty to become an affluent farmer and village leader. But with the advent of British colonial rule and cultural values, Okonkwo’s life is thrown into turmoil. In the end, unable to adapt to the new status quo, he explodes in frustration, killing an African in the employ of the British and then committing suicide. The novel, which is also compelling for its descriptions of traditional Ibo society and rituals, went on to become a classic of world literature and was often listed as required reading in university courses in Europe and the United States. But when it was first published, “Things Fall Apart” did not receive unanimous acclaim. Some British critics thought it idealized pre-colonial African culture at the expense of the former empire. “An offended and highly critical English reviewer in a London Sunday paper titled her piece cleverly, I must admit Hurray to Mere Anarchy!” wrote Mr. Achebe in “Home and Exile,” a collection of autobiographical essays that appeared in 2000. A few other novels by Mr. Achebe early in his career were occasionally criticized by reviewers as being stronger on ideology than on narrative interest. But over the years, Mr. Achebe’s stature grew until he was considered a literary and political beacon. “In all Achebe’s writing there is an intense moral energy,” [/b]observed Kwame Anthony Appiah, professor of Afro-American studies and philosophy at Princeton, in a commentary written in 2000. “He speaks about the task of the writer in language that captures the sense of threat and loss that must have faced many Africans as empire invaded and disrupted their lives.” In a 1998 New York Times book review, the novelist Nadine Gordimer hailed Mr. Achebe as [b]“a novelist who makes you laugh and then catch your breath in horror — a writer who has no illusions but is not disillusioned.” Mr. Achebe’s political thinking evolved from blaming colonial rule for Africa’s woes to frank criticism of African rulers and of citizens who tolerated their corruption and violence. Forced abroad by Nigeria’s bloody civil war in the 1960s and then by military dictatorship in the 1980s and 1990s, Mr. Achebe had lived for many years in the United States, where he was a university professor. But he continued to believe that writers and storytellers ultimately held more power than army strongmen. “Only the story can continue beyond the war and the warrior,” an old soothsayer observes in Mr. Achebe’s 1988 novel, “Anthills of the Savannah.” “It is the story that saves our progeny from blundering like blind beggars into the spikes of the cactus fence. The story is our escort; without it, we are blind.” http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/23/world/africa/chinua-achebe-nigerian-writer-dies-at-82.html?hp 3 Likes |
Re: Celebrating Chinua Achebe's Achievements by tpia5: 3:33pm On Mar 22, 2013 |
Achebe won the Commonwealth poetry prize for his collection Christmas in Biafra, was a finalist for the 1987 Booker prize for his novel Anthills of the Savannah, and in 2007 won the Man Booker international prize. Chair of the judges on that occasion, Elaine Showalter, said he had "inaugurated the modern African novel", while her fellow judge, the South African Nobel laureate Nadine Gordimer, said his fiction was "an original synthesis of the psychological novel, the Joycean stream of consciousness, the postmodern breaking of sequence", and that Achebe was "a joy and an illumination to read". http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/mar/22/novelist-chinua-achebe-dies |
Re: Celebrating Chinua Achebe's Achievements by tpia5: 3:34pm On Mar 22, 2013 |
