Writers mourn the fallen Iroko
Literature

Writers mourn the fallen Iroko




In this vox pop conducted by SUMAILA UMAISHA, the literary community in Nigeria, particularly members of the Association of Nigerian Authors, ANA, which he founded in 1981 alongside other first generation Nigerian writers, pay glowing tributes to the fallen Iroko.
Emman Shehu, President, Abuja Writers forum- I?ve been having the feeling he would soon die
Somehow, I have been having this feeling for a while that he would pass on, and the feeling was heightened by the release of his civil war memoir, There Was A Country.
Like all writers, Achebe could go against the grain especially on national issues. Certainly he was a talented writer and took pains to think though issues he felt strongly about.
He is a major pioneer of contemporary African Literature not only through his novels and essays, but also through the provision of a platform in the form of the journal Okike, for the exposure of other writers and discourse of literature from Africa.
Once you to go online and see how the news of his death has been reported on major news outlets, it becomes obvious that he has a significant global stature. The world has rewarded his hard work.
On the whether the Nigerian government will immortalise him, I have my fears, because Nigerian governments have a way of playing politics with such issues and tend to devalue the essence of certain things. Achebe himself was wary of not being manipulated by any Nigerian administration and twice rejected major honours. Given that the Goodluck administration is currently embroiled with credibility issues especially with its seeming penchant for romancing corruption, I don?t think the Achebe family will want to be associated with the administration. Society will immortalize him in various ways, no doubt about that. He utilised his God-given talent well.
However, it is telling that he somehow had distanced himself from ANA in later years, even though he played a central role in its formation.
Jerry Agada, former president of ANA- He set the Nigerian literary scene aglow
It is with heavy heart that I received the news of the death of the literary icon, Professor Chinua Achebe. The death only marks the end of his physical existence, but I?m delighted that he had lived a fulfilled life in the sense that his creative works will outlive him forever and ever.
He set the Nigerian literary scene aglow by establishing ANA and serving as its first national president in 1981. His death to me as the immediate past National President of ANA means a personal loss of one who unarguably is the father of Nigerian writing.
His death would spell a sense of reawakening for Nigerian literature. He had done everything for Nigerian literature. For Nigerian literature his death is a clarion call for Nigerian writers of all generations to keep the flag flying so as not to disappoint him. He has only gone home to rest from where he would be watching with keen interest the progress and development of Nigerian literature.
My sincere condolences to the National President and the entire members of ANA, and indeed to all members of the academic and literary communities all over the world. And may his soul rest in the bosom of the Lord.
E. E Sule, IBB University, Lapai- Achebe was a great man of letters
The news of Achebe?s death was a total shock. Incidentally, I had invited the writer Abubakar Gimba to interact with my students at IBB University, and while we were at the event, I got an SMS that Achebe was dead. My students who had internet devices confirmed it. And we all had a one-minute silence for the great fiction writer.
Although I?m not a great admirer of Achebe, I felt as though I had lost a great man in my family. And that was the feeling! After all, we all belong to one big family of writers.
Achebe was a great man of letters. As a pioneer African novelist, he gave to his audience what they needed to have at the right time. But as a man I think Achebe was unforgiving. He never forgave Nigeria for fighting the civil war. His controversial personal narrative is a loud testimony to that. It also betrays his supremacist attitude ? till his death he thought no other ethnic groups were as important to Nigeria as the Igbo ? a view that, sadly, cut him out as Hitleric.
I still hold my views that writers in his generation were over-praised, over-rated; that had everything.
Achebe was more than rewarded for his literary contribution to the world. He was one of the luckiest writers to have ever emerged from Africa.
To immortalise him, libraries should be built in his name across Nigeria.
We have lost a brother? J. P. Clark & Wole Soyinka
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.
No matter the reality, after the initial shock, and a sense of abandonment, we confidently assert that Chinua lives. His works provide their enduring testimony to the domination of the human spirit over the forces of repression, bigotry, and retrogression.
Achebe projected Africans as human beings? ANA Lagos
Chinua Achebe is one person who with his writings has shown us all how Africans are and are human beings on account of their own experiences, refuting the Hamitic theory, Africans without any outside influence succeeded in building a civilization for themselves?
