In Lieu of A Book Review
Oseloka Obaze*
Friday 8 February 2008
Ihe Aghasaa – Things Fall Apart
Towards the close of 2007, Chief Chike Momah, a dear friend and classmate of Chinua Achebe and I, teamed up to write a salutary piece on Chinua Achebe and herald the Golden Jubilee anniversary of Things Fall Apart. (See www.kwenu.com, www.nigeriavillagesquare.com, and www.hollerafrica.com). On Tuesday 12 February 2008, Anchor Books will join the fray of celebrating Achebe’s accomplishments, with the formal release of the 50th Anniversary Edition of the book. This is as it should be; giving honor to whom it is due.
From all indications, celebrating Chinua Achebe and Things Fall Apart is going to be an all-year event in Nigeria, Achebe’s homeland, in the United States and in the United Kingdom, where the book was first published in 1958. In addition, on 26 February 2008, at the Town Hall in New York City, Achebe enthusiasts will gather in tribute at an event titled, “A Tribute to Chinua Achebe with Toni Morrison”.
Similarly, the Free Library of Philadelphia plans to hold an event is on 28 March in honor of the esteemed author and his book. Later in the year, the University of London’s School of Advanced Study, Institute of English Studies plans a two-day symposium, titled “Things Fall Apart, 1958-2008”. Indeed, it is envisaged that international events honoring Chinua Achebe and marking the 50th Anniversary of his groundbreaking tome, will hold in as many as twenty countries in the course of 2008.
As part of the tribute, Princeton University has designated the book for a reading event on 26h March, under the theme, “to unite the community through this extraordinary work of literature.” From 8-9 August, the Nigerian Diaspora in the United States will gather in Houston, Texas, in an event organized by USAAFRICA magazine to honor Achebe and fifty years of Things Fall Apart.
By
way of tribute also, the Writing Centre, Central State University Wilberforce,
Ohio, plans to publish a compendium of critical assessments of Things Fall
Apart by various authors and scholars. The various submissions will delve
into Things Fall Apart in the context of “Discourse and theory, Diaspora
and alienation, race and globalization, gender and sexuality, and minority,
Environment and the animal, Language and linguistics, Influences and
historicism, Art and visual culture, Culture and hospitality, Communication and
Comparison, Space and Science.”
Back in Nigeria – Achebe’s native land -- plans are already afoot for a more engrossing celebration of the man, whom many consider a legend in his lifetime and his works. Spearheading the celebratory events is the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), which also plan a two-day affair, with activities featuring plenary sessions on the theme of the celebration by foreign and local scholars and dramatic enactments of Achebe’s novels on stage.
Perhaps, what will turn out to be the singular and most critical event in honoring Things Fall Apart –besides the possibility of Chinua Achebe wining the 2008 Noble Prize for literature- is the publication of the book in Igbo, Chinua Achebe’s and Okonkwo’s native language. The translation is long overdue, and therefore, a most welcomed development. The publication should happen before the end of the first quarter of 2008.
Mr. Izuu Nwankwo of the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Akwa, Nigeria is undertaking the translation, titled, Ihe Aghasa, which literally means, Things Fall Apart. The translation, which reportedly has Achebe’s blessing, has been in the works for the past four years. The Igbo version, which will increase the more than fifty foreign languages into which Things Fall Apart has been translated, will be available by the end of March, according to a recent press interview by Mr. Nwankwo.
It has been a half century since its publication, but commendations and tributes for Things Fall Apart -“Africa’s best loved-novel” continue to flow without ebbing, is if it were a bestseller that has just hit the bookstand. Such staying power, speaks to storytelling acumen, supremacy and command of language that only a talented writer like Chinua Achebe could muster.
We at the Kwenu.com Book Review Forum, join the international community in doffing our hats to a great literary icon of our time. Professor Chinua Achebe, we salute you! As the Igbo salutation goes, Chinua Achebe, anwuchula!
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Mr. Oseloka Obaze, an aspiring writer, is a founding member of the Kwenu.com Book Review Forum, which is dedicated to the promotion of books with Igbo and Afrocentric themes. He is also a supporting Member of the African Writers Endowment (AWE). From 1999 to 2005, he served on the editorial board of INYEAKA, the journal of Songhai Charities, Inc., a New Jersey community-based charity founded and run by Nigerians based in New York Tri-state area in the United States, first as its founding Publisher and later as the Editor-At-Large. He is also on the editorial board of The Amaka Gazette, the journal of the Christ the King College, Onitsha Alumni Association in America. His collection of poems, “Regarscent Past: A Collection of Poems” was second among the top three finalists in the poetry category in the African Writers Endowment Publishing Grant Program for 2004. His novel, “Happy Eulogy” will be published soon. He reviews books and arts strictly as a hobby. © Copyright 8 February 2008.