Born in 1930 in Ogidi, in the south-east of Nigeria, the author won a scholarship to the University of Ibadan, and later worked as a scriptwriter for the Nigeria Broadcasting Service. He chose to write Things Fall Apart in English – something for which he has received criticism from authors including Ngugi wa Thiong'o – but Achebe said he felt "that the English language will be able to carry the weight of my African experience. But it will have to be a new English, still in full communion with its ancestral home but altered to suit its new African surroundings". guardian uk |
Re: Celebrating Chinua Achebe's Achievements by TheBookWorm: 3:34pm On Mar 22, 2013 |
1. Chinua Achebe, 80, Nigerian, Novelist The father of African literature authored the 1958 classic, Things Fall Apart which has been translated into over 50 languages and has sold over 10 million copies internationally. In September, Achebe made headlines when he turned down a $1million offer from American Hip-Hop act, Curtis Jackson (A.K.A 50 Cent) for permission to use the Things Fall Apart title for an upcoming movie. The renowned novelist is also an essayist, political critic and currently serves as Professor of African studies at Brown University, Rhode Island. http://www.forbes.com/pictures/ehed45mef/chinua-achebe/ 1 Like |
Re: Celebrating Chinua Achebe's Achievements by tpia5: 3:36pm On Mar 22, 2013 |
Works Novels: Things Fall Apart (1958) No Longer at Ease (1960) Arrow of God (1964) A Man of the People (1966) Anthills of the Savannah (1987) Short stories: Marriage Is A Private Affair (1952) Dead Men's Path (1953) The Sacrificial Egg and Other Stories (1953) Civil Peace (1971) Girls at War and Other Stories (including "Vengeful Creditor" (1973) African Short Stories (editor, with C.L. Innes) (1985) Heinemann Book of Contemporary African Short Stories (editor, with C.L. Innes) (1992) The Voter Poetry: Beware, Soul-Brother, and Other Poems (1971) (published in the US as Christmas at Biafra, and Other Poems, 1973) Don't let him die: An anthology of memorial poems for Christopher Okigbo (editor, with Dubem Okafor) (1978) Another Africa (1998) Collected Poems Carcanet Press (2005) Refugee Mother And Child Vultures Essays, criticism, non-fiction and political commentary: The Novelist as Teacher (1965) - also in Hopes and Impediments An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" (1975) - also in Hopes and Impediments Morning Yet on Creation Day (1975) The Trouble With Nigeria (1984) Hopes and Impediments (1988) Home and Exile (2000) Education of a British protected Child (6 October 2009) There Was A Country: A Personal History of Biafra, (11 October 2012 ) Children's books: Chike and the River (1966) How the Leopard Got His Claws (with John Iroaganachi) (1972) The Flute (1975) The Drum (1978) wiki 9 Likes |
Re: Celebrating Chinua Achebe's Achievements by OkikiOluwa1(m): 3:48pm On Mar 22, 2013 |
He's truely great man. |
Re: Celebrating Chinua Achebe's Achievements by alaoeri: 4:04pm On Mar 22, 2013 |
Pls save my ignorance who's Achebe & wetin he do for Nigeria? 3 Likes |
Re: Celebrating Chinua Achebe's Achievements by Soso990240(m): 4:05pm On Mar 22, 2013 |
A legend is misin |
Re: Celebrating Chinua Achebe's Achievements by momodub: 4:05pm On Mar 22, 2013 |
a top man this life the good dey die the bad keep on living |
Re: Celebrating Chinua Achebe's Achievements by sheyguy: 4:07pm On Mar 22, 2013 |
Great indeed. |
Re: Celebrating Chinua Achebe's Achievements by Soso990240(m): 4:08pm On Mar 22, 2013 |
U livd a fulfild life..R.I.P..i want mk MODS do their work well..hide any tribal statement and ban d persn. |
Re: Celebrating Chinua Achebe's Achievements by nijaspace(m): 4:10pm On Mar 22, 2013 |
A great writter; A great African; A Nigerian. So proud of you. Rest in peace. 2 Likes |
Re: Celebrating Chinua Achebe's Achievements by KINGwax(m): 4:10pm On Mar 22, 2013 |
Mtcheeeew! One of the things he failed to achieve was to start another civil war by trying to make his fictional writing real in: there was a country! 6 Likes |
Re: Celebrating Chinua Achebe's Achievements by SamConquer(m): 4:10pm On Mar 22, 2013 |
