The Chinua Achebe Symposium @ Princeton
Africa World Initiative and Program in African Studies, Princeton University
The Christie and Chinua Achebe Foundation
September 29, 2023
LOCATION: Arthur Lewis Auditorium, Robertson Hall
September 30, 2023
LOCATION: McCosh 50, McCosh Hall
Symposium Advisory Committee
Dr. Ato Quayson, Stanford University
Dr. Grace Musila, University of Cape Town
Dr. Terri Ochiagha, University of Edinburgh
Dr. Chris Okonkwo, Florida State University (Chair)
Event co-sponsors: Program in African Studies . Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies . Department of African American Studies . School of Public and International Affairs . Department of Art & Archaeology . Humanities Council . Department of Comparative Literature
Program
Chika Okeke-Agulu, Director, Africa World Initiative/ Director, Program in African Studies
Christie Achebe / Christie and Chinua Achebe Foundation
Even with the staggering amount of scholarly, cultural, pedagogic, and political interest that Achebe has commanded over the years, there remains a pressing need today for new contextual, theoretical and/or critical directions in Achebe studies. What fresh, vibrant or even daring ways of conceptualizing,…
This panel aims to reflect on the conditions governing Achebe’s canonicity and their implications in the current literary landscape. What exact factors enabled Achebe’s canonicity and has/does it manifest? In what ways does it lend itself to or is undermined by reductive and exoticist circulations of Achebe’s work…
To call the past 25 years the “Age of Historical Reckonings” would be an understatement—what with the watershed Arab Spring, Occupy Wall Street, Concerned Student 1950, Black Lives Matter, Me Too, Rhodes Must Fall, End SARS protests, and continued institutional reckonings with slavery and imperialism. Grounded in…
This year 2023 marks the fortieth anniversary of the publication of Achebe’s blistering, 67-page critique The Trouble with Nigeria. Although focused on his nation, the 2023 general elections of which coincide with The Trouble with Nigeria’s print commemoration, that little book might as well…
(By Invitation Only)
The memorial celebration on September 30th will be graced by His Royal Majesty, Igwe Alex Onyido, the Monarch of Ogidi Kingdom in Nigeria, and will feature tributes by Abena Busia, Toyin Falola, Simon Gikandi, Richard Joseph, Anthonia Kalu, Sonia Sanchez, and Obiora Udechukwu; readings by Patrice Nganang and Chika Unigwe, as well as praise poetry by Udoji Achebe and Ojaadiligbo, a dance act by Dorobucci Dance Company, a solo mbira performance by Tanyaradzwa Tawengwa, and the Eme & Heteru Afro-roots Band.
Program:
Eme & Heteru Band
HRM Igwe Onyido’s remarks [Kolanut blessing/presentation]
Dorobucci African Dance Company performance
Udoji Achebe & Ojaadiligbo performance
Transition [band]
Tributes:
· Richard Joseph, Emeritus John Evans Professor of International History and Politics, Northwestern University
· Sonia Sanchez, Poet, Writer, and Professor
Transition [band]
Reading: Chika Unigwe, Professor of Creative Writing at Georgia College & State University
Transition [band]
Tributes:
· Obiora Udechukwu, Emeritus Dana Professor of Fine Arts, St. Lawrence University
· H. E. Abena P. A. Busia, Ambassador Extraordinary & Plenipotentiary of Ghana to Brazil, Professor Emerita, Rutgers University
· Simon Gikandi, Class of 1943 University Professor of English, and Chair, Department of English, Princeton University
Transition [band]
Reading: Patrice Nganang, Professor and Chair, Department of Africana Studies, State University of New York at Stony Brook.
Tributes:
· Anthonia Kalu, Professor of Comparative Literature, African Studies, University of California-Riverside
· Oseloka Obaze, Former Secretary to the Anambra State Government, Nigeria
Transition [band]
Tanyaradzwa Tawengwa -- Mbira performance
MCs: Bunmi Otegbade & Mutemwa Masheke
@ Shultz Dining Room (By Invitation Only)