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Tag: Chinua Achebe

  • Anambra Information Commissioner receives 2021 Chinua Achebe Award for Intellectual Productivity

    Anambra Information Commissioner receives 2021 Chinua Achebe Award for Intellectual Productivity

    The Anambra State Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, C. Don Adinuba, has received the annual Chinua Achebe Award for Intellectual Productivity for 2021 of the Institute of African Studies of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Enugu State.

     

     

     

    The award was given at the Chinua Achebe International Conference held from March 9 to March 11 at Princess Alexandria Auditorium in honour of Africa’s foremost novelist, eassayist and social critic whose books have been translated into several languages and sold in millions.

     

     

     

    After retiring from the University of Nigeria as a professor of literature in the early 1980s, Achebe returned to the Institute of African Studies at the same university as Emeritus Professor and editor of Okike, The African Journal of New Writing which he founded in 1971.

     

     

     

    “It is a great privilege to be honoured in memory of such a great man”, said the commissioner after being presented with the award by Professor Romanus Ezeokonkwo, the representative of member of the university’s senate and a member of the governing council who is also the director of the Centre for Entrepreneurship and Development Research.

     

     

     

    “Achebe was by every standard in the world a towering figure, yet he treated my great friend and brother, Okey Ndibe, and myself as though we were equal when we were in our 20s in the 1980s and we enjoyed his confidence. He not just inspired us but guided us well. Therefore, I am quite emotional to receive this award endowed in his memory”.

     

     

     

    The theme of the conference was “Reevaluation of African Values in the Face of the Crisis of the 21st Century”.

     

     

     

    Delivering a research paper entitled “Towards a More Robust Appreciation of Cultural Values and their Correlation with Organizational Growth and National Development: A Paradigm Shift for Nigerian Higher Institutions, Adinuba called on both the National Universities Commission (NUC) and Nigerian universities to embrace the relatively new approach to cultural studies by world-class universities like Harvard in the United States which link organizational cultural values to superior organizational performance and rapid national and regional development.

     

     

     

    “Certain values impede economic progress and while some others encourage progress”, he argued, citing the example of southern Italy which remains undeveloped because of the social values which protect and promote criminal organizations like the mafia while northern Italy is developed like the rest of western Europe because of the absence of such organizations.

     

     

     

    The commissioner referred to India as an example of a country held down for 3,000 years by its caste system which is etched in the dominant Hindu religion, saying it prevented millions of so-called untouchables from realizing their economic potential.

     

     

     

    Such great Indian entrepreneurs as Jamsetji Tata who were originally victims of the caste system were able to escape wretchedness because they lived outside India and on returning home changed to Budhism which recognized their full humanity.

     

     

     

    “Deeply religious societies are not as economically competitive as more secular ones”, he said.

     

     

     

    Adinuba asked Nigerian institutions to study differences in cultural values in countries, including African nations, to prepare their students for the “realities of today’s globalized world”.

     

     

     

    He revealed that the United Bank of Africa (UBA) subsidiary in Ghana was almost closed down by the Ghanaian authorities when it was opened newly because the Nigerian managers ordered the local employees to work beyond 4pm, as is the practice in Nigeria.

     

    Nigeria, he noted, has a “life-work balance different from Ghana where the people are laid back”.

     

     

     

    He also revealed that Nigerian businesses internationalizing into francophone Africa had difficulties with the local employees who insist on closing at midday for two hours to have siesta, as is the case in most French-speaking countries.

     

    “There are other cultural challenges which Nigerian students should be exposed to in the age of globalization.

     

     

     

    “This is a more rewarding enterprise than to limit cultural studies in the higher institutions to African dances, African literature, African fashion, African drama, African architecture, African music, etc”.

     

     

  • 4th Chinua Achebe international conference holds Tuesday

    4th Chinua Achebe international conference holds Tuesday

    The Anambra State Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, C. Don Adinuba is one of the research paper presenters at the 4th Chinua Achebe International Memorial Conference at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), Enugu State.

    The conference will start on Tuesday, March 9, 2021, and end on Thursday, March 11, on the theme “Reevaluation of African Values in the face of the Crisis of the 21st Century”.

    The conference is organized by the Institute of African Studies of the University of Nigeria in conjunction with the Centre for Black and African Arts and Civilization (CBAAC), Lagos, according to the institute’s director, Professor Florence Orabueze.

    The Anambra Information and Public Enlightenment Commissioner will speak on “Towards a More Robust Appreciation of Cultural Values and their Correlation with Organizational Growth and National Development: a paradigm shift for Nigerian higher Instititions”, where he will examine how Nigeria’s social values affect economic progress in the nation.

