Mr. Achebe, 82, died in the United States where he was said to have suffered from an undisclosed ailment.
PREMIUM TIMES learnt he died last night in a hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, United States.
A source close to the family said the professor had been ill for a
while and was hospitalised in an undisclosed hospital in Boston.
The source declined to provide further details, saying the family would issue a statement on the development later today.
Contacted, spokesperson for Brown University, where Mr. Achebe worked
until he took ill, Darlene Trewcrist, is yet to respond to our
enquiries on the professor’s condition.
Until his death, the renowned author of Things Fall Apart was the
David and Marianna Fisher University Professor and Professor of Africana
Studies at Brown.
The University described him as “known the world over for having
played a seminal role in the founding and development of African
literature.”
“Achebe’s global significance lies not only in his talent and
recognition as a writer, but also as a critical thinker and essayist who
has written extensively on questions of the role of culture in Africa
and the social and political significance of aesthetics and analysis of
the postcolonial state in Africa,” Brown University writes of the
literary icon.
Mr. Achebe was the author of Things Fall Apart, published in 1958,
and considered the most widely read book in modern African Literature.
The book sold over 12 million copies and has been translated to over 50
languages worldwide.
Many of his other novels, including Arrow of God, No Longer at Ease,
Anthills of the Savannah, and A man of the People, were equally
influential as well.
Prof Achebe was born in Ogidi, Anambra State, on November 16, 1930
and attended St Philips’ Central School at the age of six. He moved away
from his family to Nekede, four kilometres from Owerri, the capital of
Imo State, at the age of 12 and registered at the Central School there.
He attended Government College Umuahia for his secondary school
education. He was a pioneer student of the University College, now
University of Ibadan in 1948. He was first admitted to study medicine
but changed to English, history and theology after his first year.
While studying at Ibadan, Mr. Achebe began to become critical of
European literature about Africa. He eventually wrote his final papers
in the University in 1953 and emerged with a second-class degree.
Prof Achebe taught for a while after graduation before joining the Nigeria Broadcasting Service in 1954 in Lagos.
While in Lagos with the Broadcast ing Service, Mr. Achebe met
Christie Okoli, who later became his wife; they got married in 1961. The
couple had four children.
He also played a major role during the Nigeria Civil War where he joined the Biafran Government as an ambassador.
His latest book, There Was a Country, was an autobiography on his
experiences and views of the civil war. The book was probably the most
criticised of his writings especially by Nigerians, with many arguing
that the professor did not write a balanced account and wrote more as a
Biafran than as a Nigerian.
Mr. Achebe was a consistent critic of various military dictators that
ruled Nigeria and was a loud voice in denouncing the failure of
governance in the country.
Twice, he rejected offers by the Nigerian government to grant him a
national honour, citing the deplorable political situations in the
country, particularly in his home state of Anambra, as reason.
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