African Literature as Restoration: Chinua Achebe as Teacher

Thursday May 1, 2014 - Saturday May 3, 2014

Brown University

Providence, Rhode Island, USA

Mistress of Ceremony: Professor Abena P. A. Busia

Thursday evening May 1, 2014

5:30pm - 6:00 pm

Performance

• Singers from Sri Chinmoy: The Peace Meditation at the United Nations
• Ohafia War Dancers from Abia State

6:00 - 6:30

Opening Address: Elizabeth Donnelly; Overcoming Nigeria’s Boko Haram Crisis:
Perception, Proof and Policy

• Elizabeth Donnelly, Assistant Head and Research Fellow, Africa Programme, Chatham House, Great Britain

6:30 -8:00pm

Perspectives on Security in Africa: Networks, Trafficking and Terrorism

• Ambassador Walter Carrington, Former US Ambassador to Nigeria and Senegal
• Ambassador John Campbell, Former US Ambassador to Nigeria
• Elizabeth Donnelly, Assistant Head and Research Fellow, Africa Programme, Chatham House, Great Britain
• Lt. General (Ret.) Abdulrahman Bello Dambazau, CFR, PhD, Nigerian Army and Visiting Fellow, Center for Peace, Democracy and Development, University of Massachusetts, Boston
• Moderator: Professor Donna A. Patterson, Wellesley College

8:00 - 8 30

Poetry, music and song collage

• South Africa’ Sindiswa Seakhoa

8:30-10 pm

There Was A Country: A Century of the Nigerian State in Review

• Chair: Professor Obiora Udechukwu, Dana Professor of the Arts, St Lawrence University, New York
• Professor Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe, Universidade de Fortaleza, Brazil
• Professor Apollos Nwauwa, Bowling Green University
• Professor E.C. Ejiogu, University of the Free State, South Africa
• Professor Chukwuemeka Callistus Akanno
• Ikhide R. Ikheloa, Writer, literary critic and commentator Maryland, USA

This evening is sponsored by Brown University, The Chinua Achebe Foundation, The Abia State Organization Boston, MA, and Tesfa Health Initiative

Friday May 2, 2014

9:30 a.m.

Welcome, President Christina Hull Paxson

9:35 a.m. -9:50 a.m.

Opening Conference Address:

• Nelson Mandela on Achebe (video tape- available)

10:00 a.m. - 10:30 a.m.

Keynote Speaker

• Professor Lynn Innes, University of Kent

10:30 a.m. - 11:50 a.m.

Things Fall Apart: The Writer “Who Brought Africa to the World”—Achebe’s Impact on the World of Letters

• Chair: Dr. Thomas J. Lynn, Pennsylvania State University, Berks
• Professor Ipshita Chanda, Georgetown University, Washington
• Dr. Nair Anaya Ferreira, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico
• Professor Jesse Weaver Shipley, Haverford College, Pennsylvania
• Professor Maduabuchi Samuel Onuigbo, PhD, Professor of English and Literary Studies, Director, Institute of African Studies, University of Nigeria, Nsukka Enugu State Nigeria
• Professor Margaret Cezair-Thompson, Wellesley College

11:55 a.m. - 12:30

Performance: Power Poetry

• Ikeogu Oke with instrumentalist Osuji Ngozi Michael

12:30 p.m. - 1:30 p.m.

LUNCH

1:40 p.m. - 2:50 p.m.

The Novelist as Teacher: Achebe and the Re-education of the African and Western Psyche

• Chair: Professor Annie Gagiano, Stellenbosch University, South Africa
• Professor Ato Quayson,University of Toronto, Canada
• Professor Itala Vivan, Italy
• Professor Raoul Granqvist, Umea University, Sweden
• Professor Chimalum Nwankwo, Abuja, Nigeria
• Professor Don Burness, Franklin Pierce University, Rindge, NH

2:55 p.m. - 3:25 p.m.

Keynote Dramatic Performance

• Professor Tess Onwueme

3:30 p.m. - 4:50 p.m.

No Longer at Ease: The Uneasy Relationship Between the Poet and Emperor

• Chair: Darrel Alejandro Holnes, Writers House, Rutgers University
• Professor Obioma Nnaemeka Indiana University, Perdue University, Indianapolis
• Professor Bhekizizwe Peterson, Wits University, South Africa
• Professor Raisa Simola University of Eastern Finland
• Professor T. Vijay Kumar Osmania University, India
• Professor Mercedes Bengoechea Universidad de Alcalá, Spain

4: 55 p.m. - 6:15 p.m.

