Father Of African Literature' Chinua Achebe Dies Aged 82 !

Chinua Achebe

The Nigerian novelist and poet Chinua Achebe, who first made his mark with 1958 novel Things Fall Apart, has died aged 82 .

News reports from Nigeria this morning suggest he died last night at a hospital in Boston, Massachusetts of an undisclosed ailment.

Achebe's agent and his British publisher Penguin confirmed his death this morning.

Simon Winder, publishing director at Penguin, described him as "an utterly remarkable man" and "the greatest of African writers", adding "we are all desolate to hear of his death."

A statement released by Achebe's agent and family confirmed his death "following a brief illness."

It continued: "One of the great literary voices of his time, he was also a beloved husband, father, uncle and grandfather, whose wisdom and courage are an inspiration to all who knew him. Professor Achebe's family requests privacy at this time.”

A spokesman for the Anambra state governor Peter Obi told the BBC sout-eastern Nigeria was in mourning for its "illustrious son".

Sources quoted in the Premium Times said he had been unwell for some time and was hospitalised earlier this week.

For the last four years Achebe was Professor of Africana Studies at Brown University. Statements released by colleagues this afternoon call Achebe "a gift to the world" and "godfather to a generation of African writers".

Corey D.B. Walker, associate professor and chair of the Department of Africana studies said: "the passing of Chinua Achebe is an event of global significance. The entire faculty share in the celebration of the great life that is Chinua Achebe."

Achebe is known as the "father of modern African literature", and made his name writing about the history of Nigeria.

Things Fall Apart, set amid 1890s Nigeria and the influx of Christian missionaries, is renowned the world over, has been translated into 50 languages and has sold more than 12 million copies.

The novel takes its title from WB Yeats's 1919 poem "The Second Coming": "Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world…”

In 2007 Achebe won the Man Booker International Prize for his “overall contribution to fiction on the world stage”.

Nelson Mandela called him "the writer in whose company the prison walls came down", and credited him as the author who "brought Africa to the rest of the world"

Achebe's other novels include Arrow of God (1964); A Man of the People (1966) and Anthills of the Savannah (1987). He has also published four children's books (including Chike and the River and How the Leopard Got His Claws), short stories and poetry in English and Igbo.

His 1975 lecture An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's 'Heart of Darkness' is still available in paperback from Penguin Classics. In it, he says that "Joseph Conrad was a thoroughgoing racist" and points out that there are only six words spoken by Africans in the whole of Heart of Darkness.

Achebe was born in Ogidi, Anambra State, on November 16, 1930. At the age of 12 he moved several kilometres away from his family to Nekede to attend the Central School there before attending Government College Umuahia for his secondary school education.

He was one of the first students to attend the University College, now University of Ibadan in 1948. Having first opted to study medicine he switched to English, history and theology after his first year.

After winning his degree Achebe taught at Ibadan before joining the Nigeria Broadcasting Service in 1954.

He met his wife Christie Okoli while in Lagos and the couple married in 1961 going on to have four children.

During the Nigeria Civil War Achebe joined the Biafran Government as an ambassador. He wrote about his experiences in his last book, There Was A Country.

Achebe had been living in America since 1990 when he sustained severe injuries in a car crash.

MP David Lammy wrote on Twitter this morning: "RIP Chinua Achebe.Wonderful writer and campaigner who said "One of the truest tests of integrity is its blunt refusal to be compromised."

(source : independent.co.uk)

Literature, Cinema and Media decoded at Sahitya Utsav

Arun Kamal @ The Young Poet's Meet

New Delhi, February 21, 2013: Day four of Sahitya Akademi’s (National Academy of Culture) annual 5-day long literary festival Sahitya Utsav (Festival of Letters) was dedicated to Young Poets with a day long programme called Yuva Sahiti where young poets recite their creation.

