In 1975 at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, United States of America (U.S.A.), Chinua Achebe gave a seminal lecture titled ‘An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness’, becoming the first to tackle racism in Joseph Conrad’s famous novel.
Forty years after the historic event, scholars, students, intellectuals and writers from around the world will gather at Amherst to examine the impact of Achebe’s essay on the global imagination.
Convened under the theme, ‘Forty Years After: Chinua Achebe and Africa in the Global Imagination’, it is to take place on October 14 and 15, and is put together by the institution.
The opening day will recreate the intellectual ambiance and reception of the speech of the distinguished professor here in Amherst four decades years ago.
The effect of Professor Achebe’s delivery in and upon the context of the state of the literary and political vocabulary dominant in Western intellectual circles at the time will be clearly outlined, said the programme released by the organisers.
The second day, the organisers stated, will invite contemporary discussion by writers of another generation on the state of the literary/cultural discourse between Africa and the West as it exists today. The purpose of the second day will be to try to evaluate any progress or evolution in the quality of cultural discourse between the West and the rest of us and the long term effect of the speech therein.
Heart of Darkness, a short work of fiction, was published in 1899 and was often read, discussed, criticised in literature programmes throughout the world under a variety of topics. But until Achebe’s lecture, no one had thought to examine the issue of race.
Achebe’s lecture has since become the cornerstone of writing and criticism of Heart of Darkness.
The lecture given at the University of Massachusetts in early 1975 was published as an essay in The Massachusetts Review, and later republished in Heart of Darkness (Norton Critical Editions). Achebe’s main theme within the essay is the need in Western psychology to set up Africa as a foil to Europe. Within the context of this theme, he goes on to criticise what he considers a work of permanent literature, Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. He discusses how, within the context of the work, we can see that Conrad was nothing more than a racist, the organisers stated.
Achebe died on March 21 at age 82, in Boston, Massachusetts, and was buried on Thursday, May 23, in Ogidi, Anambra State after an elaborate funeral that started in the U.S. moved to Abuja, Enugu and Awka. He may have been away in America, but Achebe was never absent as he was always the first to interrogate a policy by the government in power or raise his voice in support of the Nigerian people. Even if his voice did not say a word, his countless writings on the country spoke volumes and his actions too, such as refusing the coveted national honour at two different times.
Born Albert Chinualumogu Achebe to Isaiah Okafo, an evangelist, and Janet Achebe on November 16, 1930 in Ogidi, eastern Nigeria, Achebe attended the University of Ibadan (then University College from 1948 to 1953). Before then, he attended Government College in Umuahia from 1944 to 1947. He was to obtain a Bachelor of Arts from London University in 1953. He studied broadcasting at the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in London in 1956. Achebe joined the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) and was director of external broadcasting until 1966.
In 1958, he tasted fame with the publishing of his groundbreaking novel, Things Fall Apart, which won him many awards, including the Man Booker Prize. Based on the conflict between African tradition and the new ways introduced by the colonialists, Things Fall Apart went on to sell more than 12 million copies and has been translated into more than 50 languages. The book, among other books by the writer, is a prescribed text for study not only in Nigerian schools at all levels but also in many countries of the world.
Achebe received numerous honours, such as Honorary Fellowship of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, and several honorary doctorates during his lifetime. His Nigerian National Merit Award (NNMA) signifies high intellectual achievement that has shaped the culture of Nigeria.
Before his demise, Achebe served as the David and Marianna Fisher University professor and professor of Africana Studies at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, U.S.
On September 10, 1961, Achebe married Christie Chinwe Okoli, together they have four children. His most memorable works were written in the 1960s. They include: No Longer at Ease (1960), The Sacrificial Egg and Other Stories (1962), Arrow of God (1964), A Man of the People (1966) and Chike and the River (1966). All of them continued to address the issue of traditional ways of life coming into conflict with the new colonial point of view.
In 1967, Achebe and the renowned poet, Christopher Okigbo, co-founded a publishing company, Citadel Press, with the intent to run it as an outlet for a new kind of African-oriented children’s books. Okigbo was soon killed, however, in the Nigerian civil war. Achebe’s experience in that war can be gleaned in the very controversial There Was a Country.
With fellow writers, Gabriel Okara and Cyprian Ekwensi, Achebe toured the U.S. in 1969 giving lectures at various universities. When he returned to Nigeria, Achebe became a research fellow and later a professor of English (197681) at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN). During this time, he also served as director of two Nigerian publishing houses, Heinemann Educational Books Limited and Nwankwo-Ifejika Limited.
The 1970s were like the 1960s for his writing, productive as Achebe published several collections of short stories, a children’s book: How the Leopard Got His Claws (1973) and the poetry collections, Beware, Soul-Brother (1971), and Christmas in Biafra (1973). His first book of essays, Morning Yet on Creation Day was released in 1975. Achebe joined the faculty at the University of Connecticut the same year, returning to UNN in 1976.
His Anthills of the Savannah was published in 1987 and shortlisted for the Booker McConnell Prize, while Hopes and Impediments was published the next year.
The 1990s began with tragedy: Achebe was in a car accident in Nigeria that left him paralysed from the waist down and would confine him to a wheelchair for the rest of his life. Soon after, he moved to the U.S. and taught at Bard College, just north of New York City, where he remained for 15 years. In 2009, Achebe left Bard to join the faculty of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, serving as professor of Africana Studies as well as the David and Marianna Fisher University professor.
He won several awards over the course of his writing career, including the Man Booker International Prize (2007) and the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize (2010), receiving honorary degrees from more than 30 universities around the world.
As a true Igbo man of means, Achebe took two traditional chieftaincy titles: Ugo bere nelu oji (eagle perching on iroko) and Ugo na Ogidi (eagle in Ogidi). The two are referred to as Ugonabo (a red cap chief with two eagle feathers). He was also conferred with other chieftaincy titles from Igbo land such as: Dike na mmuta Ndigbo (Strongman in learning of Igboland), Eze Akuko Ndigbo (King storyteller of Igboland) and Odeakwukwo mahadum Ndigbo (University writer of Igboland).