And writers have a role to play, while Achebe was able to envision for us our past, there is the need for writers to take up the task of envisioning the future?. A future where society would be organised in a way and manners that the basic needs of all would be provided for, and one?s status or background would not be a factor for denying anyone his/her due. Writers must create characters of such mould that would in fiction take up the task of making a revolution? inspire all of us to rise into the arena of struggle to free society from the clutch hold of private profiteers.
He was a gentlemen; a harmless character? BM Dzukogi, ANA Gen. Secretary
It is with deep sense of loss and emptiness that I received the shocking news of Achebe?s departure. I got the shocking news through facebook. Shortly afterwards, everybody who knows my relationship with ANA and writing started calling? the number of callers made me feel as if I was a biological son of Achebe. I had to ask myself privately, is my position as ANA secretary this big?
Having crafted so much about death and heroism, Pa Achebe has now been overwhelmed by the powerful force too; the terminus of every man. Like the characters of his creations who had to bear great pains of the dead ones in his great works, we, his little children of his irregular country are now left fatherless, forever. I think we are all lonely now, almost vulnerable. To what, I do not know.
I always saw a gentleman; a harmless character. All through, I felt nothing extraordinary about the larger-than-life paintings of the man. I doubt if Achebe felt the way others saw him. I like him.
His unforgettable achievements include establishment of ANA, which in turn sort of gave birth to many of us; African Writers Series; his simple approach to life, and his great works.
The Nobel people were foolish not to have awarded him the prize. The federal govt of Nigeria is more foolish not to have expanded on his literary banner to the world which promoted the country immeasurably.
Let Nigerian Governments and individuals create platforms for nurturing young writers and you will see greater Achebes. This way the man lives forever! All these concentration on Nollywood is annoying. Literature is the soul!
However, as a northerner-member of his tribe, I felt he incited my Igbo friends against my region in his last book. He failed to convince me that Ike; his son, could say ?don?t let him (Okigbo) die?.
Achebe was an entertainer to the core? Adjekpagbon Mudiaga, Lagos-based writer
He was no doubt one of the great writers that inspired me from childhood with his children story Chike and the River? Achebe was an entertainer to the core. His heavy weight messages are embedded in his story lines with intoxicating humour. His achievements are innumerable, but the one I consider the greatest is his being the first Nigerian or perhaps the only African writer whose work (Things Fall Apart) is said to have been translated into more than fifty languages worldwide. This is no small achievement. And it will be very difficult for any other Nigerian or African writer to surpass in this age.
The world rewarded Achebe by translating Things Fall Apart into the number of languages aforesaid. Apart from that, his literary creativity were also honoured by the world through the various awards he won. These show the world recognised him.
A national library should be built in his honour in Abuja, not necessarily in the eastern part of the country where he hailed from.
His latest book is his greatest gift to Nigeria ? Cheta Nwanze, Lagos-based writer
Chinua?s telling of stories and his command of the English language was such that the moment you picked up a Chinua Achebe book, putting it down became almost impossibility. His understanding of the culture of his Igbo people was also virtually unrivalled. A lot of the Igbo proverbs I learned first, I learned from his magnum opus, Things Fall Apart.
When talking of a giant of literature such as Chinua Achebe, it is plain wrong to use the phrase magnum opus to describe his work. His craftsmanship as a story teller was such that he had a plethora of work that made up his magna opera.
As compared to a lot of people, Achebe was a man of character, who refused not one, but two national honours because he was not at peace with the way Nigeria is being run. Only if our government(s) had been reading.
In his last book, There Was A Country, came for the first time since I started reading him, long passages that I disagreed with. However, one cannot fault what he wrote because he clearly stated from the beginning, that the book was a personal history. That personal history is perhaps his greatest gift to Nigeria. Mistakes were made in those dark years between 1966 and 1970. Those mistakes are finally being documented by some of the people who went through those days. We MUST learn from it.
He has laid down an enduring legacy? Law Mefor, Abuja-based writer
Hearing the news of Achebe?s death was a shock. Yes, he was old, but you still sometimes expect old lions to live forever. Achebe?s different books, articles and essays had a significant influence on my own thoughts and views of the world. I find it instructive that he had a great belief in the power of the word and of writers to affect their society. He was an outspoken critic of the Nigerian government, even after the switch to democracy.
His final book, There Was A Country, published last year, shared his unvarnished thoughts on the main actors of the Nigerian civil war. Chinua Achebe may be dead now, but he has certainly laid down an enduring legacy.