A parallel seminar on Literature and Cinema and Literature and Media were held. One session where eminent literate  Adoor Gopalakrishnan  was the chair, who lamented that of late even Doordarshan, whose public mandate is to air public interest films, has stopped showing good films under the pressure of the need to be commercially viable. Girish Kasaravalli read a paper on Fiction into Film: Kannada Cinema; Vaasanthi read a paper on Fiction into Film: Tamil Cinema and Sanjay Mukhopadhyay read paper on Fiction into Film: Bengali Cinema. Second session was chaired by Chandrashekhar Kambar, who gave a brilliant overview of film scenario in India and then invited  Samik Bandyopadhyay to read a paper on Fiction into Film: Satyajit Ray and C.S. Venkiteswaran presented paper on Fiction into Film: Adoor Gopalakrishnan. Third session was chaired by Harish Trivedi and Om Thanvi presented paper on Fiction into Film: Hindi Cinema; Ganesh Matkari read paper on Fiction into Film: Marathi Cinema and S.V. Srinivasa Rao presented paper on Fiction into Film: Telugu Cinema.

Sanjoy Mukhopadhyay @
The National Seminar on Literature and Cinema

Seminar on Literature and Media was chaired by Tripurari Sharan, DG Doordarshan. Bodhisattva presented Fiction and the TV Serial, Rakhshanda Jalil presented paper on Literature and the Media, Sanjay Chhel presented paper on Literature, Culture, Television. In the evening, under the title Poetry as Music, Madan Gopal Singh performed Sufi Music.

One of the Akademi’s aims is to take the best of literary fruits to all - not just grown-ups but the youth as well.  Hence, alongside the seminar, Akademi also organized special events to attract interest and involve youth in whose hands rests the promise and future of our literary and artistic expressions.  Under this, a new programme Yuva Sahiti has been launched involving young writers.

Shabana Azmi adressing the Seminar

Festival of Letters is one of the biggest literary events in the country which has been organized annually by the Sahitya Akademi involving most active practitioners of 24 contemporary Indian languages from all over the sub continental. Dr Sreenivasarao: “Till now Festival of Letters has focused on themes of great relevance to the constantly changing and evolving trends in Indian literature but this year’s Festival of Letters, though focused on Indian literature, has widened its scope by exploring the relation between literature and other art forms both traditional and modern.”

The Spell - An Evening of Poetry & Music

Moonweavers – ‘Chaand ke Julahe’ in sync with Overtonez Music will be presenting ‘The Spell’, an evening of Poetry & Music at The Attic, 36 Regal Building, Connaught Place, New Delhi (Ph.: 011-23746050) on 19th of this month, 6:30pm to 7:30pm. Nine poets and three musicians will get together for a soul to soul conversation using their tools: verse and music. This is a non-commercial event, purely to give a platform to upcoming talents in an attempt to democratise the space and spread literary sensitiveness in general.

Featured poets : Rati Agnihotri (TV script writer), Paulami Sengupta (Editor at a reputed publisher), Soumya Prakash (Advertising Copywriter), Pushpanjana Karmakar (Copy editor at a reputed on-line company), Tripurari Kumar Sharma (a prominent young poet, blogger and an aspiring academician), Shudhanshu Baranwal (an alumnus of IIT-Kanpur, working with a leading NGO), Amit Saini (Engineer with Reliance Petro-chemicals), multitasking poet & musicians : Prateek (also an Engineer ) and Dhruv Gargesh (also an HR-Executive). And finally the lead musician and founder of Overtonez Music : Roger Peter, also an engineer by profession.

Rati started Moonweavers one year ago. Its goal is to bring back literature from the fold of elite circle to the public domain and make it more reachable for the interested public through informal coffee house discussions, open mic recitations and of course writing and analysing each other’s and of the masters’ works. Currently it has more than 200 members.

It’s my pleasure to invite you to this unique conversation. We’re very much sure that this is one of its kind experimentation on this scale in Delhi. Be part of this special event. It’s always better to reach little early.

Thanking you.

With warm regards,
Moonweavers
Contatct : +91-8882510628

Samanvay culminated with pledge to bring Boli- Bani back to mainstream

Jagrauti Pad dangal in progress

Started with an objective to promote Indian languages and highlight its authors and their literature, IHC Indian Languages Festival – Samanvay entered the 02nd year with the theme- Boli, Bani, Bhasa: Gaon, Kasba, Shehar in an attempt to to highlight and discover the heritage of Indian languages. Gnanpeeth awardee Kannada author Chandrasekhar Kambar and eminent theatre activist Ratan Thiyam stressed on the need to use boli in every walk of life in order to keep our culture and heritage intact, while inaugurating the festival. As announced last year, the First Samanvay Bhasa Samman started this year and it was conferred to Gnanpeeth awardee renowned Oriya author Shri Sitakant Mahapatra while the first Samanvay Bhasa Patrkarita Samman went to Shri Kishor Bharti who largely writes on Dalit issues and topics. In his address after the receiving award, Shri Kishor Bharti underlined the reality of Dalit society by highlighting that that the members of the society forget the woes of the society after getting into the corridors of power.  

