Prof Chinua Achebe is Dead

EXACTLY 161 days after releasing his latest and most controversial book: There Was A Country, literary giant, Emeritus Professor Chinualumogu Achebe, yesterday, died of complications arising from old age in a hospital in Boston, United States of America, aged 82. The iconic poet, novelist and critic had been ill for some time.
Unarguably, one of the world’s most celebrated writers, the death of Achebe, the David and Mariana Fisher Professor of Literature at BrownUniversity and author of the classic novel, Things Fall Apart, threw Nigeria, the world’s largest black nation into mourning. The polity was awash with ocean of tributes to the literary Iroko yesterday.

Achebe’s remarkable journey into the creative turf began  in 1958 with the publication of  classical novel Things Fall Apart. Set in the fictional community of Umofia, the novel anthropologically explores the  Igbo life completely destroyed by the arrival of the White man, whose coming into the peaceful community created  serious socio, political and cultural conflicts. The novel, using the character of its hero, Okonkwo presented the  continent ofAfrica in its realistic portrait against the background of permittivity and uncultured painted in the narratives of Western writers.

Among those who mourned and paid glowing tributes to Acbebe yesterday were President  Goodluck Jonathan, Vice President Namadi Sambo, Senate President David Mark, Governors Peter Obi (Anambra), Liyel Imoke (Cross River), Chibuike Amechi (Rivers), Babatunde Fashola (Lagos), Kayode Fayemi (Ekiti), Sullivan Chime (Enugu), Ibikunle Amosun (Ogun), former Head of State, Gen Muhammadu Buhari (rtd), former  National Chairman of the PDP, Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo,  former Governor of Kaduna State, Alhaji Balarabe Musa, Author and Traditional Ruler, Prof Chukwuemeka Ike,  Senator Chris Ngige, former EFCC Chairman, Malam Nuhu Ribadu and MASSOB Leader, Chief Ralph Uwazurike.


late Prof Chinua Achebe