A Library is Set Ablaze--Requiem for Achebe

Mrs Kalango delivered this tribute at a tribute evening organised by the Rainbow Book Club at the British Council office, Port Harcourt, in honour of Professor Chinua Achebe on Friday 26th April.

I believe it was Amadou Hampete Ba, the Malien writer, who said En Afrique, chaque vieillard qui mort, c’est une bibliotheque qui brule. I would translate this to mean ‘Every African elder that passes on is a library set ablaze’.

While the Rainbow Book Club members and friends were gathered at Le Meridien, Ogeyi Place, Port Harcourt, on 20th March 2013 to mark World Poetry Day by turning the light on a genre of literature that does not always get the attention it deserves, unknown to us, in faraway Boston Massachusetts, the light was dimming for our honourary member, the revered author, Professor Chinua Achebe.  Achebe passed away on the 21st of March 2013.

Chinua Achebe signified different things to different people. To the Rainbow Book Club, he was an invaluable ‘member’; his keynote address at our 2011 Garden City Literary Festival was his last public address in Nigeria. He is also the first author to have more than one book chosen as the Rainbow Book Club Book-of-the-Month within a space of four months.  

If I may get a bit personal, I would describe Chinua Achebe as my favourite storyteller. He has also encouraged my humble foray into poetry writing. In the late 90s, I sent in some poems to be considered for publication in Okike – An African Journal of New Writing which Prof Achebe had founded to encourage aspiring writers.  I felt validated when my poem, La Lumiere, was accepted and published in the March 1997 edition.

Like countless others, I was first introduced to Chinua Achebe as a student. It was while I was at the Federal Government Girls College Abuloma, Port Harcourt, in the 80s that I read Things Fall Apart. This powerful novel remains one of the few books I read over and over again. This book drew me to the other works of this great wordsmith whom God endowed with a rare ability to communicate serious issues in a simple but profound way.

I never imagined I would have the privilege of meeting Prof Achebe in person, but life has a way of springing surprises on us every now and then. The opportunity to presented itself in 1999 when my husband and I had just completed our post-graduate studies at the University of Lancaster and were working in London. One day, I got wind of the fact that Achebe was going to be a guest at the London Festival of Literature. I also learnt that on the same evening Wole Soyinka and Derek Walcott would be featured. Not even the caustic winter winds of that cold January evening could keep me away from the venue – a hall somewhere in East London.  I left my office in South Kensington immediately I closed so I could get a good seat at the programme. Soyinka delivered a lecture, Walcott recited his poetry and Achebe was interviewed by Alastair Niven – then Director of Literature at the British Council, London. It was on that fateful day I would meet my favourite storyteller in person. The copy of Things Fall Apart which Achebe autographed for me on that occasion remains a ‘collector’s’ item in my library. I even got to take a photograph with him!

The Rainbow Book Club’s story would be incomplete without mentioning Professor Achebe, for several reasons. For instance, when, in 2005 we were set to launch our ‘Get Nigeria Reading again!’ campaign, I sent word to Prof. Achebe through his childhood friend and Rainbow Book Club (RBC) patron, the late Senator Francis Ellah.  Although I got encouraging feedback from the Prof, he was unable to come to Port Harcourt for our programme, mainly because of ill health. He would later pen these priceless words of endorsement to us from New York : ‘The Rainbow Book Club stands to contribute immensely to Nigeria’s intellectual development and burgeoning democracy.' 

In 2008, when the world celebrated the 50th  anniversary of the publication of Things Fall Apart, reputed to be Africa’s most popular novel,  we tried once again to get Professor Achebe to be guest author at our ‘Get Nigeria Reading again!’ campaign but that was not to be. We however got the Prof’s blessing to feature him as our writer in focus, even if he would not be physically present. That year was special to our work as we kicked off our practice of getting role models to read to children by having the highly esteemed former Commonwealth Secretary-General, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, read to over 100 children at the UN House in Abuja, from Achebe’s Things Fall Apart.

Three years down the line, as we prepared for the Garden City Literary Festival 2011 with the theme Literature and Politics, we thought Achebe was the ideal person to deliver the keynote address so once again we went knocking at his door. One would think that by this time he would be fed up of our insistent calling on him and even be irritated at our persistence, but not Prof Achebe. Unable to make it to Port Harcourt, he sent his son Dr. Chidi Achebe all the way from the US, to deliver his keynote address. He even went further by sending a personal video greeting to the festival, which was played just before Dr. Achebe delivered the address. That year, our drama in focus was a stage adaptation of his book A Man of the People.  

When Prof Achebe released his latest and what has turned out to be his last work, the Rainbow Book Club followed with keen interest the debate it stirred up. There Was a Country was our natural choice for book- of- the- month for January 2013. Our January reading was one of the liveliest we have ever had.  There Was a Country remains a bestseller in Nigeria. How do we know when a book is a bestseller in Nigeria? Simple - when pirated copies are being sold by hawkers in the streets!

Referring to the proverb I quoted at the beginning, we can say that with Achebe’s demise a library has been set ablaze, but we must not let it burn to ashes. What we must do is aspire to catch the fire that burned in Achebe’s heart that caused him to relentlessly and continually speak out on issues that affected our country and our common humanity.

On our part for instance, the Rainbow Book Club continues to call for the establishment of library centres in at least every Local Government Area in Nigeria, in order to help restore the Nigeria that produced the likes of Chinua Achebe.  We can all light our candles from the embers of the flames coming from the burning library of this great man’s demise and shine from our various communities by standing up for the things Achebe fought for – dignity for the ‘black’ man, justice, good governance, exemplary leadership, etc.

Finally we can still benefit from the library that Achebe represents through the many legacies that he has left behind. These include the Heinemann African Writer’s series of which he was pioneer editor, the Association of Nigerian Authors which he founded,  Okike, the aforementioned journal  which he established, the Achebe Colloquium for Africa, set up to strengthen peace and democracy in Africa and above all, the library of books he has bequeathed to the world.

Night has come for our beloved storyteller, teacher, intellectual and fighter. A library has been set ablaze. Against the dark skies, let the light of this library glow till it is Morning Yet on Creation Day.

Koko Kalango

Founder, Rainbow Book Club