A NIGERIAN government delegation paid a condolence visit to the family of the late Professor Chinua Achebe in the United States on Saturday.
The delegation was led by Nigeria’s Ambassador to the United States, Professor Ade Adefuye, alongside Nigeria’s Consul-General in New York, Habib Habu, who visited the Achebes in Boston, where his wife, Christie, has relocated.
Offering the family its condolences on behalf of the people and government of Nigeria, the delegation pledged support to the family during the funeral arrangement.
Ambassador Adefuye also said the family promised to keep the Nigerian government abreast of the final burial arrangements for the late literary icon.
The visit comes amid continued outpouring of encomiums for the late essayist and literary scholar, revered all over the world for his mastery of words.
The Los Angeles Times reported on Saturday that, in Africa, many leaders remembered Achebe as a man whose works helped define the African spirit.
Nelson Mandela said that during his time in prison, Achebe was a writer “in whose company the prison walls fell down.”
“We have lost a great son and the ‘Father of African Literature,'” said Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga
While he was alive, Achebe declined to accept many accolades from the Nigerian government—in the 1960s, he was Minister of Information for the short-lived Republic of Biafra during its failed war of succession from Nigeria. But on Friday, Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan praised Achebe as “an acclaimed writer, scholar, tutor, cultural icon, nationalist and artist of the very first rank.”
Earlier this week, a bomb blast killed 22 members of Achebe’s ethnic group, the Igbo people, in the Nigerian city of Kano. The Nigerian writers Wole Soyinka and J.P. Clark cited that attack in their farewell to Achebe in the Guardian
“We have lost a brother, a colleague, a trailblazer and a doughty fighter,” the wrote. “[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 [his] resilient will,” they wrote.
Penguin Books published Achebe’s final book, the memoir “There Was a Country: A Personal History of Biafra,” in 2012. Simon Winder, publishing director at Penguin in the U.K., called Achebe an “utterly remarkable man.”
“Chinua Achebe is the greatest of African writers and we are all desolate to hear of his death,” he said.