Labo Yari, Trustee of ANA: He is a true pioneer of African literature
Chinua Achebe lived a fulfilled life. Some people may not like some of his writings especially the latest one he wrote on the Nigerian civil war, but the fact that he is great writer is not contestable. He is a true pioneer of African literature. Through his writing the African image is projected to the rest of the world positively. He is unique in his own way and it is difficult to an African writer that would surpass him. Though he is now gone, his legacy will live forever.
He came, he wrote, he mesmerised -Abubakar Gimba former President of ANA
I was at the Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University, Lapai, having a literary interaction with the students of English when the news of the death of Nigeria?s foremost literary export reached me. It was such a great shock. We hurriedly ended the interaction with a minute?s silence in his honour.
I am still too shocked to make any serious comment. The giant of Nigerian literature is gone. Without him I cannot hazard a guess as to what the creative writing playing field in our country would have looked like. He came. He wrote. He mesmerised. Truly a giant. As a writer, the world accorded him great acclaim, his country claimed his fame as their icon, and his ethnic brethren appropriated him as their hero. Undoubtedly, Prof. Achebe was a great man, who would have been greater and deserved to be greater. The highest crown would have been won by him but for his daring and unweighed forays into the political history of our nation: a quicksand for even politicians and partisan historians. The eagle soared and soared, above the tallest iroko tree in the land, but seemed to want to perch among the tree branches where he started his flight.
The giant is gone, but may his inspiration produce great future giants for our land. We will for a very long time to come appreciate his pioneering, ennobling literary venture. A monument for him? What monument? We have, as a people become too enamoured with the fanfares of naming structures, streets and other assorted things as monuments to remember those who have contributed greatly to our social history. Achebe had already built an international monument for himself. What we need to do is enhance the Nigerian foundation of it, and ensure that the literature edifice remains a glittering marvel to other nations. How? Education is it! Literature, the Arts, the Sciences? yes, and a national resolve to commitment to a lifetime of excellence. History immortalises people in accordance to the intrinsic quality of their relevance to their society and time-honoured human values. We should not turn our backs on his values that lift our collective and mutual dreams as one nation, one humanity. That should be our monument.
He is a wonderful writer ? Babangida Lawani, Kaduna-based writer
It feels bad; it is a loss of an author, a social reformer and a great writer. Nigeria needs such people at this time the nation seems to be going insane.
He is a fine gentleman, a man with integrity and a conscience. He is a very wonderful writer. I love especially his novels and social and political analysis and commentaries. His major achievements are his book ?things fall apart? and his ability to keep his integrity and tell the government of the day the truth about issues.
The Nigerian government should immortalize him by setting up a literary prize in his name and also by establishing literary foundations, completely funded by the government but run as a private enterprise to develop reading and writing culture of Nigerians.
He died unfulfilled ? Senator Iyere Ihenyen, author of ?Colourless Rainbow?
His death is painful because till the time he died, ?there was a country? remained an apt way to describe Nigeria. Many more things have indeed fallen apart, and remain so. Seen from this latter angle, the widely celebrated African novelist died unfulfilled. As a writer myself, I appreciate how painful that could be.
As a person, I?ve always seen the late Chinua Achebe as a man of great honour. He had vision. He had courage. He had a great measure of integrity. I saw him as a man who never compromised. A man of values with great conviction. And as a writer, I greatly respected and literally idolised his achievements. He was Africa?s greatest novelist and had influenced a lot of young generation of Nigerian novelists like the award-winning Chimamanda Adichie, Odili Ujubuonu and many others.
One must also recognise his establishment of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) as one of his greatest fits as that body has contributed significantly to the development of Nigerian literature over the years. And perhaps, as a Nigerian youth, I personally find his more recent books such as There Was a Country to be some of his greatest achievements as such represented part of the little hope we had left to rebuild ourselves as countrymen and rebuild our country.
To befittingly immortalise a great man like the late Prof. Chinua Achebe, it is not going to involve the mere naming of a street in the FCT, Abuja, after him. It has to be a symbol of intellectual and literary excellence. And since the President Jonathan administration has recently demonstrated its willingness and goodwill towards renaming Federal universities after great men such as the University of Lagos been renamed after M.K.O. Abiola, I strongly feel that the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, should be renamed after late Chinua Achebe.
Achebe will live forever-  Adelakun Adunni Abimbola, writer and journalist
It took some time for it to dawn on me that it was real; that he was truly dead. Well, I cannot speak about him as a person but I can say that as a writer, Achebe made our African stories possible. He was not only a writer who wrote African stories, he also nurtured other writers from Africa.
