Flashback... Chinua Achebe in Abuja

Chinua Achebe in Abuja, with members of the planning committee of the
Festival on Igbo Civilization in 2009. Photos by Araceli Aipoh

In January 2009, I received an invitation to attend a press conference in honour of Chinua Achebe at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel. It was in commemoration of the 50th year anniversary of his novel Things Fall Apart.

I don't know if that was the last time he was in Nigeria, but it certainly was the first after 10 years. The press conference was organised by the planning committee of the Festival on Igbo Civilization.

According to Wikipedia, Achebe moved to the United States in 1972, following an offer of professorship by the University of Massachusettes Amherst.

It means he lived outside Nigeria since then, and it means that by going to the press conference I am more lucky than the majority of Nigerians who had never had a glimpse of one of the most brilliant novelists in the world. Wole Soyinka may have won the Noble Prize, but none of Soyinka's works and none of all literary works in Nigeria can match the genius that went into the writing of TFA.