Veteran writers and Achebe’s
compatriots, Prof. Wole Soyinka and J.P. Clark, have linked his death to
the bomb attacks that occurred in Kano on Monday.
In a joint statement they issued on
Friday, entitled “On the Passing of Chinua Achebe,” they noted that his
death might have been hastened by the shock from the violence that those
they described as Achebe’s people suffered during the attacks.
The statement read, “For us, the loss of
Chinua Achebe is, above all else, intensely personal. We have lost a
brother, a colleague, a trailblazer and a doughty fighter.
“Of the ‘pioneer quartet’ of
contemporary Nigerian literature, two voices have been silenced – one,
of the poet Christopher Okigbo, and now, the novelist Chinua Achebe.
“It is perhaps difficult for outsiders
of that intimate circle to appreciate this sense of depletion, but we
take consolation in the young generation of writers to whom the baton
has been passed, those who have already creatively ensured that there is
no break in the continuum of the literary vocation.
“We need to stress this at a critical
time of Nigerian history, where the forces of darkness appear to
overshadow the illumination of existence that literature represents.
“These are forces that arrogantly pride
themselves implacable and brutal enemies of what Chinua and his pen
represented, not merely for the African continent, but for humanity.
“Indeed, we cannot help wondering if the
recent insensate massacre of Chinua’s people in Kano, only a few days
ago, hastened the fatal undermining of that resilient will that had
sustained him so many years after his crippling accident.”
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