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Catherine Obianuju Acholonu Prof. (Mrs) Catherine Obianuju
Acholonu, born 26 Oct 1951 in Orlu, Nigeria, the former Senior Special Adviser
(SSA) to President Olusegun Obasanjo on Arts and Culture, and foundation
member of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), is an author of
international standing. She attended secondary schools in Orlu before gaining
a master's degree and a Ph.D. from the University of Düsseldorf, Germany, and
taught at Alvan Ikoku College of Education, Owerri, commencing 1978. Her work that embraces ancient and modern
literature illuminates pathways of human history. Catherine Acholonu is a writer,
researcher and former lecturer on African Cultural and Gender Studies. She is
the author of over 15 books, most of which are used in secondary schools and
universities in Nigeria, and in African Studies Departments in USA and
Europe. Her works and projects have enjoyed the collaboration and the support
of United States Information Service (USIS), the British Council, the
Rockefeller Foundation and in 1989 she was invited to tour educational
institutions in USA, lecturing on her works under the United States
International Visitor’s Program. In 1990 Catherine Acholonu was honored with
the Fulbright Scholar in Residency award by the US government, during which
she lectured at 4 colleges of the Westchester Consortium for International
studies, NY, USA Part of her work has taken her
into the wider sphere of sustainable development. In 1986 she was the only
Nigerian, and one of only 2 Africans to participate in the United Nations
Expert Group Meeting on “Women, Population and Sustainable Development: the
Road to Rio, Cairo and Beijing”, which was organized jointly by the United
Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the Division for the Advancement of Women,
and the Division for Sustainable Development. This took place in the
Dominican Republic, and focused on the mainstreaming of gender into the Plans
of Action of the UN world conferences of Rio, Beijing and Cairo. Prof
Acholonu holds several awards from home and abroad. She was recently appointed African
Renaissance Ambassador by the African Renaissance Conference with head
quarters in the Republic of Benin, and Nigeria’s sole representative at the
global Forum of Arts and Culture for the Implementation of the UN
Convention to Combat Desertification (UNFAC). Before this, from
1999-1002, she was the Special Adviser on Arts and Culture to the President
of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, a post she resigned from to seek
election, along with a number of other writers who felt their inclusion in
Nigerian politics would for the good. However, she lost the contest the Orlu
senatorial district seat of Imo State, and drew attention to irregularities
and rigging. She is listed in the International
Who’s Who of World Leadership, USA; the African Women Writers’ Who’s
Who; the Top 500 Women in Nigeria; Who’s Who in Nigeria;
and the International Authors and Writers Who’s Who, published in
Cambridge, UK. Professor Catherine Acholonu is
the author of over 16 books of various genre. Her latest titles include The
Gram Code of African Adam: Stone Books and Cave Libraries, Reconstructing
450,000 Years of Africa's Lost Civilizations (2005); They Lived Before Adam -
Pre Historic Origins of the Igbo, The Never-Been-Ruled (2009); The Lost
Testament of the Ancestors of Adam: Unearthing Heliopolis/Igbo Ukwu - The
celestial City of the Gods of Egypt and India (2010). Acholonu is the
Director of the Catherine Acholonu Research Center, Abuja (CARC)and the
Nigeria Country Ambassaor of the United Nations Forum of Arts and Culture for
the Implementation of the Convention to Combat Desertification (UNFAC). One
of her titles - They Lived Before Adam - won the USA-based International Book
Awards in 2009 in the Multi-cultural non-fiction category. Professor Catherine Acholonu's
Research Center, based in Abuja, Nigeria is engaged in ground-breaking
research on Africa's Pre-History, stone inscriptions, cave art, and
linguistic analyses of ancient symbols and communication mediums from the
continent. Her work is making a very persuasive case for the re-evaluation
and possible rewriting of world history to ensure the contributions of the
ancestors of indigenous Africans in it. |