Why we, at WEN, declared June 17th Prof. Chinua Achebe Day
WEN believes that to strengthen our communities on the basis of reinforcing enduring and noble principles, philosophies, and practices (3Ps) of our African ancestors and appreciating the good aspects of all heritages, Prof. Achebe’s “Things Fall Apart” will be one of the gateways into inquiry and education about our identity and our future.
WEN believes that to strengthen our communities on the basis of reinforcing enduring and noble principles, philosophies, and practices (3Ps) of our African ancestors and appreciating the good aspects of all heritages, Prof. Achebe’s “Things Fall Apart” will be one of the gateways into inquiry and education about our identity and our future.
- Prof. Achebe’s first novel, “Things Fall Apart”, “one of the first African books written in English to receive worldwide acclaim and considered to be the book that launched the modern canon of African literature, compelled African scholars to begin repossessing and taking sovereignty over their own history.
- In “Things Fall Apart”, Prof. Achebe painstakingly presented the intricacies of the African society from the pre-colonial times to the introduction of colonialism and Christianity in Africa (Igbo land), critically analyzing the dynamics of African history, searching for trends in the past, and categorizing and explaining events. According to an Amazon critic, as luck would have it, “THINGS FALL APART is the most illuminating and permanent monument we have to the modern African experience …”
- Prof. Achebe’s book, “Things Fall Apart” sold over 80 million copies, has been translated into 50 languages, and is widely read and studied in schools globally.
- Prof. Achebe received over 40 honorary degrees from universities as well as many awards, such as the Commonwealth Poetry Prize, an Honorary Fellowship of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Nigerian National Order of Merit (Nigeria’s highest honor for academic work), Italy’s prestigious International Nonino Prize, the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, one of the largest and most prestigious awards in the arts, and the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize. Also, he won the prestigious Man Booker International Prize and received the National Art Club’s Medal of Honor for Literature.
- Prof. Achebe lent a voice to a generation of Africans who refused to be defined solely through the lenses of European thought.
- Prof. Achebe, has no doubt, contributed to the awakening of the African consciousness of students and scholars alike, through his literature “Things Fall Apart”. Much like the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC), Prof. Achebe’s “Things Fall Apart”, should provide in every African descendant, a window into the inquiry and understanding of the African 3Ps.
