• Nigerian author Chinua Achebe dies at 82

    Afp/getty Images / AFP - Getty Images file

    Author Chinua Achebe outside his home at Ogidi, eastern Nigeria, in 1999.

     

    By Eun Kyung Kim, TODAY contributor

    Chinua Achebe, the Nigerian novelist and poet whose 1958 novel "Things Fall Apart" addressed the effects of colonialism on African society, has died. He was 82.

    Achebe died following a brief illness, his literary agent, Andrew Wylie, said Friday. He added that the author's family has requested privacy.

    Brown University, where Achebe taught for the past four years, said the writer passed away Thursday night.

    "We join the world in mourning Chinua Achebe's death," John Makinson, chairman and chief executive of Penguin Group, said in a statement. "He was a giant, and a wise and kind man. We are honored to have published his final book, which, like all of his books, will outlast us all."

    Achebe’s breakthrough novel focused on the clash between Western and traditional values. It told the story of colonialism for the first time from an African perspective, and has sold more than 10 million copies and been translated into more than 50 languages.

    Nelson Mandela has credited Achebe for bringing "Africa to the rest of the world" and called him "the writer in whose company the prison walls came down."

    Achebe played a pivotal role in the development of African literature. He is the author of more than 20 books, including novels, short stories, essays and poetry collections. In 2007, he won the Man Booker International Prize for Fiction.

    Achebe was born Nov. 16, 1930 and raised in the village of Ogidi in southeastern Nigeria. After graduating from college, he started a radio career that ended abruptly in 1966 during the national upheaval that led to Nigeria’s three-year civil conflict, known as the Biafran War. Achebe then joined the Biafran Ministry of Information and represented Biafra on various diplomatic and fund-raising missions.

    He was known as an outspoken critic of successive dictatorship governments in Nigeria, often refusing to accept literary honors from his home country in protest.

    Last year, Achebe published his final book, "There Was a Country," a memoir about the three-year Biafran War.

    Russell Perreault, publicity director for the writer’s earlier publisher, Random House, noted Achebe once said, "If you don't like someone's story, write your own."

    "We are saddened by the death of the 'Father of African literature' Chinua Achebe," Perreault said. "We are grateful that he told his story and left us with a legacy of great literature and a better understanding of Africa."

    At the time of his death, Achebe was a professor of Africana studies at Brown University. Among his activities at the school was the annual Achebe Colloquium on Africa, an international gathering of scholars, policymakers, and others who shared interest in current day African affairs.

    "He was more than just a colleague, faculty member, and teacher at Brown. He was a gift to the world," said Corey D.B. Walker, chair of Brown’s Department of Africana studies. "At a time like this we could draw many words of wisdom and comfort from the deep wells of various African cultures and traditions to honor him. The most fitting is the simple and elegant phrase, 'A great tree has fallen.'"

    Prior to Brown, Achebe had taught for more than 15 years at Bard College. He moved there shortly after a car accident in 1990 left him paralyzed from the waist down.

    He and his wife, Christie Okoli, had four children.

     

  • Landslip exposes human bones at Dracula graveyard

    Bones have been exposed by a landslip at a cemetery that featured in the horror novel, Dracula. ITV's Steven Douglas reports.

    By Alastair Jamieson, NBC News

    A landslip has exposed human bones in the English coastal cemetery that inspired a scene in Bram Stoker's horror novel Dracula.

    Erosion has dislodged banks of earth containing human remains from graves at St Mary's in Whitby, North Yorkshire, ITV News reported.

    The cemetery was mentioned in the 1897 novel, whose author lived in the seaside town for several years, and the church is a magnet for fans of the book.

    'I managed to identify one hip bone, two pieces of skull and a large bone that looked like it was part of a leg,” local resident Barry Brown told the Northern Echo newspaper.

    He said he found several bones in the backyard of his kipper smokehouse, which sits under the cliff on which the church is perched, the newspaper reported.

    "It’s quite sad picking that sort of thing up, I expect the people who buried them thought they’d be there forever,” he said.

    Whitby Town Council said tthe church itself was not in danger of collapse, and that the remains in the churchyard were very old.

    The church dates from 1100, according to a BBC report.

    A damaged drainage pipe, which left rainwater pouring out of the ancient graveyard and down the cliff, was thought to be to blame for the landslip, ITV said.

     

  • Library opened by Mark Twain falls victim to austerity cuts

    Oli Scarff / Getty Images, file

    A woman looks through donated books which are available for free loan outside Kensal Rise library in London, England.

    By David Wyllie, breakingnews.com

    LONDON -- A British library opened more than a century ago by one of America’s greatest writers is being closed because of austerity budget cuts.

    Kensal Rise public library, in north-west London, was unveiled in 1900 by Mark Twain while he was living in the city.

    He donated five of his own works to its initial collection, which had been established in celebration of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee.

    But 112 years later -- and days away from the Diamond Jubilee of Victoria's granddaughter, Queen Elizabeth II -- the library is facing its end as part of spending cuts by the local council.

    Oli Scarff / Getty Images, file

    Protest posters on Kensal Rise library in London, England.

    It has been locked up and unused for more than a year. Workers for Brent Council attempted to clear out the remaining books on Wednesday but were met with resistance from local campaigners.

    Since the closure was announced, a group of activists has called for it to be saved, enlisting modern British literary figures such as Alan Bennett to their cause.

    For the activists, the library is a piece of history worth holding on to but the council says the number of users is too low to justify keeping it open.

    It is one of six libraries closed in the area, representing a 50 percent cut in services. The council says it has used some of the savings to support a remaining library within a civic center that is more popular.


    The building was donated to the community by Oxford University’s All Souls College through an Act of Parliament. Under that law, the facility can only be used by the council as a free library. The library’s closure means ownership will pass automatically back to the college.

    A spokesman for All Souls told msnbc.com: "This is not something we engineered, this is not something we ever contemplated happening and we regret what is happening."

    Campaigner Margaret Bailey expressed anger at the closure and pledged to continue the fight, praising "the support of the local community."

    The protesters have set up a small free-loan library outside to distribute books to the community.

    Bailey hopes to present a proposal to the college to establish a private volunteer-run library at the site.

    The council has suspended its closure plans the removal of books in order to consult further with the campaigners. But for now the books will stay in their boxes and the library will remain closed.

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