Uduma Kalu
30 November 2008
Achebe returns January for Ahajioku LectureTHINGS Fall Apart maybe about the collapse of pre-colonial Igbo but for the people today, the book offers a moment of reflection. And what better moment than now that the book is 50 years. To mark this event, the Igbo in Nigeria have devoted three months November to January for soul searching, using the novel as a guide. Taking place across the seven states they dominate Abia, Anambra, Delta, Ebonyi, Enugu, Imo and Rivers, the event will also be used by the people to commemorate the golden jubilee of Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart.
Achebe's universally celebrated novel, Things Fall Apart, was published in 1958. With this event, modern African Literature was born.
In a Press conference in Lagos, Prof. Uzodinma Nwala, president of the first Festival on Igbo Civilisation, said the Igbo, under the aegis of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, South-East Council of Traditional Rulers, Aka Ikenga, Ndigbo Lagos, WHELAN Academy, Izu Umunna, CIDJAB, Igbo Stuidies Association, USA, and CODES, have decided to be part of the celebration.
The conference was attended by scholars such as Dr. Chidi Osuagwu of the Federal University of Technology, Mr. Pascal Dozie, who is chairman of the honorary members, Chief Nwofili Adibuah, Dr. S. O. Ebigwei of Aka Ikenga, Navy Capt Jerry Ogbonna, (rtd), Msgr Theo Okere, Mr. Kalu Onuma, among others.
For the Igbo groups, however, the celebration offers the people "whose ancient civilisation forms the background of the plot of Things Fall Apart, and whose world has taken a most tragic state in contemporary times, is being challenged to search for the meaning of Things Fall Apart in their history and their situation in the world today. For us as citizens of the Igbo nation, therefore, Things Fall Apart is not a mere literary subject.
It is an eloquent testimony of the intricacies of' pre-colonial classical Igbo culture and civilisation, as well as the effects of colonization on traditional Igbo society, presented to the world as a paradigm of ancient African culture and civilisation. This is why, though the impact of Things Fall Apart in African and world literature is inestimable, its fruits are found in other spheres of intellectual activity, namely, philosophy, art, sociology, politics, religion and even science. The novel touches on these various spheres of ancient Igbo culture and civilisation."
To the Ndigbo, Nwala said, it is therefore, not tangential to celebrate Things Fall Apart only as an historical literary episode. "Its full import becomes obvious if we treat the great novel as a mirror and window that bring us into a fuller glare of our past, and roots, our predicament and our civilisation.
This 50th anniversary of Things Fall Apart, therefore, offers us an opportunity to examine our past, our present predicament and our future. Nobody has greater need to do this than the Igbo nation, for whom so much has tragically fallen apart, not only as a result of the incursion of colonialism, but more painfully, since the amalgamation of the nation into the Nigerian Federation in 1914," he told the audience.
The golden jubilee celebration of Things Fall Apart is a year of soul-searching for Ndigbo. Nwala said it offers "us great moment of festival.
This is why 2008 is year of soul-searching, a year of refocusing on the totality of the Igbo life and history, namely, Igbo civilisation. Hence, the theme of the festival is 2008 Festival on Igbo Civilisation. To say the festival is also a moment for the Igbo nation to join the world to honour Chinua Achebe, her son, is to state the obvious, for no honour is too much for this world-celebrated icon."
Nwala, therefore, rolled out activities to mark the festival designed to complement each other as moments of this soul-searching. The conferences, he said, will take the nature of retreats, moments of soul-searching on the place and role of the various social institutions and organisations in Igboland on the future of the Igbo nation.
At the same time, each conference/retreat is for reflection and proposing some broad agenda for the advancement of the cause of Igbo civilisation. The outcomes of the various retreats/conferences are to be published and given the widest popular dissemination throughout Igboland and Igbo diaspora:
Retreat(s)
ii. Art and film festival.
iii. International conference on Igbo civilisation
iv. Rally/cultural display.
v. Retreat/conference of youths in Igboland/secondary school programme.
vi. Retreat/conference of women in Igboland.
vii. Retreat/conference of religious leaders in Igboland/day of national prayer and worship.
viii. Retreat/conference of traditional and cultural leaders in Igboland
ix. Retreat/conference of Igbo lawyers and legislators.
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