Sir Your Made A Positive IMPACT To This World . .A Genius In The Making....You Never Came And Left Like A Theif In The Night You Sure Made Your Presence Known. . .I Pray We All Make An Impact In This World. . .Adios Papa |
Re: Celebrating Chinua Achebe's Achievements by dgbanj: 4:10pm On Mar 22, 2013 |
His book Things fall Apart is also in our syllables here in India 14 Likes |
Re: Celebrating Chinua Achebe's Achievements by eagleeye2: 4:11pm On Mar 22, 2013 |
Here was a man who was driven more by ideology than monetary benefits. Money keep chasing him and he kept running away from it, because he had an integrity to protect. RIP Great One. 2 Likes |
Re: Celebrating Chinua Achebe's Achievements by huninaija(f): 4:11pm On Mar 22, 2013 |
I don't know why but i personally think he looks a bit similar to Nelson Mandela! RIP Prof, your achievements will forever be remembered.. 7 Likes |
Re: Celebrating Chinua Achebe's Achievements by dayokanu(m): 4:12pm On Mar 22, 2013 |
He renewed tribalism in Nigeria from his most recent book there was a country 5 Likes |
Re: Celebrating Chinua Achebe's Achievements by Marksule(m): 4:13pm On Mar 22, 2013 |
A great icon 1 Like |
Re: Celebrating Chinua Achebe's Achievements by eagleeye2: 4:15pm On Mar 22, 2013 |
Please can we just give the Tribal comments a rest. Achebe as well as Soyinka, put Nigeria on the World Map. 2 Likes |
Re: Celebrating Chinua Achebe's Achievements by Soso990240(m): 4:16pm On Mar 22, 2013 |
tpia@:Africa's greatest novelist ever.african writer No 1. 5 Likes |
Re: Celebrating Chinua Achebe's Achievements by Nobody: 4:17pm On Mar 22, 2013 |
when mission is accomplish, a great man take his rest. Chinua Achebe was a great achiever, a role model for every great man. may his soul rest in peace! 6 Likes
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Re: Celebrating Chinua Achebe's Achievements by oilsuop: 4:18pm On Mar 22, 2013 |
BRITISH Member of Parliament MOURNS ACHEBE. A Member of British Parliament (House of Common), MP Chuka Umunna has expressed sadness over the death of Nigerian Literacy Icon, Prof Chinua Achebe. ... https://www.facebook.com/pages/House-Of-Commons-Parliament/428486723830530?ref=stream RIP PROF ACHEBE AN AFRICAN ICON.. 1 Like |
Re: Celebrating Chinua Achebe's Achievements by Bonethugss: 4:18pm On Mar 22, 2013 |
Even when i was in Switzerland, "Things fall apart" was a compulsory read in grade 9.... May his soul rest in peace.... 8 Likes |
Re: Celebrating Chinua Achebe's Achievements by labasulla(f): 4:20pm On Mar 22, 2013 |
RIP LEGEND |
Re: Celebrating Chinua Achebe's Achievements by Nobody: 4:22pm On Mar 22, 2013 |
a part of me died in him and he will be reborn in my living part for he was the horizon I aimed to reach in my literary flight. |
Re: Celebrating Chinua Achebe's Achievements by kurga(m): 4:23pm On Mar 22, 2013 |
KINGwax: Mtcheeeew!He was a great man. For all he did that is the only thing that comes to your mind. There's a way you critisize people, even more so the dead especially in public. How old are you? 8 Likes |
Re: Celebrating Chinua Achebe's Achievements by hollypagan: 4:25pm On Mar 22, 2013 |
alaoeri: Pls save my ignorance who's Achebe & wetin he do for Nigeria?one mumu is asking question can someone help me to answer him 1 Like |
Re: Celebrating Chinua Achebe's Achievements by vision2050: 4:25pm On Mar 22, 2013 |
t |
Re: Celebrating Chinua Achebe's Achievements by Salligreen: 4:25pm On Mar 22, 2013 |
dgbanj: His book Things fall Apart is also in our syllables here in India U left 9ja to read Chinua Achebe's book in India!...India...Achebe will be perplexed to see you use the word 'syllables' instead of 'Syllabus' sha. 3 Likes |
Re: Celebrating Chinua Achebe's Achievements by oilsuop: 4:26pm On Mar 22, 2013 |
I WISH AM IBO I SWEAR BBC NEWS,ALJAZEERA NEWS,THEY MAKE IT AS THEIR HEADLINE NEWS THEY KEEP SHOWING IT ON BBC NEWS.. 4 Likes |
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