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Obituary: A Look At The Life Of Chinua Achebe

Chinua Achebe, the internationally celebrated Nigerian author, statesman and dissident who gave literary birth to modern Africa with "Things Fall Apart" and continued for decades to rewrite and reclaim the history of his native country, has died. He was 82.

Achebe died following a brief illness, said his agent, Andrew Wylie.

"He was also a beloved husband, father, uncle and grandfather, whose wisdom and courage are an inspiration to all who knew him," Wylie said.

His eminence worldwide was rivaled only by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Toni Morrison and a handful of others. Achebe was a moral and literary model for countless Africans and a profound influence on such American writers as Morrison, Ha Jin and Junot Diaz.

As a Nigerian, Achebe lived through and helped define revolutionary change in his country, from independence to dictatorship to the disastrous war between Nigeria and the breakaway country of Biafra in the late 1960s. He knew both the prestige of serving on government commissions and the fear of being declared an enemy of the state. He spent much of his adult life in the United States, but never stopped calling for democracy in Nigeria or resisting literary honors from a government he refused to accept.

His public life began in his mid-20s. He was a resident of London when he completed his handwritten manuscript for "Things Fall Apart," a short novel about a Nigerian tribesman's downfall at the hands of British colonialists.

Turned down by several publishers, the book was finally accepted by Heinemann and released in 1958 with a first printing of 2,000. Its initial review in The New York Times ran less than 500 words, but the novel soon became among the most important books of the 20th century, a universally acknowledged starting point for postcolonial, indigenous African fiction, the prophetic union of British letters and African oral culture.

"It would be impossible to say how `Things Fall Apart' influenced African writing," the African scholar Kwame Anthony Appiah once observed. "It would be like asking how Shakespeare influenced English writers or Pushkin influenced Russians. Achebe didn't only play the game, he invented it."

"Things Fall Apart" has sold more than 8 million copies worldwide and has been translated into more than 50 languages. Achebe also was a forceful critic of Western literature about Africa, especially Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness," standard reading for millions, but in Achebe's opinion, a defining example of how even a great Western mind could reduce a foreign civilization to barbarism and menace.

"Now, I grew up among very eloquent elders. In the village, or even in the church, which my father made sure we attended, there were eloquent speakers. So if you reduce that eloquence which I encountered to eight words ... it's going to be very different," Achebe told The Associated Press in 2008. "You know that it's going to be a battle to turn it around, to say to people, `That's not the way my people respond in this situation, by unintelligible grunts, and so on; they would speak.' And it is that speech that I knew I wanted to be written down."

His first novel was intended as a trilogy and the author continued its story in "A Man of the People" and "Arrow of God." He also wrote short stories, poems, children's stories and a political satire, "The Anthills of Savannah," a 1987 release that was the last full-length fiction to come out in his lifetime. Achebe, who used a wheelchair in his later years, would cite his physical problems and displacement from home as stifling to his imaginative powers.

Achebe never did win the Nobel Prize, which many believed he deserved, but in 2007 he did receive the Man Booker International Prize, a $120,000 honor for lifetime achievement. Achebe, paralyzed from the waist down since a 1990 auto accident, lived for years in a cottage built for him on the campus of Bard College, a leading liberal arts school north of New York City where he was a faculty member. He joined Brown University in 2009 as a professor of languages and literature.

Achebe, a native of Ogidi, Nigeria, regarded his life as a bartering between conflicting cultures. He spoke of the "two types of music" running through his mind_ Ibo legends and the prose of Dickens. He was also exposed to different faiths. His father worked in a local missionary and was among the first in their village to convert to Christianity. In Achebe's memoir "There Was a Country," he wrote that his "whole artistic career was probably sparked by this tension between the Christian religion" of his parents and the "retreating, older religion" of his ancestors. He would observe the conflicts between his father and great uncle and ponder "the essence, the meaning, the worldview of both religions."

For much of his life, he had a sense that he was a person of special gifts who was part of an historic generation. Achebe was so avid a reader as a young man that his nickname was "Dictionary." At Government College, Umuahia, he read Shakespeare, Dickens, Robert Louis Stevenson and Jonathan Swift among others. He placed his name alongside an extraordinary range of alumni – government and artistic leaders from Jaja Wachukwa, a future ambassador to the United Nations; to future Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka; Achebe's future wife (and mother of their four children) Christine Okoli; and the poet Christopher Okigbo, a close friend of Achebe's who was killed during the Biafra war.