In his opening remark Festival Director Shri Raj Liberhan said of this initiative- “IHC’s annual Indian languages’ festival is one platform that is reaching out to focus on the intrinsic beauty of verbal and printed exchange, its philosophical ethos and its embedded roots in different regions of the country.”  

Inauguration was followed by a session- Purani Boli Naya Daur; Boli is Back! examining the return of dialects into the ‘mainstream’, Where Chandrasekhar Kambar, Ratan Thiyam, Kashinath Singh, Gillian Wright, Neelesh Mishra and Gurvinder Singh shared their views and ideas. English languages author and grandson of Premchand, Alok Rai moderated the discussion session. During this session Gillian Wright shared her experience of time spent in Uttar Pradesh to understand local dialects whereas Kannada author Chandrasekhar Kambar warned that English is increasingly becoming our primary language of communication which is detrimental for the growth of Indian literature who reflects our culture and heritage.

The next session of poetry recitation – Had- Anhad- Nabaneeta Dev Sen, Udaya Narayan Singh, Mamang Dai and famous folk singer of Uttaranchal - Narendra Singh Negi mesmerized the audience with their native languages poetry. The day ended with performance of Kathak Guru Shovana Narayan on the presentation based on Maithili poet Vidyapati’s life.

The 02^nd day of the IHC Indian Languages Festival – Samanvay focused on the various shades of rich Indian literary heritage. The day began with a session on Manipuri language discussion the theme – The Idea of a nation, where language authors – Yumlembam Ibomcha, Robin S Ngangom, Tayenjam Bijoykumar Singh and Dr Dhanbir Laisham shared their dilemma over the dual identity of state and nation. Sahitya Akademi award-winning writer Yumlembam Ibomcha said that the traditional Manipuri literature developed without the influence of any other languages until the 18th century, when Hinduism came to the state.

This followed the prose reading session – Mapping Cities- Shehar Dar Shehar by Kashinath Singh, Laxman Gaikwad and Om Thanvi. The Maithili language session focused on the theme – Love’s own language where Maithili authors highlighted the heritage of the languages which is filled with literature n love including Vidyapati, whose first writing was themed around love. Maithili language author Vibha Rani shared her experience of a festival in Chennai where they translate all unpublished literature in Maithili and thus the languages is spreading across the country. She also stressed that the Maithili people use their own language wherever they go. So it is not a dying language.

The Kannada session focused around theme- Tales of Modernities: Small Spaces, Big Idea where participating authors Gopalkrishna Pai, Banu Mushtaq, BT Jahnavi, and Mamta Sagar shared their views and experiences of richness of the Kannada language and how it has highlighted larger issues of society. The session on English – Where is my reader had intense discussion where one of the participating authors “Losing My Virginity” fame Madhuri Banarjee stressed on need of differentiating writing to promote literature. She said it will help attract reader to the select books.

The Digital publishing session highlighted the need of adopting digital technology in current scenario to strengthen the literature and keep the languages’ heritage intact. The session was attended by Nikhil Chandra of Handygo Technology, Shiva Kumar of Google Books and Kinshu Sinha of FlipKart. Audience' question on existence of library culture halted the session for a moment before speakers assured that the digitalization will help taking books and literature beyond geographical boundaries and thus helping promote the book reading culture.

The day also saw poetry recitation session- Kavi ke Ilake me by Gujarati author Sitanshu Yashaschandra, Hindi author Arun Kamal, Rajasthani author- Arjun Deo Charan and Kannada author Mamta Sagar.

The day ended with performance of Kashmiri Sufiana Kalam performance by Gulzar Ahmad Ganie.

First session on the 03^rd and last day at Samanvay was dedicated to Oriya language session Reclaiming Language, Space and Body: Women writing in Oriya where speakers Pratibha Ray, Sarojini Sahoo, Yashodhara Mishra, Aparna Mohanty and Paramita Satpathy highlighted women writings in Oriya languages on different topics. Authors insisted that there is no need to differentiate the men and women writing.