The Direction of African Writing and Publishing Since the African Writers Series

• Moderator: Professor T. Obinkaram Echewa
• Mr. Kassahun Checole, Publisher, African World Press and Red Sea Press
• Mr. James Currey, Publisher, James Currey Press
• Ms. Dee Mortensen, Senior Sponsoring Editor, Indiana University Press
• Ms. Gillian Berchowitz, Director, Ohio University Press
• Mr. Gabe Dotto, Director, Michigan State University Press

8:00 p.m.-10:00 p.m.

Entertainment:

• Eme And Heteru

Saturday May 3, 2014

9:05 a.m.

Welcome, President Christina Hull Paxson

9:10 a.m. - 9:20 a.m.

Achebe and the Founding of Modern African Literature

• Nadine Gordimer (taped video)

9:25 a.m. - 9:55 a.m.

Keynote Speaker

• Professor Simon Gikandi, Princeton University

10:00 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.

"Literature, Culture, Knowledge."

• Chair: Professor Olakunle George, Brown University
• Dr. Kabir Ahmed, National Institute for Legislative Studies, Abuja, Nigeria
• Professor David Palumbo-Liu, Stanford University
• Professor Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Columbia University, New York
• Tsitsi Dangaremba, Writer; Institute of Creative Arts for Progress in Africa (ICAPA), Harare, Zimbabwe
• Professor Michael Thelwell, Umass Amherst
• Professor Paget Henry, Head of Africana Studies, Brown University

11:30 a.m. - 12 noon

Down Memory Lane: A round table of close friends and colleagues reminisce

• Ethel Momah
• Professor Chieka Ifemesia
• Doris Soroko
• Professor Lyn Catherine Innes
• Professor Michael Thelwell
• Moderator: Chike Momah

12 noon-1 p.m.

LUNCH

1:10 p.m.-2:40 p.m.

Chinua Achebe and the Hip Hop Generation

• Moderator: De Juana Thompson, Founder and managing partner of Promoting Excellence, LLC
• Obi Asika, Founder Dragon Africa, CO-Founder Ampn West Africa, Creative Industries Leader
• Marcus Glover, Founder of Gluagency and TEdxHarlem
• Rob Marriot Writer, Editor, Dj, former editor at Vibe, XXL Magazines
• Greg Edwards, Sparky Sweets PHD, Thug Notes, Comedian

2:45 p.m.-3:15 p.m.

Keynote Speaker

• Bernth Lindfors, The University of Texas at Austin

3:20 p.m.-4:40 p.m.

A Man of the People: Achebe and the Crusade for Social Justice

• Chair: Dr Terri Ochiagha, University of Sussex, England
• Dr. Paula García Ramírez, Departamento de Filología Inglesa/ Dept. of English Studies; Universidad de Jaén/University of Jaén, España/Spain
• Professor Ayo A. Coly, Dartmouth College
• Dr. Ide Corley, National University of Ireland, Maynooth, Republic of Ireland.
• Dr Kwadwo Osei-Nyame, Jnr, University of London
• Mr. Morakabe Raks Seakhoa, wRite associates, South Africa
• Professor Donna V. Jones, University of California, Berkeley

4:45 p.m. - 6:05 p.m.

Arrow of God: New Insights into Achebe’s Magnum Opus

• Chair: Professor Ernest Emenyonu, University of Michigan, Flint
• Dr. Wale Okediran, President Emeritus, Association of Nigerian Authors
• Professor Helen Chukwuma, Jackson State University, Mississippi
• Professor Anthonia Kalu, Ohio State University, Ohio
• Dr. Olabode Ibironke, Assistant Professor of English, Rutgers University
• Professor Kalu Ogbaa Southern Connecticut State University
• Professor Akachi T. Ezeigbo, University of Lagos, Nigeria

6:05 p.m - 6:35 p.m

Closing Keynote Address

• Introduction: Professor Ade Adefuye, Nigerian Ambassador to the United States
• His Excellency, Alhaji Rabi'u Musa Kwankwaso, Executive Governor of Kano State, Nigeria

8:30 p.m. -10:30 p.m.

Entertainment

• Eme And Heteru

Sunday May 4, 2014: Departure