BREAKING NEWS: Chinua Achebe Dies!

The great novelist, Professor Chinua Achebe is dead, so we learnt.

The writer of Things Fall Apart, finally 'fell' apart as he gave his last breath last night in a hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. May his gentle soul rest in peace.

So while I was celebrating yesterday, this famous author and playwright was breathing his last. I thought it was a lie till I saw Dennis Itumbi and Vinie O tweet about it and my doubtful self had to admit there could be a semblance of truth there. I hope none of you will ask me who Chinua Achebe is, for me apart from Chimamanda and Wole Soyinka, I will not lie, I do not currently recall any other West African writer that have had an impact on my reading habits like these three.

I first got introduced to Chinua Achebe, surprisingly through watching things fall apart on telly. The only thing I was good at as a toddler was humming songs. The show used to give me nightmares, just like Escrava Isaura, remember that one? I read Chinua Achebe from class five onwards because really, compositions had to be passed, it was 844 was it not? Okwonkwo was however a name I have never forgotten.

The book that made me appreciate his literary prowess funnily enough was A man of the people. It was the first time I was introduced to pidgin before Afro cinema was all the rage in Nairobi. At first I loathed the book, it was dead boring my ignorant self thought. When however I decided to read about Nigerian culture, and juxtapose the themes brought to the fore in it against Kenya, I began to appreciate just how timely that book was although it had been penned in 1966.

His wikipedia bio which was already updated reads "Chinua Achebe (born Albert Chínụ̀álụmọ̀gụ̀ Àchèbé, 16 November 1930 – 21 March 2013) is a Nigerian  novelist, poet, professor, and critic. He is best known for his first novel and magnum opus, Things Fall Apart (1958), which is the most widely read book in modern African literature." What a stalwart.

"Raised by his parents in the Igbo town of Ogidi in southeastern Nigeria, Achebe excelled at school and won a scholarship for undergraduate studies. He became fascinated with world religions and traditional African cultures, and began writing stories as a university student. After graduation, he worked for the Nigerian Broadcasting Service (NBS) and soon moved to the metropolis of Lagos. He gained worldwide attention for Things Fall Apart in the late 1950s; his later novels include No Longer at Ease (1960), Arrow of God (1964), A Man of the People (1966), and Anthills of the Savannah (1987). Achebe writes his novels in English and has defended the use of English, a "language of colonisers", in African literature. In 1975, his lecture An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" became the focus of controversy, for its criticism of Joseph Conrad as "a bloody racist" and was later published."

Information was pretty scanty, but what I could gather was that he passed away in the States undergoing treatment. This is the man whose books have been read by almost every Kenyan above the age of twenty five who went through the Kenyan school system. He died exactly twenty three years after his life altering accident, that left him paralysed on March 22nd 1990. May he rest in peace. Read more about him here.

We have lost a repository of knowledge, this is one of those situations where the 'library' was burned to smouldering ashes like the old adage goes.