60th anniversary of Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe to be celebrated in the U.S.

The month of March is the month of literature; it is full of literary events. This is the month in which European literary society celebrates the death of William Shakespeare and Miguel de Cervantes, the author of Don Quixote.

Surprisingly, it is also the month during which most of the celebrated writers died. It’s during this same month of March that Christians also celebrate the death of Jesus Christ.

Coincidentally, Africa and lovers of African literature are not excluded this year; the Smithsonian National Museum of African arts in collaboration with the American publisher, Penguin Random House are organizing the celebration of the 60th anniversary of Things Fall Apart, an epic novel by Chinua Achebe. The theme of the event will be The Ongoing Legacy of Chinua Achebe in Contemporary Art and the Current Moment.

The event will also feature a conversation between the Nigerian-American artist Victor Ekpuk and the historian Nwando Achebe, who is Chinua Achebe’s daughter.  

Chinua Achebe died in the month of March in 2013. This highly expected event will be held on Thursday, March 15, 2018. This is the first time Nwando Achebe is coming out to address the global audience about the legacy of her father, thus she is expected to give an in-depth discussion about her father’s legacy in connection to African history and current African conditions in global affairs.

The novel Things Fall Apart was published in 1958 by Heinemann Publishers under the African Writers Series. Achebe later wrote many novels, essays, a collection of poems and short stories.