    “Adinuba has over the decades developed an acute intellectual interest in comparative cultural values and how they drive or impede rapid economic development”, said Uzordimma Nzeribe of the Anambra State Ministry of Information and Public Enlightenment.

    “Known for the interdisciplinary approach to analysis of social issues, the commissioner will lace his paper with insights from political science, history, development studies and international management”.

    Adinuba is one of the select social scientists invited across the globe two years ago to contribute to the second edition of the Global Encyclopaedia of Public Administration, Public Policy and Leadership”.

    The annual Chinua Achebe International Conference is held annually in honour of Chinua Achebe, Africa’s greatest novelist and raconteur, who was at the University of Nigeria as Emeritus Professor after serving as Director of the Institute of African Studies where he in 1971 started the highly influential Okike: The African Journal of New Writing.

  • Obama visits Africa, recommends Achebe, Chimamanda’s books for summer read

    Obama visits Africa, recommends Achebe, Chimamanda’s books for summer read

    Former U.S. President, Barack Obama, has recommended Chinua Achebe’s “Things Fall Apart” and Chimamanda Adichie’s “Americanah” among six books for the 2018 Summer reading list.

    Obama took to his Twitter handle to announce the six all-African authored books ahead of his first visit to Africa since leaving office on Jan. 20, 2017.

    The visit would take him to Kenya and South Africa.

    Obama wrote: “Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe is a true classic of world literature.

    “This novel paints a picture of traditional society wrestling with the arrival of foreign influence, from Christian missionaries to British colonialism.

    “A masterpiece that has inspired generations of writers in Nigeria, across Africa and around the world.

    “Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: From one of the world’s great contemporary writers comes the story of two Nigerians making their way in the U.S. and the UK, raising universal questions of race and belonging, the overseas experience for the African diaspora and the search for identity and a home’’.

    The other books suggested by the former U.S. leader included “A Grain of Wheat” by Ngugi wa Thiong’o and “Long Walk to Freedom” by Nelson Mandela.

    The first Black U.S. president born to a Kenyan father, described Africa as “a continent of wonderful diversity, thriving culture and remarkable stories’’.

    He also announced the launch of a civic leadership programme by the Obama Foundation after selecting 200 rising leaders from 44 African countries, holding on July 14 in Johannesburg, South Africa.

    “This week, I’m travelling to Africa for the first time since I left office – a continent of wonderful diversity, thriving culture, and remarkable stories.

    “I was proud to visit sub-Saharan Africa more times than any other sitting President, and I’ll return this week to visit Kenya and South Africa.

    “In South Africa, the Obama Foundation will convene 200 extraordinary young leaders from across the continent and I’ll deliver a speech to mark the 100th anniversary of Nelson Mandela’s birth.

    “Kenya, of course, is the Obama ancestral home.

    “I visited for the first time when I was in my twenties and I was profoundly influenced by my experiences – a journey I wrote about in my first book, ‘Dreams from My Father’.

    “Over the years since, I’ve often drawn inspiration from Africa’s extraordinary literary tradition.

    “As I prepare for this trip, I wanted to share a list of books that I’d recommend for summer reading, including some from a number of Africa’s best writers and thinkers – each of whom illuminate our world in powerful and unique ways,’’ the 44th U.S. president said.

  • Achebe’s ‘Things Fall Apart’ listed among 12 ‘Greatest Books Ever Written’

    Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart has made the list of 12 “Greatest Books Ever Written” put together by Encyclopedia Britannica.

     

    Encyclopedia Britannica says the book which now exists in 57 translations across the world, is one of the greatest ever written novels on the website of Encyclopedia Britannica in recent times.

     

    Things Fall Apart, was the first in an African trilogy that set about establishing the validity of life in tribal Nigeria in the late 19th century, before the colonialism of Christian missionaries arrived.

     

    Other literary works that made the list include; “Anna Karenina,” by Leo Tolstoy, “To Kill a Mockingbird,” by Harper Lee, “The Great Gatsby,” by F. Scott Fitzgerald and “One Hundred Years of Solitu by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

     

    Others are “A Passage to India,” by E.M. Forster, “Invisible Man,” by Ralph Ellison, “Don Quixote,” by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, “Beloved,” by Toni Morrison, “Mrs. Dalloway,” by Virginia Woolf, “Jane Eyre,” by Charlotte Bronte and “The Color Purple,” by Alice Walker.

     

    Recall that fans of the legendary writer, Prof. Chinua Achebe, celebrated the 60th anniversary of his classical novel, Things Fall Apart back in January 2018

     

    Ten years ago, many literary folk celebrated the book when it clocked 50, at a time the legend was still alive. Amazingly, after his demise,the book is still generating fervour across the world.

     

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