The University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, US will on October 22 and 23, commemorate the 40th anniversary of the historic first meeting between Nigeria’s literary icon, Professor Chinua Achebe and American literary giant, James Baldwin.
The American novelist, playwright, essayist, poet and activist whose book-length essays include ‘The Fire Next Time’, ‘No Name in the Street’ and ‘The Devil Finds Work’ and Achebe met in Gainesville, Florida in April 1980.
The occasion was the African Literature Association conference devoted to the African Aesthetic, and Baldwin was reported to have said of the meeting: “It’s very important that we should meet each other, finally, if I must say so, after something like 400 years.”
The forthcoming two-day event, initially scheduled for April 2 and 3 but now happening in October, is organised by the University of Florida’s Centre for African Studies, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences.
“On the 40th anniversary of Baldwin and Achebe’s historic encounter at the University of Florida, this two-day event invites return and reflection,” stated the organisers.
The first day, they disclosed, will probe the experiential archive through oral history, memoir, and artefact.
They added: “The second day invites literary engagement around reading, representing and writing the nexus of Africa and America in the present on the UF campus and across the community.
“How might we come to know and narrate this past in its midst and from afar. Does a Black Aesthetic today displace the pursuit of an African one? Can there ever be a single voice to speak with or against? Does a literary imagination forged in displacement and diaspora transcend attempts at localisation? What are the artistic and political stakes, and do they recall or refute the promises of the past?”
Participants from within and outside the US will be at the event celebrating the life and works of the two outliers.
Born on August 2, 1924, Baldwin who died on December 1, 1987, was the author of novels including ‘Go Tell It on the Mountain’, ‘Giovanni’s Room’, ‘Another Country’, ‘Tell Me How Long the Train’s Been Gone’, ‘If Beale Street Could Talk’ and ‘Just Above My Head’.
Achebe, who some fondly call ‘Father of African Literature’, on the other hand, was a novelist, poet, academic and critic. His famous first novel, ‘Things Fall Apart’, has been translated into over 60 languages and is one of the most important books in African literature.
His other works include ‘No Longer at Ease’, ‘Arrow of God’, ‘A Man of the People’ and ‘Anthills of the Savannah.’
The Man Booker International Prize he was awarded in June 2007 was one of the several honours he won before his passing on March 21, 2013, in the US.