The Obi of Onitsha, Nnemeka Achebe, yesterday praised Chinua Achebe's novel, Things Fall Apart, as a book which not only consolidated the foundations of Anglophone African literature, but opened a new page in the study of African peoples and culture.

He said that Things Fall Apart continues to appeal to people of various generations and backgrounds, both as pleasurable reading and a cleverly woven tapestry of history, anthropology and creative writing.

He spoke at the formal presentation of Chinua Achebe's classic novel, Things Fall Apart Illustrated, as part of activities for the 50 years anniversary of the great novel

According to Igwe Achebe, "every novelist is fortunate enough to receive the kind of attention Achebe and his maiden novel have. The celebrations that greeted the novels golden jubilee in 2008, were well deserved for a highly original and imaginative author and his path finding work.

"The relevance of this novel is, however, not located in the past as the message remains significant in the present, where colonisation lives on in many guises."

Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, who spoke at the accasion, said "Professor Achebe's book, written some years during the colonial time has come to pass, as today things have fallen apart all around us by new colonial forces, who wear the same skin as us". He added that "the experience today is that we are being internally colonised by our people".