One of Africa’s finest novelist and playwright Dr. Elechi Amadi, best known for his work, The Concubine, has died at the age of 82 in Port Harcourt after a protracted illness occasioned by multiple organ failure.
A source close to the family said that arrangements had been concluded by the Rivers State government to fly him overseas for medical treatment, but that his ill deteriorated between Monday and wednesday when he passed on in a private clinic in the New Government Reservation Area of Port Harcourt.
Below are 9 facts about the literary icon:
1. The renowned author was born in Aluu community in Ikwerre Local Government Area of Rivers state on 12 May 1933 to Daniel Wonuchuku and Enwere (Weke) Amadi.
2. He studied at the Government College in Umuahia, and the University College of Ibadan where he obtained a degree in physics and mathematics.
3. In 1957 he married Dorah Nwonne Ohale (a midwife) and they had eight children.
4. He served in the Nigerian army between 1963-66, as a captain, and rejoined the military in 1968 and served with Marine Commandos during the Civil War.
5. 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.
6. Amadi is best known for his historical trilogy about traditional life in rural Nigeria: The Concubine (1966), other works are: The Great Ponds (1969), The Slave (1978), Isiburu (1973), Sunset in Biafra (1973), Estrangement (1986), Ethics in Nigerian Culture (1982),Collected Plays (2004), Mahavil ( 1996), Speaking and Singing (Papers and Poems) 2003, Soup and the Road to Ibadan .
7. On 5 January 2009 Amadi was kidnapped at his home in Aluu town, Port Harcourt, by unknown gunmen. He was released 23 hours later, on the evening of 6 January.
8. The Concubine was made into a film, written by Elechi Amadi and directed by accomplished Nollywood film director Andy Amenechi, which premiered in Abuja in March 2007.
9. Awards received by Elechi Amadi are Rivers State Silver Jubilee Merit Award (1992),
Honorary doctorate, Doctor of Science (D.Sc.) in Education, honoris causa, awarded by Rivers State University of Science and Technology (2003), Fellow of the Nigerian Academy of Education (2003),
Member of the Order of the Federal Republic (MFR) 2003.
Rest In Peace!
Source – Happenings