Chimamanda Adichie at Things Fall Apart festival delivers passionate speech on Igbo culture, unity, and identity at Enugu’s inaugural celebration of Achebe’s legacy

Chimamanda Adichie’s at Things Fall Apart festival captivated audiences with a moving keynote that reflected on identity, cultural decline, and urgent calls for unity.

The celebrated novelist returned to her birthplace of Enugu, where she addressed a hall filled with writers, students, artists, and scholars as the inaugural festival closed.

Clad in a vibrant burnt-orange African-print outfit and wearing her hair in a regal afro, Adichie stood with confidence and nostalgia.

“It’s always a homecoming when I return to the south-east,” she began. But she was quick to add, “It no longer feels like home – the calm, the warmth, the essence seems to have faded.”

Her words resonated across the room. The audience sat still as she spoke of violence in the region, cultural loss, and the fading communal values once held sacred in Igbo society.

The Things Fall Apart festival, held in honour of Chinua Achebe’s 1958 classic novel, brought together elements of Igbo tradition and reflection.

With symbolic huts, shrines, yam barns, and live performances recreating Okonkwo’s world, the event felt like both a celebration and a reckoning.

“Things Fall Apart is not just a book,” said Iheanyi Igboko, executive director of the Centre for Memories. “It is a mirror, a declaration of identity, and a provocation.”

Adichie’s speech took on that provocation. Speaking about recent ritual killings, she said, “We hear grotesquely inhumane stories of people murdered in ritual practices for money.

It is important to note the victims are mostly women.” She decried the erosion of respect for life and called on the Igbo to look inward.

“Let us wake up,” she said firmly. “We often speak of political marginalisation. While that exists, we must pause that conversation until we have cleaned our own house.”

Unity doesn’t mean the absence of differences – it is the decision to come together despite them.

Her message wasn’t just about criticism. It was a plea for collective responsibility and a rallying cry for the preservation of language, values, and stories.

She noted that like Achebe did with Things Fall Apart, her own new novel, Dream Count, seeks to explore identity and womanhood.

This latest work marks her first in over a decade and was a highlight of her book tour presence at the festival.

The symbolic location of the festival, Enugu, added further meaning. Achebe taught at the University of Nigeria Nsukka and wrote extensively about Igbo life.

Organisers recreated scenes from his novel, including a wrestling match between Okonkwo and Amalinze the Cat.

Guests sipped palm wine from coconut-shell cups and watched theatrical pieces by the Ijele Renaissance Theatre, embodying the depth of Igbo tradition.

Nollywood icon Nkem Owoh, who featured in the 1987 TV adaptation of Things Fall Apart, was in attendance, along with dozens of cultural figures.

Yet, it was the younger generation that appeared most inspired.

Janeth Sule, a banker, described the experience as “a reminder to preserve culture and tell our stories.”

John Tochukwu, an artist who helped craft festival props, said Achebe “helped us see who we are – not as people of darkness, but of dignity and tradition.”

Adichie’s words echoed this sentiment, closing the event with both beauty and urgency.

Chimamanda Adichie at Things Fall Apart reminded all that literature, culture, and unity are not relics of the past but tools for reshaping the future.