After graduating from the University College of Ibadan, in 1953, Achebe was a radio producer at the Nigerian Broadcasting Corp., then moved to London and worked at the British Broadcasting Corp. He was writing stories in college and called "Things Fall Apart" an act of "atonement" for what he says was the abandonment of traditional culture. The book's title was taken from poet William Butler Yeats' "The Second Coming," which includes the widely quoted line, "Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold."

His novel was nearly lost before ever seen by the public. When Achebe finished his manuscript, he sent it to a London typing service, which misplaced the package and left it lying in an office for months. The proposed book was received coolly by London publishers, who doubted the appeal of fiction from Africa. Finally, an educational adviser at Heinemann who had recently traveled to west Africa had a look and declared: "This is the best novel I have read since the war."

The opening sentence was as simple, declarative and revolutionary as a line out of Hemingway: "Okonkwo was well known throughout the nine villages and even beyond." Africans, Achebe had announced, had their own history, their own celebrities and reputations. In mockery of all the Western books about Africa, Achebe ended with a colonial official observing Okonkwo's fate and imagining the book he will write: "The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger." Achebe's novel was the opening of a long argument on his country's behalf.

"Literature is always badly served when an author's artistic insight yields to stereotype and malice," Achebe said during a 1998 lecture at Harvard University that cited Joyce Cary's "Mister Johnson" as a special offender. "And it becomes doubly offensive when such a work is arrogantly proffered to you as your story. Some people may wonder if, perhaps, we were not too touchy, if we were not oversensitive. We really were not."

Achebe could be just as critical of his own country. The novels "A Man of the People" and "No Longer at Ease" were stories of corruption and collapse that anticipated the Nigerian civil war of 1967-70 and the years of mismanagement that followed. He not only supported Biafra's independence, but was a government envoy and a member of a committee that was to write up the new and short-lived country's constitution. He would flee from Nigeria and return many times and in 2004 refused the country's second-highest award, the Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic, in protest over conditions under President Olusegun Obasanjo.

"For some time now, I have watched events in Nigeria with alarm and dismay," he said in an open letter to the president, referring to allegations of corruption and lawlessness in Achebe's southeastern home state of Anambra.

"A small clique of renegades, openly boasting its connections in high places, seems determined to turn my homeland into a bankrupt and lawless fiefdom. ... I had a strong belief that we would outgrow our shortcomings under leaders committed to uniting our diverse peoples."

Besides his own writing, Achebe served for years as editor of Heinemann's "African Writer Series," which published works by Nadine Gordimer, Stephen Biko and others. He also edited numerous anthologies of African stories, poems and essays. In "There Was a Country," he considered the role of the modern African writer.

"What I can say is that it was clear to many of us that an indigenous African literary renaissance was overdue," he wrote. "A major objective was to challenge stereotypes, myths, and the image of ourselves and our continent, and to recast them through stories – prose, poetry, essays, and books for our children. That was my overall goal."

Source: Huffington Post

Kano bombing may have caused Achebe's death – Soyinka, Clark

Veteran writers and Achebe’s compatriots, Prof. Wole Soyinka and J.P. Clark, have linked his death to the bomb attacks that occurred in Kano on Monday.

In a joint statement they issued on Friday, entitled “On the Passing of Chinua Achebe,” they noted that his death might have been hastened by the shock from the violence that those they described as Achebe’s people suffered during the attacks.

The statement read, “For us, the loss of Chinua Achebe is, above all else, intensely personal. We have lost a brother, a colleague, a trailblazer and a doughty fighter.

“Of the ‘pioneer quartet’ of contemporary Nigerian literature, two voices have been silenced – one, of the poet Christopher Okigbo, and now, the novelist Chinua Achebe.

“It is perhaps difficult for outsiders of that intimate circle to appreciate this sense of depletion, but we take consolation in the young generation of writers to whom the baton has been passed, those who have already creatively ensured that there is no break in the continuum of the literary vocation.

“We need to stress this at a critical time of Nigerian history, where the forces of darkness appear to overshadow the illumination of existence that literature represents.

“These are forces that arrogantly pride themselves implacable and brutal enemies of what Chinua and his pen represented, not merely for the African continent, but for humanity.

“Indeed, we cannot help wondering if the recent insensate massacre of Chinua’s people in Kano, only a few days ago, hastened the fatal undermining of that resilient will that had sustained him so many years after his crippling accident.”

