| May 16, 1996 | Release No. 408 Contact: Phyllis Graber Jensen 207-786-6330 (office) 207-784-6240 (home) |
FOR RELEASE MAY 15
Bates Commencement Slated for May 27; Achebe to Speak
LEWISTON, Maine -- Celebrated Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe, an articulate
champion for Africans in the postcolonial era, will deliver the commencement
address at Bates College on
Joining Achebe as honorary-degree recipients will be one of America's most
eloquent ministers, Peter J. Gomes, a Bates alumnus; human-rights activist
Natalie Webber Gulbrandsen, a Bates alumna; and entomologist Edward O. Wilson.
Harward will confer bachelor's degrees on approximately 390 seniors in an
outdoor ceremony at 10 a.m. in front of Coram Library, following the
traditional procession of seniors and faculty, which will be led by bagpipers.
In case of rain, the graduation exercise will be held in the Margaret Hopkins
Merrill Gymnasium.
A novelist, short-story writer, poet and essayist, Achebe is one of the most
important figures in contemporary African literature. His novels, chronicles
of the colonization and independence of Nigeria, are among the first works in
English to present an authentic rendering of African culture. Achebe's works
are a successful fusion of Ibo folklore, proverbs and idioms with Western
ideologies and Christian doctrine.
"Things Fall Apart" (1958), Achebe's first novel, is considered a classic
of contemporary African fiction for its realistic portrait of Ibo society at
the turn of the century when Europeans first came upon the Niger.
His subsequent novels "No Longer At Ease" (1960), "Arrow of God" (1964), "A
Man of the People" (1966) and "Anthills of the Savannah" (1987) bore out the
early promise of his first award-winning book. Critic G.S. Killam calls Achebe
"arguably the most widely read and discussed African writer of his
generation."
The author of two-short story collections, "The Sacrificial Egg, and Other
Stories" (1962) and "Girls at War, and Other Stories" (1973), he also has
published several essay collections as well as two volumes of poetry,
including "Beware Soul Brother, and Other Poems" (1971), the winner of the
first (British) Commonwealth Poetry Prize in 1972.
The fifth of his parent's six children, Achebe was raised in an evangelical
Christian family in the village of Ogidi. He attended Government College in
Umuahia and University College in Ibadan, and received his B.A. from London
University in 1953.
His first career, in radio, ended abruptly in 1966 when Achebe left his
position as director of external broadcasting in Lagos during the national
upheaval and massacres that led to the Biafran War (1967-70).
The Charles P. Stevenson Jr. Professor of Languages and Literature at Bard
College since 1990, Achebe retired in 1981 from the University of Nigeria,
Nsukka, where he was named professor emeritus four years later. He taught in
the English departments at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, from
1972-75, and at the University of Connecticut, Storrs, from 1975-76.
Achebe has received numerous honors from different parts of the world,
including more than 20 honorary doctorates from universities in Britain, the
United States, Canada and Nigeria, as well as Nigeria's highest award for
intellectual achievement, the Nigerian Order of National Merit.
Peter J. Gomes '65 is the Plummer Professor of Christian Morals and
minister of the Memorial Church at Harvard University. Since being named by
Time Magazine in 1979 as one of America's seven most influential preachers, he
has remained an insistent voice of conscience, blending a conservative view of
religion and morality -- he is a leading authority on the Pilgrims of
Plymouth--with contemporary concern for the physical and spiritual welfare of
all Americans. His closely reasoned sermons are among the quintessential
Harvard experiences.
Natalie Webber Gulbrandsen '42 is president of the International
Association for Religious Freedom, a worldwide organization based in London
which promotes human rights, interreligious cooperation, peace and justice.
She previously was moderator of the Unitarian Universalist Association, an
officer in the Girl Scouts organization and a member of numerous Wellesley
(Mass.) civic groups.
Edward O. Wilson is an entomologist, evolutionary biologist, naturalist and
author. His development of sociobiology in the 1970s made him a convenient
target for those who say nurture is all, nature nothing, in animal and human
development. But sociobiology has prevailed as among the most important work
ever done on animal behavior, and Wilson has emerged as a leading theorist in
support of conservation, particularly biodiversity. His book "The Insect
Societies" (1971) remains a classic.
# # #