Sunday, April 13, 2014

New Africa Book of the Day - 13 April 2014

Chinua Achebe (1930-2013): A Tribute edited by Anthonia Kalu, Simon Lewis, and Ernest Emenyonu

Release Date: April 2, 2014 (Kindle edition)
Publisher: African Literature Association

In these entries, Professor Achebe’s generous spirit shines like a guiding spirit: warm, urging, steadying. This is a tribute to a well-respected teacher, colleague and friend. Here, members of the African Literature Association confirm how Professor Achebe’s life and works inspired and encouraged them personally and professionally to look for and find a new way for Africa and Africans. About Achebe’s enduring influence in African literature, Bernth Lindfors says, “Achebe’s stories have been our escort for more than half a century, and they will continue to guide us to a better understanding of African realities, past and present, in the years to come,” Hilary Chala Kowino, who would like to continue reading Things Fall Apart beyond the grave, requests that a copy of the book be placed in his casket when he dies. We the editors cannot say more than that!

Anthonia Kalu teaches literature in the Department of African and African-American Studies at Ohio State University. Simon Lewis teaches African and Third World literature in the Department of English at the College of Charleston. Literary critic Ernest Emenyonu teaches in the Department of Africana Studies at the University of Michigan-Flint.

Nigerian author and scholar Chinua Achebe was David and Marianna Fisher University Professor and Professor of Africana Studies at Brown University. His novels included Anthills of the Savanna (1987), A Man of the People (1966), Arrow of God (1964), No Longer At Ease (1960), and Things Fall Apart (1958).