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
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