DeathofaFeminist
Priye Iyalla-Amadi, Wife of the Nigerian literary icon
Literary icon Elechi Amadi’s wife talks about the man and his writing
By Sudeshna Sarkar
The party held only six months ago couldn’t have been more different. Both of them were there, ready to greet the guests, he looking frail but smiling while she added the glamor quotient with her festive blue-grey party dress and arresting necklace.
“We celebrated 25 years of our marriage on February 8,” Priye Iyalla-Amadi said from her residence in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. “Today, I am in mourning.” When Elechi Amadi joined his ancestors on June 29, the passing away of the 82-year-old was mourned by all Nigeria, Africa, and as an admirer said, “Lovers of books everywhere.”
Seminal work
In the course of a varied career that included a stint in the army at a volatile period in Nigeria’s history, teaching, and positions as a government official, Amadi discovered himself in 1966 when his first novel, The Concubine, was published. Even five decades later, the story of a luckless widow that combines rural traditions, religious beliefs and a penetrating look into the human heart full of envy, greed and dark thoughts continues to be hailed.
Nigerian author Obinne Udenwe, who won the 2012 African International Achievers Award, paid a tribute to the book and its author, recalling how he read it in secondary school when a friend lent it to him.
“The novel left me with the realization that one could write stories about one’s cultures and traditions so passionately without holding back - in other to educate and to entertain,” Udenwe wrote in his obituary for Amadi.
Africa mourned the loss of its voice of fatherly wisdom, united across political parties and boundaries. Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari said, “The passing away of Amadi is as much a loss to Nigeria and Africa as it is to the world” and his rival, former President Goodluck Jonathan, echoed him without dissent.
“Elechi Amadi comforted us with his literary works,” Jonathan wrote on his Facebook page. “[He and former Foreign Minister Ojo Maduekwe] died at perhaps a time when their wise counsel and fatherly disposition was direly needed by their nation.”
Clement Excel, a corporal with the Nigerian Police in Lagos, told ChinAfrica he first read Amadi in 1994. It was The Concubine published in the African Writers’ Series. “I admire it because it helped readers under-stand the historical and cultural background. The Concubine is a recommended text in schools across Africa,” Excel said.
In Nairobi, a blogger with the user name Thundering Hooves recalled being moved by The Concubine as a student. “I remember as a high school student in Nairobi diligently studying The Concubine for my O levels,” the blogger wrote. “I distinctly remember trying to get our local tongues around some of the names in the novel. We also marveled at the similarities in cultural practices described in the book between those of his community and some of ours. Feels just like yesterday.”
Lennox Oketch, Assistant Chief Accountant at Glitz International, a jewelry enterprise in Nairobi, said he celebrated Amadi’s “immense contribution to social, economic and pre- and post-colonial politics of Africa and Africans.”
Coming from the first generation of African writers, such as Chinua Achebe, Cyprian Ekwensi, Wole Soyinka and Christopher Okigbo, Amadi’s literary legacy includes later novels like Sunset in Biafra, The Slave and Estrangement.
Religion of kindness
How was it like living with an icon?
Priye Iyalla-Amadi described the man behind the accolades.
“His religion was kindness,” she told ChinAfrica. “He would say, people should be kinder. Then the planet would be a more habitable place. A true gentleman, anything he had, he always gave the weak. He wanted to be at peace and promoted dialogue as the best weapon to fight war and promote peace.”
During the three-year Nigerian civil war that started in 1967 after Biafra in the south broke away and declared independence, Amadi served in the Nigerian Army that suppressed the secession. Sunset in Biafra draws on that experience.
Elechi Amadi and Priye Iyalla-Amadi celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary on February 8COURTESY OF PRIYE Iyalla-Amadi“That is why he left the army,” Iyalla-Amadi said. “He found he was a man of peace. As soon as the war was finished and Nigeria won, he left.”
In spite of his fame, Amadi remained accessible. “Even after a week of his passing on, I have been receiving guests who are coming to offer their condolences,” she said.
When the rituals are concluded, a book containing tributes to Amadi would be brought out. She also plans to launch a foundation in his name.
“The foundation’s work would be to promote literature, especially to encourage new writers,” IyallaAmadi said. “He had a creative writing school. That would be part of the foundation.”
She is also planning to translate The Concubine into French. A senior lecturer at the Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, she is a professional translator as well who focuses on French and the Yoruba language. “I discussed it with him but never got around to starting the translation,” she said.
The Concubine was made into a film by director Andy Amenechi and released in 2007. Amadi’s executors are open to film offers for the other novels, provided the proposers are credible and responsible.
Amadi had loved traveling and toured Europe and North America. While another celebrated African writer - Andre Brink from South Africa - had visited Shanghai to attend the city’s annual literary festival, Amadi did not set foot in China. “He did not come to Asia,” Iyalla-Amadi said.
Championing women
She calls him Africa’s first feminist. There are general reasons as well as a specific one for that.
“He always supported the cause of women,” she said, adding: “He gave me full support for my fight.”
She was referring to an incident in 2009 that became a cause celebre. She had applied for an international passport and was told by Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) that being a married woman, she would need to submit a letter of consent from her husband.
Outraged that NIS regarded married women as minors requiring consent from the family head, she sued them and in June 2009, the presiding judge called the NIS requirement discriminatory and unconstitutional.
Priye Iyalla-Amadi then uttered the epitaph for Elechi Amadi: “My husband has achieved immortality through his works and good deeds. His spirit still lives on.” CA