Chinua Achebe Literary Festival and Memorial Lecture for Nov. 16

By Editor

AWKA, the capital Anambra State, will be agog on Saturday, November 16, 2024, as top public figures, writers, intellectuals, literary activists, book lovers, and others gather for the 2024 edition of the Chinua Achebe Literary Festival and Memorial Lecture. Izunna Okafor, the state Coordinator of the Society of Young Nigerian Writers (Anambra State Chapter), disclosed this recently on in Awka while giving update on the association’s preparedness for the festival dedicated to the venerable cultural icon.

According to Okafor, Chinua Achebe Literary Festival and Memorial Lecture, initiated in 2016 and currently in its 9th edition, is a literary event the association annually organizes in honour and memory of Nigerian literary icon, Prof. Chinua Achebe, in celebration of his life, works and legacies. He added that this year’s event will (as usual) hold on Achebe’s birthday, November 16, 2024, at the Anambra State Library, Prof. Kenneth Dike State Central E-Library in Awka. The event starts at 9.00m prompt.

Many dignitaries and participants expected to attend include the state governor Prof. Charles Chukwuma Soludo, who will deliver the memorial lecture. He added that this year’s event will be chaired by an author and former official of the United Nations, Mr. Oseloka Obaze, who is also a former Secretary to Anambra State Government. Okafor further noted that the award-winning writer and king of Obosi, HRH Igwe Chidubem Iweka, the king of Achebe’s hometown, Ogidi, HRH Igwe Alex Uzo Onyido and the king of Umueri and ardent promoter of education Igwe Ben Emeka will grace the occasion as the royal fathers of the day.

“The event will feature the 2024 Achebe Lecture, drama, spoken word poetry, announcement of the winners of the 2024 Chinua Achebe Essay Writing Competition (for secondary schools), special reading, award presentation, among other literary packages slated for the day,” Okafor said.

Chinua Achebe

He hinted that the occasion will also feature the unveiling and presentation of the 9th Chinua Achebe Poetry/Essay Anthology, titled Echoes from the Anthills which is the association’s latest international anthology of poems and essays, published in honour and memory of Achebe ahead of the event. The annual international anthology, he explained, is one of the writers’ way of immortalizing Achebe, and contains poems, essays, and reviews from different parts of the world.

Okafor, an award-winning author and journalist, further revealed that this year’s edition of the open-to-all event, which will also mark Achebe’s 94th posthumous birthday and eleven years of his death, will equally be graced by arrays of literary icons from within and outside the country, who will be in Awka to honour the legendary author, Achebe.

Born November 16, 1930, Prof. Chinua Achebe, who hailed from Ogidi in Anambra State, was a foremost Nigerian writer, critic, and author of Things Fall Apart. He died on March 21, 2013, at the age of 82. Since 2016, Chinua Achebe Literary Festival is held on Achebe’s birthday every year till date.