Chinua Achebe: A Tribute.

Things have indeed fallen apart, with your departure to great beyond (the land of our fore fathers and our ancestors). Your death, though a great loss to the global literary community, is a greater loss to your nation (Nigeria) and your tribe the Igbos, whose culture you proudly put on the world map, through your most popular novel (Things Fall Apart). When the call came to serve your people (Biafrans), you proudly served as a very worthy cultural ambassador, helping also to put Biafra on the world centre stage. The efforts of worthy sons and daughters like you, helped sustain Biafra. Like all heroes, you survived the Biafra war and lived to give us your true accounts of the war through what you know best, a book by the title of; There Was A Country. Thank God, you published this book before your departure. In the course to take Nigeria to greater heights, you worked with the legendary Aminu Kano of blessed memory, whose leadership qualities you extolled. When the nation wasn’t moving forward (and still not moving forward now), you detailed the trouble with Nigeria, in your book titled; The Trouble with Nigeria. (it’s a highly recommended book). I was greatly touched and inspired, when you rejected a national award by a corrupt government of Nigeria. That was principles and courage at display. You were courageous and fearless. Your type of person(s), comes one in a million and once in a century. My generation are grateful, to have witnessed your sojourn thru earth. For the upcoming generations, that could not witness your passage thru earth, no word will be sufficient to describe you. You came, you saw and you conquered the world thru literature. You cannot die because your works/books speak(s) for you. May your soul, and other faithfully departed, rest in peace. Chinedu Vincent Akuta UK 23/3/13.