[size=14pt]Igbo version of Things Fall Apart debuts [/size]
By Okey Maduforo, Correspondent, Awka

Fifty years after Prof Chinua Achebe's award-winning "Things Fall Apart" took the world of literature by the storm; the novel has been published in Igbo, the language of the author.




But writers in Anambra State, where Achebe comes from, may have abandoned the author following their silence over the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the novel as against the pageantry that heralded the celebration among writers from other states in Nigeria.


Besides, writers and authorities of literature in Anambra State have not made any attempt at holding any academic or social activity in celebration of the popular novel at 50.


All efforts to speak with some of the writers of Anambra extraction proved abortive, as none of them was willing discus the matter.


But, Dr. Alex Asigbo of the Theatre Art Department in Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka, who spoke toDaily Independent, said: "The case of Things Fall Apart is a disgrace to Igbo nation. This is because for 50 years that the world masterpiece has been in existence and unfortunately, it has been translated into at least 80 different languages but not in Igbo, the tribe of the author. So what we tried to do is that we reached out to certain people to see what can be done.



"Fortunately, one young man, Izuchukwu Nwankwo, who happens to be my former student, took up the challenge and I am proud to say that the translation of Things Fall Apart into Igbo language, which is entitled: "Ihe Aghasa," came out last week and we are now in the process of organising a public presentation of that work to Igbo nation.


"And we are making attempts at making sure that Prof Chinua Achebe would be in Anambra on the day of the presentation. In fact, Prof Earnest Emenyeonu, has taken some copies to present to him and we are just praying that he comes. From information at our disposal, Achebe is sick and even if he doesn't come he can send his daughter.


"This is part of the activities in the celebration of Things Fall Apart at 50 and it was timed to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Things Fall Apart. But we are not doing it under the Anambra Writers Association. This is more of an individual affair and has nothing to do with Anambra writers as a body."



http://odili.net/news/source/2008/jul/15/703.html

I don't know whether there is the yoruba version of that masterpiece but I've seen the swahili version here in America. I also heard they have hausa, German,French, mandarin versions. Big ups Chinua Achebe!!!

It's really a big same Things Fall Apart was never translated in Igbo, I wonder why ?

A shame indeed that Things Fall Apart, the most famous novel to come out of Africa was never translated in Ibo until now.

RedHotChic:


"And we are making attempts at making sure that Prof Chinua Achebe would be in Anambra on the day of the presentation. In fact, Prof Earnest Emenyeonu, has taken some copies to present to him and we are just praying that he comes. From information at our disposal, Achebe is sick and even if he doesn't come he can send his daughter.

@poster: An Igbo translation of the novel is all well and good, considering that it has long been in other languages. But from your post, it seems Achebe is not aware that his work was translated - or is he? Your post isn't clear on that; in fact, it sounds like his presence (or his daughter's, as you say) at the presentation will signify his consent to the work.

And you didn't mention the date and venue - or is it by special invitation?

Well, i don't really think there's a need for an igbo version - most, if not all of the names in the book are igbo.

Last year, my teacher assigned the book to some of my classmates, i was among those who got a different book.

I would have loved it if she had assigned it to me although i read it before some years back. Most of my classmates

didn't understand some of the words used. Like 'hut' and 'village', i think some of those things were written in igbo. I had to help

'em out. So, anyone who sees it already knows it's an igbo book. The setting was in the igbo land.

hut and village are English words. There's something called a dictionary? Suggest that to your clueless classmates next time they

Ahh, currently reading that book sha, lovely

@ HCH3COO, no, you misunderstood my post. I meant that the english words 'hut' and 'village' were sometimes written in igbo in the book instead of english as the book was supposed to be in english. I can't remember exactly how the words were written in igbo because am not so good with igbo. If I read the book again, I might remember.


@ibkaye, I know, it's really gud. My parents had the really old edition. I read it since I was like 10. I didn't get it the first time when I was about 9 but I later loved it.

Just read that book again recently.
Loved it even more.
Very popular amongst lit students here in the USA.
My best part was the description of Okonkwo.
They made the man sexy.
He was fearless,strong,vocal and yet somewhat romantic.
kai
I would have been Ekwefi his beloved second wife.The one that ran away from her husband's house to marry her true love .
The only diference is that I would have been the only wife.

chiogo:

@ HCH3COO, no, you misunderstood my post. I meant that the english words 'hut' and 'village' were sometimes written in igbo in the book instead of english as the book was supposed to be in english. I can't remember exactly how the words were written in igbo because am not so good with igbo. If I read the book again, I might remember.

Oh!
_{Misunderstood because you left out the}

Things fall apart is a masterpiece but i still think his Arrow of God [/b]and [b]No longer at ease are better. Just my opinion sha.

