Author's Corner: Elechi Amadi Biography, Age, Notable Works, Death, Kidnap, Awards And Achievements.

Name: Elechi Amadi

Age: 82

Death: Died 29 June 2016

Occupation: Novelist

Nationality: Nigerian

Biography Of A Soldier Who Turned Author.

Elechi Amadi a well known Nigerian author and a former soldier (MFR), born on the 12 May 1934 in Aluu, Rivers State, Nigeria. He was a former member of the Nigerian Armed Forces. 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. Elechi Amadi is best regarded for his 1966 debut novel, The Concubine, which has been called "an outstanding work of pure fiction".

Notable Works

Elechi Amadi worked for a time as a land surveyor and later was a teacher at several schools, including the Nigerian Military School, Zaria (1963–66). He served in the Nigerian army, remained there during the Nigerian Civil War, 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).

Books

Elechi Amadi is famous for his works The Concubine (1966). Elechi Amadi first publication was in 1957, a poem entitled "Penitence" for a magazine called The Horn, during his time at the University of Ibadan campus. His debut novel, The Concubine, was published in London in 1966, rooted firmly among the hunting and fishing villages of the Niger delta, was  very much well accepted in Africa and worldwide. The Concubine was made into a film, written by Elechi Amadi and directed by accomplished Nollywood film director Andy Amenechi, which was premiered in Abuja in March 2007.

Elechi Amadi's second novel, The Great Ponds, published in 1969, setting in 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.

Before his death, Elechi Amadi released his last book, When God Came. He turned for the first time to the genre of science fiction, and was hailed as an iconic masterpieces.

Other Books:

• Isiburu (play) - 1973
• Peppersoup and The Road (plays, combined volume) - 1977
• Dancer of Johannesburg (play) - 1978
• The Slave (novel) - 1978
• Ethics in Nigerian Culture (philosophy) - 1982
• Estrangement (novel), Heinemann African Writers Series - 1986
• The Woman of Calabar (play) - 2002
• Speaking and Singing (essays and poems) - 2003
• Collected Plays - 2004

Elechi Amadi 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.

Death

On 29 June 2016, Amadi died at the Good Heart Hospital in River State, Port Harcourt, Nigeria at the age of 82.

Awards And Achievements

Elechi Amadi have numerous awards to his name. In 1992, he won the Rivers State Silver Jubilee Merit Award. He was also awarded the honorary doctorate, Doctor of Science (D.Sc.) in Education, honoris causa, awarded by Rivers State University of Science and Technology, in 2023.

The same year, Elechi Amadi was decorated Fellow of the Nigerian Academy of Education and the Member of the Order of the Federal Republic (MFR).