UK Nigerians to hold Colourful Farewell for Professor Chinua Achebe in London on Saturday/18/May 2013

NIGERIANS in the UK will hold a memorial service and a colourful cultural reception for Chinua Achebe on May 18 in London as part of the series of global activities earmarked to give the literary icon a fond farewell.

Professor Achebe's body will arrive in Abuja on May 12, sparking off a series of events and festivities that will continue until his final interment in Ogidi, Anambra State on May 23. Nigeria's UK diaspora community in conjunction with his family, the high commission and the wider literary world, have decided to organise their own celebration as part of this programme.

Their activities will kick off with a memorial service at All Saints Cathedral, New Cross, London which will be presided over by the Bishop of Southwark. Due to the sudden nature of the arrangement, the Archbishop of Canterbury will be unable to attend because of prior engagement but he is expected to send a representative.

Ubaka Alex Achebe, a family spokesman, said: "Apart from the Bishop of Southwark, the Bishops of Woolwich and London will also be there. There will be several cannons and vicars coming too, so we are expecting about a dozen clergymen.

"Originally, the event was to hold at Southwark Cathedral but due to the fact that the arrangements were only made last week when we got a final burial date, it was too late. Southwark Cathedral has been booked for another event but fortunately, All Saints Cathedral has offered to host the memorial service."

Ubaka continued, “After the service, guests will be treated to an evening of African culture, literature at the nearby Millwall Football Club's reception hall. There will be cultural troupes from all over Nigeria performing as well as those from Ghana, Kenya, the Caribbean and Congo, and a re-enactment of Things Fall Apart.

Dignitaries expected to attend include former Commonwealth secretary general Emeka Anyaoku as well as the Nigerian High Commissioner to the UK Dr Dalhatu Tafida, Chi Onwurah MP, Chuka Umunna MP, and the Mayor of Enfield Kate Anolue. Also expected are the Embassies representatives of Ghana, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Bangladesh and Côte d'Ivoire. The Anambra Women Group has offered to take care of catering on the day and treat guests to the best of Nigerian cuisine.

Dan Otuonye, the chair of the organising committee said: "We will print T-shirts, women's head ties and men's caps, which will be made available on the day. Igbo Youth Organisation will also entertain guests to the best of our culture."

Organisers have been split into cultural, security, publicity, catering and organising committees to ensure everything runs smoothly on the day. Several Nigerian authors and poets will also be expected to read from their books, while academics who worked with Professor Achebe will read out eulogies.

Ayo Akinfe, the chairman of the publicity committee, said: "Achebe was a global icon who cared passionately about humanity and we want this event to reflect his life. He straddled the literary, cultural, historical and humanist worlds, so it is only appropriate that any farewell we give him highlights his contributions in all these fields.

"There will be cultural troupes there to showcase how Achebe brought the attention of the world to the fact that we Africans actually have a culture and there will be literati there to highlight the fact that he was a genuine global icon. Things Fall Apart is the only African book that has sold 8m copies and been translated into 50 different languages, making it the most read novel from the continent."

Organisers are in the process of raising funds for the event and are calling for donations from members of the public. A bank account has been opened with Natwest to which donors can make contributions.

Its account number is 80122914 and its sort code is 602327. It has an account name of A Achebe and donors are being advised to reference their payments: Chinua Achebe UK Burial Committee.

A website has also been created where further information will be available and a Facebook page has been opened. The website address is www.chinuaachebememorialuk.com.

Over the coming weeks, publicity for the event will be stepped up and a series of meetings will be held with the High Commission and the Central Association for Nigerians in the UK. Organisers are expecting at least 700 guests on the day.

Organising committee

Sir Dan Otuonye - Chair

Zona Onubogu

Mike Merenini

Mike Udeogba

Ichie Aaron Muorah

Cultural committee

Ifeanyi Okongwu - Chair

Okechukwu Nwajagu

Security committee

Ken Tabansi

Catering committee

Susan Obi Smith

Publicity committee

Ayo Akinfe - Chair

Nnamdi Kanu

Edwin Ajoku

Ezennaya Chiekezi

Professor Osita Okagbue

SOURCE: Nigerian Watch

Prof Chinua Achebe, a literary icon, world renowned author & teacher, passed on

Chinua Achebe

Acclaimed novelist and poet - Chinua Achebe, who first made his mark with the 1958 novel Things Fall Apart, has died aged 82.

He died last night at a hospital in Boston, Massachusetts of an undisclosed ailment.

Up till his death, Achebe worked as Professor of African Studies at Brown University and was the David and Marianna University Professor.

Achebe was born in Ogidi, Anambra State, on November 16, 1930. At the age of 12 he moved several kilometres away from his family to Nekede to attend the Central School there before attending Government College Umuahia for his secondary school education.

He was one of the first students to attend the University College, now University of Ibadan in 1948. Having first opted to study medicine he switched to English, history and theology after his first year.

After winning his degree Achebe taught at Ibadan before joining the Nigeria Broadcasting Service in 1954.
His 1958 novel: Things Fall Apart, set amid 1890s Nigeria and the influx of Christian missionaries, is renowned the world over, has been translated into 50 languages and has sold more than 10 million copies.
The novel takes its title from WB Yeats's 1919 poem "The Second Coming": "Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world…”

During the country's Civil War (1967 -1970),  Achebe joined the Biafran Government as an Ambassador. He wrote about his experiences in his last book, There Was A Country.

Achebe's other novels include Arrow of God (1964); A Man of the People (1966) and Anthills of the Savannah (1987). He has also published four children's books (including Chike and the River and How the Leopard Got His Claws), short stories and poetry in English and Igbo.

His 1975 lecture An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's 'Heart of Darkness' is still available in paperback from Penguin Classics. In it, he says that "Joseph Conrad was a thoroughgoing racist" and points out that there are only six words spoken by Africans in the whole of Heart of Darkness.
Nelson Mandela called him "the writer in whose company the prison walls came down", and credited him as the author who "brought Africa to the rest of the world"

In 2007, Achebe won the Man Booker International Prize for his “overall contribution to fiction on the world stage”.

He met his wife Christie Okoli while in Lagos and the couple married in 1961 going on to have four children.