Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart: a Birkbeck 50th Anniversary Symposium

17 March 2008

Programme

• 10-10.10: Introduction: Dr Mpalive Msiska (Birkbeck College, University of London)
• 10.11-11.11: Keynote address: Professor Simon Gikandi (Princeton University), “On Things Fall Apart: The Novel as a World Historical Event”
• 11.12-12.27: Panel 1:
• James Currey, “The importance of Chinua Achebe and Things Fall Apart for the launch of the African Writers Series,” (Former Publisher, Heinemann Writers Series) Ayebia Becky Clarke (Former Publisher, Heinemann African Writers Series)
• Dr Leila Kamali, (Warwick University), “The Mothers and the Fathers’: John Edgar Wideman’s Fatheralong, and His Reconstruction of Community through Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart"
• 12.28-1.00 Lunch break
• 1.00-2.10: Panel 2
• Dr Wangui wa Goro (London Metropolitan University), “Translation as Criticism: Visiting Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart in African Languages.
• Dr Kwadwo Osei-Nyame (SOAS, University of London), "Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart: Its Historical Significance Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow.”
• Obi Nwakanma, (Saint Louis, University, Missouri) “Okonkwo as “Ogbanje”: Achebe, the Discourse of intentions, and a theory of Resistance”
• 2.11-3.21: Panel 3
• Dr David Whittaker (Birkbeck, University of London), 'The Novelist as Teacher: Chinua Achebe and the Contemporary Nigerian Novel'
• Afam Akeh, (Writer, Critic and Editor, African Writing on-Line) “Things always Falling Apart: The Broken Continent Motif in African Writing and the Legacy of Achebe
• Dr Sangeeta Datta, “Things Fall Apart: Reading Achebe in an Indian classroom” (London-Based Film Maker, IES, University of London)
• 3.22-3.42: Tea/coffee break:
• Book launch: David Whittaker and Dr Mpalive Msiska, Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart (Routledge, 2007)
• 3.42-4.22: Panel 4
• Chuma Nwokolo, (Publisher, African Writing on-Line, Writer and Lawyer), “Things Fall Apart: A Voyage through Names”
• Dr Mpalive Msiska, (Birkbeck), “Things Fall Apart and the Art of Being Human,”
• 4.23-4.38: Concluding remarks: Dr Mpalive Msiska