mandate eng

"There was a writer named Chinua Achebe, in whose company the prison walls fell down".

Nelson Mandela

    …remember also your children
    for they in their time will want
    a place for their feet when
    they come of age and the dance
    of the future is born
    for them.

from 'Beware, Soul Brother' in Chinua Achebe (2005), Collected Poems, Manchester, Carcenet Press.

In 2002, upon the occasion of the Frankfurt Book Fair, he was awarded the Peace Prize by German Publishers' Association.

Several other awards followed: Margaret Wrong (1958), Jack Campbell (1964) and the Nigerian National Trophy (1970), as well as the national Merit Prize (1987). In 2007, he received yet another accolade in recognition of his merit when he was awarded the Man Booker Prize.

The International conference held by the Faculty of Letters, Lisbon University and called Chinua Achebe: A Tribute - 50 th Anniversary of Things Fall Apart is only one of the many celebrations being organized by universities located in the USA, Canada, in several countries in Europe and in Africa. The Lisbon Conference will take place on March 6-8 2008 and is honoured to have the presence of Chinua Achebe himself, as well as his wife Dr. Christine Chinwe Achebe, his son, Dr. Ike Achebe and his daughter, Dr. Nwando Achebe. They will be kept company by specialists who are versed in his work, and who will be coming not only from various African, European and American universities but also from different Portuguese Universities.

The "Writers in Dialogue with Chinua Achebe" is one of the panels that will be composed of seven African writers. And on the last day, the high point of the Conference will centre on Chinua Achebe talking to an open audience with the press present.

Two exhibitions will be on display: one about Chinua Achebe's literary production, some work by his literary critics as well as the production of African authors in Portuguese and other languages; the other will be a small display of traditional Nigerian artwork.

It is hoped that all the papers presented at the conference as well as the tape scripts of Achebe's address and his dialogue with the writers, will be published and dedicated to the great author that Chinua Achebe is.

Conference Mandate

The Faculty of Letters, Lisbon University (FLUL) is celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the publication of Things Fall Apart by the great Nigerian author, Chinua Achebe who is now 78. It is a pretext for paying tribute to one of the most important names not only in African but also in World Literature.

At the age of 28, Chinua Achebe published his first novel, Things Fall Apart in 1958. In it he criticized the way in which Westerners wrote about Africans in European literature. Other important novels followed, such as Arrow of God (1964), A Man of the People (1966), No Longer at Ease (1970), Beware Soul-Brother and Other Poems (poetry, 1971), Anthills of the Savannah (1987), among others. In them the author gives shape to the painful history depicting the various local powers, the clientalism, nepotism, shameless corruption and kleptomania that characterize the modus operandi of the governement emerging after Nigeria's independence in 1960.

The year, 1958, therefore marks the beginning of Chinua Achebe's literary career. He never ceased giving voice to social causes and was always critical of those in power. Of Igbo heritage, he started getting involved in political life which eventually led him to into exile in the USA where he still lives and teaches.