Are they waiting for him to die before giving him the Nobel prize because if we miss it this time in that category, we may never get a replacement in the next 100 years?

@ Posters
The author or the publishers will not be blamed for not traslating the great book into Igbo. The IGBO LANGUAGE is dying and no one will just rush into the expensive book translation when there is no market for it. The last time that Igbos had an Igbo newspaper was in the 80s when late MKO Abiola floated Ogene, he stopped few years later because no body was buying or reading. IGBOS must save their language from extinction!

@Deepzone, even Achebe admitted that "Arrow of God" is his favorite novel. It would have been my favorite, but the usual insertion of pornographic details, and the fact that it was disjointed quelled my liking for the novel.

Four Indian universities to celebrate Things Fall Apart in October

FOUR Indian Universities - Osmania University, Hyderabad; Mysore University; Kolkata University; and the University of New Delhi, will kick off conferences to mark the celebration of the 50th year of the publication of "the noted Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe's highly influential and widely studied first novel "Things fall Apart," starting with opening proceedings at Osmania University, the last week of October.



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According to the convener of the sub-continental conferences, Professor Bala Kothandaraman, each major Indian university will host individual seminars organized by their local English Departments - made possible by funding from the respective universities and the ICCR (the Indian Council for Cultural Relations).

Professor Lyn Innes, Professor Emeritus of the University of Kent, Canterbury, England, will be the keynote speaker. In addition, Professor Kothandaraman provides that the seminars will celebrate local Indian and Asian scholars and highlight their vigorous and extensive Achebean and African Literary scholarship. Also invited to these ambitious celebrations are noted scholars from America, Europe, and Africa.

The Keynote speaker, professor Lyn Innes, was born in Australia. Currently Professor Emeritus of the University of Kent, Canterbury, England, she graduated from the University of Sydney, before spending 12 years in the United States as a Postgraduate student and University lecturer, first at the University of Oregon, then at Tuskegee Institute, Alabama (1968-70), and finally at Cornell University. At Cornell, she completed the Comparative Literature doctoral programme revolving around Irish, African and Caribbean literatures (Francophone and Hispanic as well as English). After completing her doctoral thesis on Black and Irish Cultural Nationalism, she taught at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, where the Nigerian novelist, Chinua Achebe was Professor of African Literatures, and became Associate Editor of OKIKE Magazine: A Journal of African Creative Writing, which Chinua Achebe had founded. In 1975, she went as an exchange lecturer to the University of Kent, and remained there.

At the University of Kent she helped introduce the undergraduate degree in African and Caribbean Studies, which has now become a degree in English/Postcolonial Literatures; developed courses in Australian literature; taught various Irish literature courses at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels; and joined with colleagues in English to establish a Centre for Colonial and Postcolonial Studies and an MA in Postcolonial Studies. She is a member of the editorial board of Wasafiri and of Interventions.

Her publications have developed the lines of interest established early in her career. They include two collections of African short stories co-edited with Chinua Achebe, and a critical book, Chinua Achebe (1990). Her other books are The Devil's Own Mirror: the Irish and the African in Modern Literature (1990); Woman and Nation in Irish Literature and Society, 1880-1935 (1993); and A History of Black and South Asian Writing in Britain, 1700 - 2000. She is currently engaged in a diverse set of projects: compiling an anthology on the afterlife of the Australian bushranger, Ned Kelly, writing an introduction to Postcolonial Literatures, and researching the history of black and Asian writers and artists in Ireland.

Professor Kothandaraman believes the series of seminars throughout India will provide "an ample occasion for some of the most expansive analysis of the contributions of Achebe's oeuvre to world civilization." A fitting tribute, according to the professor to "a body of work that is required reading in schools and universities in India and around the world; and a novel (Things Fall Apart) that remains one of the most widely read and influential books ever written."

http://odili.net/news/source/2008/jul/23/2.html

@ Posters
The author or the publishers will not be blamed for not traslating the great book into Igbo. The IGBO LANGUAGE is dying and no one will just rush into the expensive book translation when there is no market for it. The last time that Igbos had an Igbo newspaper was in the 80s when late MKO Abiola floated Ogene, he stopped few years later because no body was buying or reading. IGBOS must save their language from extinction!

What is so expensive about translating a book? And who told you ibos has no newspaper in ibo? And why are the ibo novels/folk stories selling or don't they have one too? What do you mean by a dying language because a language with over 30 million speakers is not dead to me. Ibo, hausa and yoruba each has more speakers than the German, Greek and Italian language. Will you call the aforementioned languages a dying one? Abeg carry your stupid tribalistic comments to the tribalist section, that's why Funmilayo can never/rarely be seen there. And remember to save your own language first from extinction before looking out for others.

DeepZone:

Things fall apart is a masterpiece but i still think his Arrow of God [/b]and [b]No longer at ease are better. Just my opinion sha.