Punch Nigeria

World Cup qualifier: Super Eagles set to feast on Harambee Stars

Nigeria’s Super Eagles will today at the U.J Esuene Stadium, Calabar, battle the Harambee Stars of Kenya in one of the FIFA World Cup qualifiers for Brazil 2014. The Coach Stephen Keshi-tutored side which is still basking in the euphoria of their victorious outing at AFCON 2013, where they emerged champions after 19 years of waiting, goes into today’s game with the advantage of being group leaders.
Nigeria leads Group F with four points following a 1-0 victory over Namibia and a 1-1 draw against Flames of Malawi in Blantyre. Namibia is second in the group with three points following a 1-0 victory over Kenya and a loss to Super Eagles. Malawi is third with two points after playing 0-0 and 1-1 draws against Kenya and Nigeria respectively, while Kenya is last in the group with just a point after playing a goalless draw with Malawi.
Super Eagles has met their Kenyan opponents four times in the last ten years with the Eagles winning all the matches. They recorded a 1-0 victory against the East Africans in a friendly match in 2007, defeated them 3-0 and 3-2 respectively over the two legs of qualifying matches for South Africa 2010 FIFA World Cup in 2009, and recorded an impressive 3-0 defeat of the Harambee Stars in a friendly match in 2011.
Although going by the above record, one could say that the Super Eagles will have an easy ride over their opponents, but considering that there are no more minnows in African football, coupled with the fact that the team boosts of a good tactician in Belgianborn Adel Amrouche, it becomes difficult to write off the ambitious Kenyans. Amrouche, who was recently appointed coach of Harambee Stars, is not new to African football having been credited with turning around Burundian football after about four years of being in charge of the country’s national team known as the ‘Swallows’.
A victory today over Kenya would increase the Super Eagles points to seven and solidify their position in the group, while any upset by the visitors would increase their points to four and this will help build up their confidence ahead of the return leg in Nairobi. Aside the aforementioned, any slip will put pressure on the Super Eagles to win all their remaining matches to be assured of a ticket to Brazil.
In today’s encounter, Keshi will not have the luxury of the services of team captain, Joseph Yobo and another six players from the team that won the Nations Cup. Though he will still enjoy the services of most members of the victorious AFCON team with few additions, Keshi hopes the squad will put pressure on the Harambee Stars and grab the maximum points available in today’s match.
Meanwhile, AFCON 2013 final goal hero, Sunday Mba, has assured Nigerians that the Super Eagles will record a convincing victory over the Harambee Stars. According to Mba, the team has put the Nations Cup victory behind them and is now focused at grabbing one of the continental tickets for the 2014 World Cup. Speaking ahead of the match, he noted that they will not underrate their opponents because there are no more minnows in African football.
“We are convinced that we are going to grab the maximum points in today’s encounter because the spirit in camp is very high and we are all roaring to go, but we are not going to underrate our opponents.
“They have some excellent players and they just appointed a new coach, so I do expect a difficult game from them, but we are capable of containing any threat they would pose,” he said. Also speaking on the match, captain of Harambee Stars, Dennis Oliech, said he is confident that his team can surprise the Super Eagles before their home crowd in Calabar.
According to him, pressure will be on the Super Eagles as the current African champions to post a good performance and maintain their ratings at international football, which his team can latch on to defeat the Super Eagles.
“The pressure will be on Nigeria especially having won the Africa Cup of Nations trophy. We will go into the match as underdogs. Everybody will be looking at how Nigeria will perform, this being their first competitive match after 2013 AFCON final.
“We have prepared well for this encounter and the team spirit is high, especially after we beat Libya last month in Tunisia. We just need to maintain the same momentum and spirit. We can shock them. “We are no longer the underdogs we used to be referred to in the past and besides there is a new fighting spirit flowing in our camp which makes it possible we can record an upset in today’s encounter,” he concluded.

