Elechi Amadi (12 May 1934 – 29 June 2016) was a Nigerian author and soldier. He was a former member of the

Nigerian Armed Forces The Nigerian Armed Forces (NAF) are the combined military forces of Nigeria. It consists of three uniformed service branches: the Nigerian Army, Nigerian Navy, and Nigerian Air Force. The President of Nigeria functions as the commander-in-chief ...

. He was an author of plays and novels that are generally about African village life, customs, beliefs, and religious practices prior to contact with the Western world. Amadi is best regarded for his 1966

debut novel A debut novel is the first novel a novelist publishes. Debut novels are often the author's first opportunity to make an impact on the publishing industry, and thus the success or failure of a debut novel can affect the ability of the author to p ...

, '' The Concubine'', which has been called "an outstanding work of pure fiction".

Early life and education

Born in 1934, in Mbodo-Aluu in what is now the Ikwerre local government area of

Rivers State Rivers State, also known as Rivers, is a state in the Niger Delta region of southern Nigeria (Old Eastern Region). Formed in 1967, when it was split from the former Eastern Region, Rivers State borders include: Imo to the north, Abia and Akwa ...

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

, Elechi Amadi attended

Government College, Umuahia Government College Umuahia, or GCU, is an independent secondary school for boys located on Umuahia- Ikot Ekpene road in Umuahia, Nigeria. Twenty years after the establishment of Kings College, the first government-owned high school, by the Briti ...

(1948–52), Survey School, Oyo (1953–54), and the

University of Ibadan The University of Ibadan (UI) is a public research university in Ibadan, Nigeria. The university was founded in 1948 as University College Ibadan, one of many colleges within the University of London. It became an independent university in 19 ...

(1955–59), where he obtained a degree in Physics and Mathematics. While in university, he adopted the name Elechi Amadi, which he felt reflected his Ikwerre heritage more than his birth name, Emmanuel Elechi Daniel.

Career

He worked for a time as a land surveyor and later was a teacher at several schools, including the Nigerian Military School,

Zaria Zaria is a List of Nigerian cities by population, metropolitan city in Nigeria which at the present time lies within four (4) local government areas in Kaduna State, Kaduna state; it happens to be the capital city to the Zazzau, Zazzau Emirate ...

(1963–66).

Military service and politics

Amadi served in the Nigerian army, remained there during the

Nigerian Civil War The Nigerian Civil War (6 July 1967 – 15 January 1970), also known as the Nigerian–Biafran War or the Biafran War, was a civil war fought between Nigeria and the Republic of Biafra, a secessionist state which had declared its independence ...

, and retired at the rank of captain. He then held various positions with the Rivers State government: Permanent Secretary (1973–83), Commissioner for Education (1987–88) and Commissioner for Lands and Housing (1989–90).

Writing

He was a writer-in-residence and lecturer at Rivers State College of Education, where he has also been Dean of Arts, head of the literature department and Director of General Studies. Amadi has said that his first publication was in 1957, a poem entitled "Penitence" in a University of Ibadan campus magazine called ''The Horn'', edited by John Pepper Clark. Amadi's first novel, '' The Concubine'', was published in London in 1966 and was hailed as a "most accomplished first performance".

Alastair Niven Alastair Neil Robertson Niven Hon FRSL (born 25 February 1944) is an English literary scholar and author. He has written books on D. H. Lawrence, Raja Rao, and Mulk Raj Anand, and has been Director General of The Africa Centre, Director of L ...

in his critical study of the novel wrote: "Rooted firmly among the hunting and fishing villages of the Niger delta, ''The Concubine'' nevertheless possesses the timelessness and universality of a major novel." ''The Concubine'' was made into a film, written by Elechi Amadi and directed by accomplished

Nollywood Nollywood is a sobriquet that originally referred to the Nigerian film industry. The origin of the term dates back to the early 2000s, traced to an article in ''The New York Times''. Due to the history of evolving meanings and contexts, there ...

film director Andy Amenechi, which premiered in Abuja in March 2007. The setting of Amadi's second novel, '' The Great Ponds'', published in 1969, is pre-colonial Eastern Nigeria, and is about the battle between two village communities over possession of a pond. In 1973 Amadi autobiographical non-fiction, ''Sunset in Biafra'', was published. It records his personal experiences in the Nigeria-Biafra war, and according to Niven "is written in a compelling narrative form as though it were a novel". On 13 May 1989 a symposium was held at the

University of Port Harcourt The University of Port Harcourt is located in Choba in Port Harcourt, Rivers state, Nigeria. It was established in 1975 as University College, Port Harcourt and was given university status in 1977. The University of Port Harcourt was rank ...

to celebrate Amadi's 55th birthday. In May 2004, a conference was organized by the Association of Nigerian Authors, Rivers State Branch, to mark Elechi Amadi's 70th birthday. For his last book, ''When God Came'', Elechi turned for the first time to the genre of science fiction. Reviewing it,

