The Interdisciplinary Studies Institute (ISI) of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, United States of America (U.S.A.) is ready to host a symposium on the iconic writer, Chinua Achebe. To hold under the theme ‘Chinua Achebe and Africa in the Global Imagination’, it will take place on October 14 and 15, the organisers have said.
Devoted to the impact of Achebe’s 1975 epic lecture at the University of Massachusetts and its continuing legacy, the event is to mark the 40th anniversary of the said lecture, as well as the 40th anniversary of the Distinguished Faculty Lecture Series at the institution.
“In this, our aim is twofold: first, to commemorate the event itself, and its significance; and second, to bring the discussion into the present by re-considering both Achebe’s importance and the shape of things today in terms of the issues he raised,” said a statement from ISI.
Panellists and speakers include NoViolet Bulawayo, Johnnetta Cole, Achille Mbembe, Maaza Mengiste, Okey Ndibe, Caryl Phillips, Michael Thelwell, Esther Terry and Chika Unigwe.
On February 18, 1975, Achebe presented a Chancellor’s Lecture at the University of Massachusetts titled ‘An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness’. The lecture was subsequently published in the Massachusetts Review, and since then, it has become celebrated and iconic: a remarkable moment both in literary criticism and in a broader cultural assessment of how Africa has been perceived and represented in the Western world.
In making his case, Achebe challenged the entire framework in which works of art would be judged and in which the discussion of Africa would be sustained.