Heading Football Could Cause Brain Damage

The nation erupted with cheers when Elderson Echejile opened the floodgate of goals with a perfect header at the semi-final match against Mali at the recent African Cup of Nations in South Africa. But unknown to most people, it was a huge sacrifice for the country as a research has now revealed that such heading of the ball may increase the risk of brain damage to football players.
The research conducted at the University of Texas, US, revealed revealed that heading a football repeatedly may cause mental impairment or “mild traumatic brain injury of the frontal lobes”. The researchers however point out that more research is needed to determine whether the changes are long-lasting or temporary. But the findings indicate that increasing amounts of playing time worsen performance.
The study involved a group of 12 teenage female football players and a matched group of non-players. Each undertook a simple computer screen task designed to test subtle levels of mental functioning. Participants had to react to the random appearance of a white square by touching a point on the opposite side of the screen. Performance was measured by timing the speed of the responses.
Before the test, girls who played football were given a practice session during which they headed the ball a number of times. The study showed that the football players were significantly slower at the task than non-players.
However, both groups performed equally well in another task that involved touching the white square where it appeared. This test involved a more instinctive response with less thinking required.
Factoring in the number of hours spent playing football each week showed that more games and practice sessions led to slower responses.
Long-term mental impairment is known to be a risk in high-contact sports such as boxing, which involve head jarring that can cause loss of consciousness. But until now it has not been clear whether the much less violent impact of a football on the head could be harmful.
Dr Anne Sereno, from the University of Texas, and colleagues wrote in the online journal Public Library of Science ONE: “These findings suggest that even subconcussive blows in soccer can result in cognitive function changes that are consistent with mild traumatic brain injury of the frontal lobes.”
Numbers of hours per week playing football had a significant effect on response time, while the number of years taking part in the sport had a marginal effect.
The researchers added: “Further study is needed to track soccer players for longer periods to evaluate if these changes are transient or longer lasting, if they are dependent upon repeated sub-concussive blows, and if they generalise to male soccer players.
“To our knowledge, these results provide the first evidence that even subconcussive blows in soccer could lead to measurable, even if possibly transient, cognitive changes in young soccer players.” Dr Serrano hailed the findings as a means of identifying possible neural disorders caused by playing sport.
She said: ‘The app used in our research may be a quick and effective way to screen for and track cognitive changes in athletes it could also have broader applications in clinics or out in the field.’
This study comes just months after an extensive study of the brains of American football players showed than the majority had signs of brain damage as a result of repeated head injuries.
The study, carried out by the Boston University School of Medicine, posthumously tested the brains of 50 footballers. It found a link between head injuries suffered in the heavy-impact sport and degenerative brain disease

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They Gunned Down Our Teacher In Our Presence

It was a Monday morning, the beginning of a new week.

The day had started well like other previous days at Shehu Sanda Kyarimi Government Day Senior Secondary School, located at Customs area of Maiduguri metropolis. Students in the SS 3 class filed into their classroom.

A few minutes later, their teacher emerged and introduced some teasing remarks with a mixture of jokes as his attention-catching method. The interesting jokes threw the class into a frenzy. But sadly, two unusual guests, who came to carry out some bizarre assignment, brought the euphoria into an abrupt end. “The two strangers (gunmen) just appeared at the door and it was like our malami (teacher) suspected something bad was coming. They called him outside and he was trying to go and then they fired at him.

Everybody jumped up and there was confusion. They started shooting again. That’s all I know,” Hadiza, one of the victims of the Monday attack at the Shehu Sanda Kyarimi Government Day Secondary School told Gov Kashim Shetima, who visited them at the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital (UMTH).

She said they were hit by stray bullets from the sporadic shooting by the gunmen as they attempted to flee the classroom after their teacher was killed, adding that the students would miss their economics teacher, who was gunned down before their very eyes.

Medical personnel in the hospital said Hadiza had a fracture on her leg from gunshots. While Hadiza could still recall the tragic incident as she lies on her hospital bed, the three others seem to be too weak to talk. Gov Kashim Shettima, who expressed his sympathy to the families of the affected student during his visit to the hospital on Tuesday, promised the readiness of the state government to handle further treatment of the female students if the need arises.

“I assure you we will foot the bill and other expenses even outside the country if there is need for that, but the hospital has assured us that they can handle the situation for now,” he said. While condemning the attack, he said the government would empower the parents of the students to ensure they get out of their coma.

He gave out N200, 000 to each of the students and equally extended similar gesture to other patients in the hospitals as well as four soldiers affected by the Tuesday bomb explosion. Earlier in the day, the governor had visited the four schools attacked by suspected Boko Haram men where six people, including three teachers, were killed in the early morning shooting. He announced a donation of N2 million to the families of the deceased teachers.

“The monetary donations were not to compensate the already killed teachers but to enable the family members of the deceased and survivors cushion their financial need,” he explained. Some gunmen suspected to be Boko Haram members on Monday morning invaded four schools in the Maiduguri metropolis.

They included Mafoni Government Day Secondary School, Ali Askiri Primary and Junior Secondary School, Shehu Sanda Kyarimi Senior Secondary (Day) School and Yelwa Central Primary School. At Mafoni Government Day, a female administrative staff of the school, one Hadiza Abdulmalik and her two guests were shot dead while the Arabic teacher/assistant headmaster at Ali Askiri Primary school was also gunned down.

Yelwa Central also lost one of its teachers in the school massacre while a teacher at Shehu Sanda Kyarimi was killed. The teacher was said to have gone into hiding some months ago after receiving threats from suspected Boko Haram members. “He ran to his village at Gozamala because of the fear that he might be killed.

He was there for about two months and returned barely a month ago when the gunmen came,” the head teacher of the school told the governor.