It is difficult to speak on his ?major? achievement without pigeonholing him but let us say that he was a great writer. His work was great and through them he will live forever.
I would not say he pioneered African literature because African literature did not begin with writing books. For centuries, African literature was oral. But he can be said to pioneer what we call ?modern African literature? and for that, yes, he was amply rewarded. I do not view ?reward? in material terms of prizes and money anyway. I see it as a sort of legacy he leaves behind for generations to come.
The Nigerian government should immortalize him intellectually. They should not only build him a nice sepulchre but institute prizes or a fellowship in his name. That will be more like it!
He is one of the greatest- Dina Hassana Ishaku, Abuja ? based writer
I am not a sentimental or emotional person. Great people die every day, the sun is still shining, isn?t it? I am clueless as to who he is as a person, but I perceive him to be a passionate person, judging from the wording of his works. As a writer, he is one of the greats.
Things Fall Apart is one of his great achievements. There?s no question about that? it is an honest and heartfelt work. It is not too premeditated like his last work. It is what most people know him for; it is what put him on the map as a great writer.
Being able to do what he wanted and even make a living off it is reward enough and that should be each person?s goals. Nigerian government I suppose would do something for him. But, a great writer doesn?t need to be immortalized. His works do that for him. Look at Shakespeare, who has been dead for centuries. His works will live forever. What immortalization is greater than that?
I call him our literary prophet- Saka Aliyu, Kano-based writer

It is sad but grateful for a life well spent. He was inspiring, putting Nigeria on the map of world literature, creating ANA. Yes, the greatest reward is the love people have for your work not the plaques. An intellectual monument could be named after him and ANA would have to carve a niche for him at the Mamman Vatsa village.
He has said all that can be said about him with his works. I call him our literary prophet and I am most reluctant to pronounce the title of his latest work. No doubt, he is a great man.
I became a writer because of him- Mazi Okoroafor James, Abuja-based writer
He was like what my father should have been as a writer. He was the root of the colour of my imagination. I became a writer because I wanted to be like Achebe. To me, the greatest achievement of Achebe is ?An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad?s Heart of Darkness,? in which he asserted that Joseph Conrad?s famous novel dehumanizes Africans.
What I think of him as an African about African literature is more important than what the world thinks about him. He should be granted a state burial as one of our finest.
I don?t want government to immortalise him ? Emmanuella C. N. Nduonofit, Asaba-based writer
To me, Achebe?s death is like a pain that won?t go away. It pains me so much to lose him. I hold this man in a pedestal that even I can?t reach. God, I haven?t even read halfway into his last book when I wept, and this happened months before this announcement of his passing away. What will so pain me the most is the lies I will see and hear about him in the media by a group of government officials who really did not understand his true worth, the superficial statements they make about him. I don?t want the so-called Nigerian government to immortalise Achebe because I?m yet to understand what the Nigerian government itself is all about. Only Achebe and his contemporaries can do that for me.
He is literary colossus of noble pedigree ? Shittu Fowora, Editor, Kaduna state ANA
Chinua Achebe defies simplistic definition or appraisal. In him we saw a man who matched words with action. He is a good man by every yardstick of evaluation, a world class literary colossus of noble pedigree and a thinker per excellence.
He paved the way for the entire black race in the Literature world. His works challenged convention and placed us in the limelight. Even when he wrote about Africa and his locality, the manner he deployed the English language to carry his thoughts across was exceptional. Even the unborn generations will be grateful for his effort in literature. His bluntness on burning issues of national importance and his refusal to be railroaded into the travesty of governance/mock leadership in the country were great feats.
Some believe he was the ?Nobel Laureate? Africa never had, but I say, he meant more than that to us. He watered our minds and planted the muse. The fact that his works have been received across the globe, with translations into several major languages, and its adoption for usage and erudition, what more could any Poet-Seer wish for? He?ll continue to be recompensed for tasking the world to rethink Africa.
Our literary heritage is crumbling in the face of massive onslaught of television and nonsensical movies; we must always tell our own stories, own our own stories and hold the world to every word they use on us, for us and or against us. Let?s immortalise him individually by walking in the path he led, by reading and imbibing the thrust of his vision. It won?t be a bad Idea to have Things Fall Apart as a compulsory text in secondary schools across the nation, it doesn?t matter if students want to study sciences or venture into the arts.
