Hello Gentle Reader
The Great African Writer – the Grandfather of African Literature has passed away at the age of Eighty Two, last Friday. Chinua Achebe was away from his homeland of Nigeria when he died. He was in a Boston hospital, battling illness. Unfortunately later that day Achebe died Since the nineties, Chinua Achebe was living in America, after being paralysed in a car accident. He never forgot Nigeria though; and often admitted to missing it. His family has requested privacy in this grieving time. He was not only a beloved and inspirational writer, but also a beloved husband, father, uncle, and grandfather. In his life time, Achebe had written about the colonization of Africa, and the post colonization of Africa. Who could forget his essay in which he called Conrad and his novel “A Heart of Darkness,” a racist piece of work? It was Chinua Achebe that open Africa up to the world, and which other African writers would take after, and follow in his footsteps from Nobel Laureate and fellow Nigerian writer and playwright Wole Soyinka, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, Nuruddin Farah and so many others. Even though far from home, Achebe was well informed of the politics of his homeland and twice he refused the attempt of being named a Commander of the Federal Republic. Regardless now though, Nigeria is in mourning at the loss of a great writer; a writer who took the reins of his country and continent and discussed it with the world. It is however unfortunate that Chinua Achebe did not win the Nobel Prize for Literature. An accolade that he would share with fellow writer of Nigeria, Wole Soyinka. If anyone would have deserved it in twenty-thirteen it was Chinua Achebe. However he is a national write of Africa. He is by all means the Grandfather of all contemporary African fiction writing – a writer of national stature.
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M. Mary