Are they waiting for him to die before giving him the Nobel prize because if we miss it this time in that category, we may never get a replacement in the next 100 years?

Arrow of God was good, but the end of the novel spoilt it. The abruptness with which he seemed to end the novel suggests
he had grown tired of writing and wanted to be rid of it. In introductions to later editions, he has expressed dissatisfaction
with how he had ended the novel.

Anthills of the Savannah is my own favourite sha.

the first paragraph of "anthills on the savannah" completely bought me over. Genius.

DeepZone:

What is so expensive about translating a book? And who told you ibos has no newspaper in ibo? And why are the ibo novels/folk stories selling or don't they have one too? What do you mean by a dying language because a language with over 30 million speakers is not dead to me. Ibo, hausa and yoruba each has more speakers than the German, Greek and Italian language. Will you call the aforementioned languages a dying one? Abeg carry your stupid tribalistic comments to the tribalist section, that's why Funmilayo can never/rarely be seen there. And remember to save your own language first from extinction before looking out for others.

@DEEPZONE

Do you just translate a book and leave it in a shelf to gather dust? The reading culture of the people and the money that the publishers will make will be the chief motivators! I insist that there is no Igbo Newspaper! Catholic Archdiocese of Owerri that has been tying to encourage Igbos to speak and write the language through the Odenigbo Lectures tried publishing OZISA and gave up due to very low readership!
On a personal note Deepzone, I can speak and write Igbo language 1000 times better than you!
Onye rua uka, ofu n'anya. Biko akpana nwa agu aka n'odu. A bughi m onye odida anyanwu. Were ire gi gua eze gi onu[i][/i].

@DEEPZONE

Do you just translate a book and leave it in a shelf to gather dust? The reading culture of the people and the money that the publishers will make will be the chief motivators! I insist that there is no Igbo Newspaper! Catholic Archdiocese of Owerri that has been tying to encourage Igbos to speak and write the language through the Odenigbo Lectures tried publishing OZISA and gave up due to very low readership!
On a personal note Deepzone, [b]I can speak and write Igbo language 1000 times better than you![/b]

Me and you are not arguing on who speaks better ibo because you'll surely win as i do not understand at all but I had a problem with your "dying language" phrase which is completely stupid because last time I checked, they dont speak latin or aramaric at onitcha or aba or nnnenewi. If the population speaking the language abounds there and other cities in Nigeria, what is the basis of your stupid argument?

Onye rua uka, ofu n'anya. Biko akpana nwa agu aka n'odu. A bughi m onye odida anyanwu. Were ire gi gua eze gi onu[i][/i].

Whatever! This is an english only board and cursing people is not allowed. Back at you there.

DeepZone:

Me and you are not arguing on who speaks better ibo because you'll surely win as i do not understand at all but I had a problem with your "dying language" phrase which is completely stupid because last time I checked, they don't speak latin or aramaric at onitcha or aba or nnnenewi. If the population speaking the language abounds there and other cities in Nigeria, what is the basis of your stupid argument?

Whatever! This is an english only board and cursing people is not allowed. Back at you there.

Okay Deepzone, bury the rage! Igbo Language is not dying! So much alive, that is why I have to read it!
I did not curse you! I only used Igbo provarbs and idioms to prove that I can speak and write the language!

Okay Deepzone, bury the rage! Igbo Language is not dying! So much alive, that is why I have to read it!
[b]I did not curse you! I only used Igbo provarbs and idioms to prove that I can speak and write the language![/b]

Well next time try and translate what you wrote assuming you didn't curse me. How come you speak and write "dying" ibo language? I thought the language is dead and gone according to you?

Let me corect you all, that name is written and pronunced IGBO!
Igbo Kwenu? Kwezuenu!!!!!!!

I love that man's courage to effect a translation of THINGS FALL APART in IGBO language.
Its not a mean stuff.

Prof Achebe is ours, and highly respected.
We are celebrating him more that you can fathom.

May I also tell you all who cares to read that the wonder master piece THINGS FALL APART
has been produced in Igbo language far back 1986 which i enjoyed much. A copy of the
production is available from selected film distributors nationwide.

As much as I am happy that someone has done an Igbo translation of Chinua Achebe's all time classic novel Things Fall Apart, the translator and publisher should have informed him before doing so.
Did they sign any contract with him?
You cannot simply translate a book without informing the author.

Chinua Achebe said he would prefer to translate Things Fall Apart into Igbo himself.

From my own recent experience, I am scared of Nigerian publishers.
One of Wole Soyinka's books published in Nigeria looks badly printed.

When are they gonna re master the movie?

From my own recent experience, I am scared of Nigerian publishers.
One of Wole Soyinka's books published in Nigeria looks badly printed.

True.