But writers and well meaning Nigerians must be ready to protest against government in the event they want to honour him post-humously with the awards he had declined severally while he was alive. If he didn?t deem it fit while alive, which was a clear protest, a post-humous conferment will be nothing short of fraud. We must resist it.
Adieu, the Eagle of the Eastern star! ? Abdullahi Ismaila, Lecturer, IBB University, Lapai
Well, his death feels like every death. Sad and a loss yet with resignation to the will of God. Death is a constancy and God says every soul shall taste of death. So it is regrettable when some ?quartet? begin to link his death to Boko Haram.
As a person I see Achebe as a die-hard ethnicist, one who liked his people more and pretended about his liking for Nigeria for the most part as can be attested to by his recent publication, There Was A Country. As a writer he carried forward this ?herd instinct?.
But he wrote well. His kind of language, narrativity, (and expressiveness) is unmatched in Africa. And that constitutes part of his major achievement. Another of his achievement is his clear and unambiguous showcase of the Ibgo culture and personality which, at the time of the debut of Things Fall Apart, stood for the totality of the African mindset or world view as a counter narrative to European stereotype of Africans. Yet in the years after that apart from his political offerings he like others was not able to synchronise aggregates of a supposedly Nigeria?s culture.
Sadly what he wrote in Things Fall Apart might have offended the imperial over-lords to deny him outstanding recognition. May be he will get a posthumous award somehow. The federal government could institute a prize in his name or at best name NLNG Literature Prize after him as a way of immortalising him at least to make him a symbol of Nigeria?s unity and a source of inspiration to others.
Achebe died at the time we needed him to answer some of the questions and the controversies he threw up by his recent publications. Adieu, the Eagle of the Eastern star!
The Nobel Prize is not everything ? Uchenna Franklin Ekweremadu, Kaduna-based writer
Achebe grew beyond a mere man to an institution. I think he was highly principled, as could be seen in his turning down the national honours conferred on him by the federal government. There are those that see him as proud or stubborn. But, I think of him as someone that believed strongly in such things as principle, honour, and bravery. He spoke up for the masses, rebuking the wayward leaders not minding the danger it posed to his person.
The Nobel Prize is not everything. For me, the number of people one manages to touch positively matters more. And Achebe got all that.
He is a man of his own convictions ? Bala Yahaya, Abuja-based writer
To me, his death came as a poetic declaration of the end of a glorious literary era being that the news came just a day after I finished reading his latest work There Was a Country: A Personal History of Biafra.
I have not been privileged to have personal contacts with him, but I hold him in very high regards especially for the lofty ideals he stood for and for his numerous interventions at critical moments in our national history. His double rejection of national honours on principled grounds is not only salutary but also exemplary at a time morality had taken flight in our public and private lives and the award is being bastardised by bestowing it on people of questionable character.
As a writer, his contributions cannot be quantified. He has played a critical role in projecting the cultural heritage of his people, the Igbo and by implication the black race as a whole. His works have continued to be veritable sources of reference materials for students of literature at home and abroad. Even though his last work on Biafran history stirred lots of controversy, it only strengthens the fact that he is a man of his own convictions and is always ready to stand by them to the end no matter whose ox is gored.
One of the hallmarks of any writer is for his works to gain wide readership and in this regard Achebe stands out as the most widely read African novelist whose works have been translated into many world languages. To this extent, I think he has enjoyed his own fair share of the African literary space.
It is however sad that the society, especially African societies have refused to put into practice the ideals he stood for and passionately preached about in his outstanding works. It is on record that throughout his life he stood against corruption and other unwholesome practices that unfortunately continue to be the bane of human progress and development especially in his immediate constituencies i.e. Nigeria, Africa and indeed most third world economies. In that regard, we have not fairly rewarded his efforts.
Nigerian government can immortalize him by naming one of the newly-founded federal universities after him. Another way of immortalizing him is by making his works a consistent part of our student?s syllabuses especially at secondary and tertiary levels. It is also pertinent that government sponsors writers? associations to institute annual essay competition in his honour. But the greatest way through which we can immortalize Achebe is by giving practical application to his works. If Nigeria becomes a better place through the influence of his works, he will be a happy man wherever he is.

http://blueprintng.com/2013/03/writers-mourn-the-fallen-iroko/
http://blueprintng.com/2013/03/writers-cant-stop-talking-about-the-colossus/




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