Next was the Jagrauti Pad Dangal- a rich Rajasthani folk group song where famous duo of Dhawale and Jagan mesmerized the audience with their lovely presentation. Session on Marathi language discussed the topic “Mumbai: The city of No outsiders” a blazing aspect of the Marathi society today.  During this session, Laxman Gaikwad said “Mumbai is such a busy city where fathers meet their children only on Sundays which shows it has no time to ponder over issues like- whose city is this. Thus any question on Mumbai being called- ‘a city of no outsiders’ doesn’t hold any ground. It is a city of multiple cultures and languages.” Other participants of the Marathi session were Hemant Divate, Neeraja and Prakash Bhatambrekar. Participating in the discussion as an audience, Maithili author described Mumbai as “Sahson ka Shehar not hadson ka shehar”, because of its tendency to comeback strongly from each disaster.

Kashmiri language session- My Reality, My language was attended by Kashmiri languages authors- Shahnaz Rasheed, Gulshan Badrani, Elyas Azad and moderated by Nisar Azam where one participating author highlighted one masked reality of the Kashmiri language that the language is not being promoted in the state in order to thwart any possibility of rise of extremism and terrorism. He said the situation is pinching but this is the reality of the Kashmiri languages. This session was followed by a round of discussion on topic- Cine-lit- Crosscurrents where Mamta Sagar discussed the use of literature in the script writing for movies with Girish Kasarawalli, who made a movie on other participant- Banu Mushtaq’s script.

In the Hindi Session- Culture & Power: A tale of seven cities (Allahabad, Benaras, Bhopal, Delhi, Kolkata, Lahore and Patna) Ashok Vajpeyi, Kashinath Singh, Arun Kamal, Alka Saraogi and Neelabh Ashk discussed transition of the Hindi language from Kolkata where first centre for translation of English literature to Hindi literature was set-up, to Lahore. During the session all authors agreed that small cities are no longer a centre of literature and culture and that Delhi has become a political and cultural centre of India. Renowned author Ashok Vajpeyi reiterated that if we don’t learn out language we will be deprived of our culture and heritage and thus loose our identity in due course.

The highlight of the last day was "Popular Culture: Mind Your language, Zaban Sambhal ke" session which was attended by Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! and Gangs of Wasseypur fame music director Sneha Khanwalkar, Tanu Weds Manu fame lyricist Raj Shekhar, Agle Janam Mohe Bitiya Hi Kijo serial fame Ratan Rajput and RJ Simran Kohli. In this session the use of double-meaning words in TV shows and cinema was widely discussed where Ratan Rajput accepted that it is right to use them if it makes the shows and movies commercially successful. She said there are enough programs for purists. The concluding session of the day and festival was Rabbi Acoustic Live- a performance by Rabbi Shergill. In this fitting end to the grand event Shergill enthralled audience with famous numbers like- Bulla ki jana.

Maithili People Spread Their Language Wherever They Go!

Gulzar Ahmad Ganai and sathi

The 02^nd day of the IHC Indian Languages Festival – Samanvay focused on the various shades of rich Indian literary heritage. The sessions focused on Manipuri (The Idea of a Nation); Maithili (Love’s own language); Kannada (Tales of Modernities: Small Spaces, Big Idea), English (Where is my reader?) languages engaging authors of respective languages. Also the day witnessed a prose reading session- Mapping Cities: Shehar Dar Shehar by Kashinath Singh, Laxman Gaikwad and Om Thanvi and a session on Digital Publishing: Future of Indian Languages Publishing in Digital Era. The day ended with Kashmiri Sufiana Kalam performance by Gulzar Ahmed Ganie.

The day began with a session on Manipuri language discussion the theme – The Idea of a nation, where language authors – Yumlembam Ibomcha, Robin S Ngangom, Tayenjam Bijoykumar Singh and Dr Dhanbir Laisham shared their views. This followed the prose reading session – Mapping Cities- Shehar Dar Shehar by Kashinath Singh, Laxman Gaikwad and Om Thanvi. The Maithili language session focused on the theme – Love’s own language where Maithili authors highlighted the heritage of the languages which is filled with literature n love including Vidyapati, whose first writing was themed around love. Famous character- Gonu Jha’s creator Vibha Rani shared her experience of a festival inn Chennai where they just translate the all unpublished literature in to Maithili and thus the languages is spreading across the country. She also stressed that the Maithili people use their own language wherever they go. So it is not a dying language.

