Elechi Amadi, writer of the best-selling novel The Concubine, and a versatile literary giant is dead. He was 82 years old.
A relative of the late novelist told the press that he died at the Good Heart Hospital in Port Harcourt. The cause of his death has however not been disclosed to the public.
Mr Amadi was a well-known writer, whose works focused on themes which were at once Nigerian and universal. Although his most prominent novel, The Concubine, was published in 1966, his experience during the civil war between 1966 and 1970, in which he served as a captain in the Nigerian Army, provided fodder for some of his subsequent writing. Other novels of his include The Great Pond (1969), Sunset in Biafra (1973), and Estrangement (1986). He also wrote plays, essays and poems. Amadi’s love for writing never waned, as he continued to publish even in his old age.
Apart from his writing career, Amadi also worked in various positions with the Rivers state government after the civil war. In 2003, he was awarded the Member of the Order of the Federal Republic (MFR) in recognition of his contributions to Nigerian literature.
