Daily Independent (Lagos)
Emma Maduabuchi
11 September 2009
analysis
Lagos — Professor Catherine Acholonu, the enigmatic scholar, has won two prominent awards with her myth-shattering book: They Lived Before Adam. The prolific writer and researcher won the awards during this year's Harlem Book Fair held in the USA, and was one of the foremost writers celebrated at the event.
The first of the awards was the Philip Wheatley Awards for literary works that transcend culture, boundary and perception. The award is described as the highest book award at the Harlem Book Fair. Her 536-page book, reported to have handbooks in Igbo and English, is one to which two other people - Eddy Olumba and an Indian, Ajay Prabhakar - made worthy contributions.
The second award was the Flora Nwapa Award for Literary Excellence.
Max Rodriguez, Director of the Harlem Book Fair, had this to say concerning Acholonu and her award-winning book: "As groundbreaking as Ivan Sertima's They Came Before Columbus, Acholonu's They Lived Before Adam, is pushing the limits of accepted human history and has the potential to re-define the parameters of knowledge."
The book is an intriguing work which argues that the Ndigbo and most people of the eastern region of the country lived in their present location during the prehistoric period before Adam - at least, 1, 600, 000 years before the advent of modern man.
Before this iconic book, which is garnering awards and rave reviews, she had written 15 others including: The Home of Olaudah Equiano; Mother Was A Great Man; Linguistic Processes of Lexical Innovation in Igbo, written with Joyce Penfield; and others.
Acholonu is a founding member, Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), and currently the country's Ambassador to the United Nations for Arts and Culture.
Born on October 26, 1951 in Orlu, Imo State, she attended secondary school in Orlu. She taught at the Alvan Ikoku College of Education, Owerri, before proceeding to Dusseldorf, Germany to obtain her Master's degree and Ph.D.
The prolific writer has to her credit, apart from numerous books, poems and articles, and is also a researcher and former lecturer on African Culture. Many of her works have enjoyed the collaboration and support of the United States Information Service (USIS). Also she has been recognised extensively by African Studies departments in America and Europe.
In 1990, she was honoured with the Fulbright Scholar-In-Residence award by the US government, during which she lectured at four colleges for international studies.
Rejoicing with her was Denja Abdulahi, General Secretary of ANA, who saw her feat as a welcome development, describing her as a renowned scholar in African literature, African history and tge arts. He said she was one influential writer who has blazed enviable trails for younger writers to follow.
Abdullahi noted however that "winning awards at this point in her career is not something many writers would rejoice about, because it is nothing new. She has been winning awards repeatedly in her career."
Acholonu is a recognised personality worldwide. She has made the list of the International Who's Who of World Leadership, USA; African Women Writers' Who's Who; Top 500 Women in Nigeria; Who's Who in Nigeria; and the International Authors and Writers Who's Who, published in Cambridge, UK.
She served as Special Adviser to President Olusegun Obasanjo (a position she held from 1999-2002), but resigned to seek elective office, believing with many other writers that her inclusion would make a difference. But she lost, which caused her to lament the blatant irregularities and rigging that have chacterised Nigerian elections in recent times.
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