Lindsay Barrett Carlton Lindsay Barrett (born 15 September 1941), also known as Eseoghene, is a Jamaican-born poet, novelist, essayist, playwright, journalist and photographer, whose work has interacted with the Caribbean Artists Movement in the UK, the Black ...

wrote: "When an author has attained the status of an icon in his profession, based on the publication of works that have been declared iconic masterpieces from the earliest period of his career, it is unusual to find him engaging in experimentation in the latter stages of that career. This is the surprising trajectory that this short but profoundly memorable booklet by the late Elechi Amadi represents. Although the two narrative treatises contained in this work were described by the author as an excursion into the medium of science fiction it would really be more accurate to define them as philosophical allegories. Their contents contemplate the human condition and the limits of the potential for human achievement based on the concept of the supernatural rather than simply being exercises in the conceptualisation of events of an otherworldly nature, which popular science fiction often is. ... In the final analysis these works read like fables from the future that the author must have had immense enjoyment creating. Amadi’s love for literature and his prolific output in his early years overshadowed his scientific background especially after the Civil War when he settled down to work as an educationist and public administrator in Rivers State. It was in this period that he embarked on the experiments in new forms of writing of which this work is a slight but unforgettable example."

Later years

2009 kidnapping

On 5 January 2009 Amadi was kidnapped at his home in Aluu town, Ikwerre, by unknown gunmen. He was released on the evening of 6 January, 23 hours later.

Africa39

In 2014 he was a judge of Africa39, together with

Tess Onwueme Osonye Tess Onwueme, also known as T. Akaeke Onwueme (born 8 September 1955) is a Nigerian playwright, scholar and poet, who rose to prominence writing plays with themes of social justice, culture, and the environment. In 2010, she became the unive ...

and Margaret Busby.

Death

On 29 June 2016, Amadi died at the Good Heart Hospital in Port Harcourt at the age of 82. Nobel laureate

Wole Soyinka Akinwande Oluwole Babatunde Soyinka (Yoruba: ''Akínwándé Olúwọlé Babátúndé Ṣóyíinká''; born 13 July 1934), known as Wole Soyinka (), is a Nigerian playwright, novelist, poet, and essayist in the English language. He was awarded t ...

paid tribute to Amadi as "a soldier and poet, captive of conscience, human solidarity and justice."

Awards

* 1992 – Rivers State Silver Jubilee Merit Award. * 2003 – honorary doctorate, Doctor of Science (D.Sc.) in Education, honoris causa, awarded by

Rivers State University of Science and Technology Rivers State University (RVSU or RSU), formerly Rivers State University of Science and Technology (UST or RSUST), is a university located in the Diobu (Mile III) area of Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria. As of 2021, the vice chancello ...

. * 2003 – Fellow of the Nigerian Academy of Education. * 2003 – Member of the Order of the Federal Republic (MFR).

Legacy

The Faculty of Humanity in

, is dedicated to him. Port Harcourt Polytechnic was renamed to Captain Elechi Amadi Polytechnic in 2016.

Bibliography

* '' The Concubine'' (novel), London:

Heinemann African Writers Series The African Writers Series (AWS) is a collection of books written by African novelists, poets and politicians. Published by Heinemann (publisher), Heinemann, 359 books appeared in the series between 1962 and 2003. The series has provided an int ...

, 1969; Ibadan: Heinemann Books, 1993, * ''The Great Ponds'' (novel), Heinemann, 1969; Macmillan Education, 1976, * ''Sunset in Biafra'' (war diary), Heinemann African Writers Series, 1969, * ''Isiburu'' (play), Heinemann, 1973, * ''Peppersoup'' and ''The Road'' (plays, combined volume), Ibadan: Onibonoje Publishers, 1977 * ''Dancer of Johannesburg'' (play), Ibadan: Onibonoje Publishers, 1978 * ''The Slave'' (novel), Heinemann African Writers Series, 1978, * ''Ethics in Nigerian Culture'' (philosophy), London: Heinemann Educational Books, 1982, * ''Estrangement'' (novel), Heinemann African Writers Series, 1986, * ''The Woman of Calabar'' (play), Port Harcourt: Gitelle Press, 2002 * ''Speaking and Singing'' (essays and poems), University of Port Harcourt Press, 2003 * ''Collected Plays'' (ed. Seiyifa Koroye), Port Harcourt: Pearl Publishers, 2004 * ''When God Came'', 2011

References

External links

Elechi Amadi official website

"Conversation with Elechi Amadi: When I wrote The Concubine, I thought it was a joke"
''The Sun'' (Nigeria), 16 July 2016. *

"Elechi Amadi, a tribute"
''The News'', 4 July 2016. {{DEFAULTSORT:Amadi, Elechi 1934 births 2016 deaths Nigerian male novelists University of Ibadan alumni Writers from Rivers State Members of the Order of the Federal Republic 20th-century Nigerian novelists 21st-century Nigerian novelists Ikwerre people Rivers State Commissioners of Education People of Rivers State in the Nigerian Civil War Military personnel of the Nigerian Civil War International Writing Program alumni Educators from Rivers State 20th-century male writers 21st-century male writers Government College Umuahia alumni