Trendy Report: Five Reasons Why Chinua Achebe’s Thriving Legacy Matters

The world recently lost one of Nigeria’s most formidable and gifted writer who helped shape and mold the literary world at large. He was a product of the British invasion and he unleashed his strong inclinations by peppering his work with a slew of culturally vibrant tales dramatically formatted to echo the tragic and heroic nuances commonly found in the works of William Shakespeare.

Chinua Achebe passed away on March 23, 2013 at the age of 82 after being hospitalized for an undisclosed illness. This was definitely an instance when Twitter served as the appropriate portal to help celebrate a world-renowned scribe who helped propel African literature in a way that broke all barriers and held absorbent minds spellbound and hungry for more. His enduring fans paid tribute and acknowledged Achebe’s influence in the formation of imaginative drive and global inquisitiveness.

Here are five reasons why Chinua Achebe is regarded as the “grandfather of African literature” and an iconic figure with a legacy that is sure to stand the test of time.

1 – He hit is stride with intrinsic masterpieces like Things Fall Apart, No Longer at Ease, Arrow of God and A Man of the People, each of them illustrated the irreversible effects of British colonialism in the Eastern part of Nigeria including the threatening force of westernized values over the traditionally structured Igbo deity.

2 – He briefly indulged in politics when he became the acting ambassador for his war-torn tribe, who had placed all their hopes and dreams on the the newly established Biafra nation that has been formed as a solution that would finally give them the dignity they deserved. But it was searing defeat and once the Nigerian government reclaimed the embattled region, Achebe withdrew his political aspirations largely due to the overwhelming corruption plaguing the country.

3 – Among his many accomplishments, Achebe helped to initiate the Voice of Nigeria network. His main goal at the time of conception was to present a neutral voice during the very heated and chaotic period following Nigerian’s independence in 1960.

4 – Achebe was a literary scholar, who managed to garner over 30 honorary degrees from Ivy League universities all over the world, including England, United States, Scotland, Canada, and South Africa. He never won the Noble Peace Prize but he did manage to rack up impressive forms of recognition including the Commonwealth Poetry Prize, an Honorary Fellowship of the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1982, a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2002, the Nigerian National Order of Merit which is Nigeria’s highest honor for academic work and his most recent honor, the 2010 Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize.

5 – He was in love with his culture and a fierce crusader and protector of his indigenous fellow tribesmen who not only held him at great esteem but also regarded him almost as their savior. He lived a long life fueled by passion, unbridled tenacity and irrefutable brilliance. Despite the misfortune of his paralysis in a 1990 car accident, in Lagos, Nigeria, he still remained a vivaciously influential figure until his death.

To read more about this now departed statesman, click here.