The Kannada session focused around theme- Tales of Modernities: Small Spaces, Big Idea where participating authors Gopalkrishna Pai, Banu Mushtaq, BT Jahnavi, and Mamta Sagar shared their views and experiences of richness of the Kannada language and how it has highlighted larger issues of society. The session on English – Where is my reader had intense discussion where one of the participating authors “Losing My Virginity” fame Madhuri Banarjee stressed on need of differentiating writing to promote literature. She said it will help attract reader to the select books. The Digital publishing session highlighted the need of adopting digital technology in current scenario to strengthen the literature and keep the languages’ heritageintact. The session was attended by Nikhil Chandra of Handygo Technology, Shiva Kumar of Google Books and Kinshu Sinha of FlipKart. Audience' question on existence of library culture halted the session for a moment before speakers assured that the digitalization will help taking books and literature beyond geographical boundaries and thus helping book reading culture.      

The day also saw poetry recitation session- Kavi ke Ilake me by Gujarati author Sitanshu Yashaschandra, Hindi author Arun Kamal, Rajasthani author- Arjun Deo Charan and Kannada author Mamta Sagar.

The day ended with performance of Kashmiri Sufiana Kalam performance by Gulzar Ahmad Ganie.

Press Note : Samanvay 2012 - Indian Languages’ Festival

Indian Languages Festival Samanvay 2012 begins in Delhi from 02^nd Nov, 2012

The 02^nd edition of the Indian Languages’ Festival – Samanvay 2012 will begin from 02^nd Nov in the heart of Delhi- India Habitat Centre. This three day festival, which started last year, will revolve around its earthy theme - Gaon – Kasba – Sheher: Boli-Bani – Bhasha.

Curated by two young literature enthusiasts Satyanand Nirupam and Giriraj Kirado, this festival is an initiative of India Habitat Centre in partnership with Delhi Press and Pratilipi Books.

Like last year, this year too, the languages’ festival will witness a large  jamghat of khanti Indian literary figures discussing around eight themes spread across two and a half days and try to present the enriching shades of different Indian languages. An added attraction will be the book exhibitions put up by various publishers.

On 2 November, the first day of the festival, the inauguration will be done by esteemed theatre personality Ratan Thiyam and Jnanpith awardee Chandrashekar Kambar. The opening session will discuss  Purani Boli, Naya Daur: Boli Is Back!, examining the return of dialects into the ‘mainstream’, while the concluding session has the intriguing title Zaban Sambhal Ke: Mind Your Language, whose focus will be on youth and the way they employ language in everyday life. Similarly the second and the third days will explore other topics inviting rich debates, like The Idea of a Nation  (Manipuri) and Reclaiming Language, Space and Body: Women  Writing  in Oriya (Oriya). The other session will be The Tale of Modernities: Small Spaces, Big Ideas (Kannada), The City of No Outsiders  (Marathi), My Reality, My Language (Kashmiri),  Love’s Own Language (Maithili), A Tale of Seven Cities: Changing Power Centres of Hindi [Allahabad, Benares, Bhopal, Delhi, Kolkata, Lahore, Patna] (Hindi) and Where Is My Reader? (English). Poetry and book reading sessions have also been planned.

Amongst the cultural performances, the evening of day one will see Ugana re, a staging of Maithili poet Vidyapati’s compositions by Kathak Guru Padamshri Shovana Narayan. The next evening, the audience will be presented with Gulzar Ahmad Ganie’s performance of Kashmiri Sufiana kalam.

The  event will witness presence of  acclaimed literary  figures like- Ashok Vajpeyi, K. Satchidanandan, Sitanshu Yashaschandra, Arjun Deo Charan, Arun Kamal, Alok Rai, Gillian Wright among others.

More detail about the event can be found at http://samanvayindianlanguagesfestival.org and one can get regular update from http://samanvayindianlanguagesfestival.org 

For any further information, please contact:

Rahul Sharma: +91-8506006866
Email id: ilfsamanvay@gmail.com