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 Military, military forces of Nigeria. The forces consist of three service branches: the Nigerian Army, Nigerian Navy, and Nigerian Air Force. The President of Nigeria functions as the commander-in-chief of ...

. 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 pu ...

, '' 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 is a states of Nigeria, state in the Niger Delta region of southern Nigeria (Old Eastern Region). Formed on 27 May 1967, when it was split from the former Eastern Region, Nigeria, Eastern Region, Rivers State borders include Imo State, Im ...

Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...

, Elechi Amadi attended Government College, Umuahia (1948–52), Survey School, Oyo (1953–54), and the

University of Ibadan The University of Ibadan (UI) is a public university located in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria. Initially founded as the University College Ibadan in 1948, it maintained its affiliation with the University of London. In 1962, it became an independe ...

(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, located at present time within four local government areas in Kaduna State. It serves as the capital of the Zazzau Emirate Council and is one of the original sev ...

(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 Biafran War, Nigeria-Biafra War, or Biafra War, was fought between Nigeria and the Republic of Biafra, a Secession, secessionist state which had declared its independen ...

, 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 (25 February 1944 – 26 March 2025) was an English literary scholar and author. He wrote books on D. H. Lawrence, Raja Rao, and Mulk Raj Anand, and over the years served as Director General of Africa Centre, Lond ...

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, a portmanteau of Nigeria and Hollywood, is a sobriquet that originally referred to the Nigerian film industry. The origin of the term goes back to the early 2000s, traced to an article in ''The New York Times''. Due to the history ...

film director Andy Amenechi, which premiered in

Abuja Abuja (; , ) is the capital city of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, strategically situated at the geographic midpoint of the country within the Federal Capital Territory (Nigeria), Federal Capital Territory (FCT). As the seat of the Federal G ...

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 a public research university located in Aluu and Choba, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria. It was established in 1975 as University College, Port Harcourt and was given university status in 1977. The Univ ...

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 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 and

Margaret Busby Margaret Yvonne Busby, , Hon. FRSL (born 1944), also known as Nana Akua Ackon, is a Ghanaian-born publisher, editor, writer and broadcaster, resident in the UK. She was Britain's then youngest publisher as well as the first black female book p ...

Death

On 29 June 2016, Amadi died at the Good Heart Hospital in

Port Harcourt Port Harcourt (Pidgin: ''Po-ta-kot or Pi-ta-kwa)'' is the capital and largest city of Rivers State in Nigeria. It is the fifth most populous city in Nigeria after Lagos, Kano, Ibadan and Benin. It lies along the Bonny River and is locate ...

at the age of 82. Nobel laureate

Wole Soyinka Wole Soyinka , (born 13 July 1934) is a Nigerian author, best known as a playwright and poet. He has written three novels, ten collections of short stories, seven poetry collections, twenty five plays and five memoirs. He also wrote two transla ...

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. * 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, 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 Nigerian male writers 21st-century Nigerian male writers Government College Umuahia alumni Academic staff of Ignatius Ajuru University of Education