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Catherine Obianuju Acholonu Prof. (Mrs) Catherine Obianuju
Acholonu, was born 26
Oct 1951 in Orlu, Nigeria, and passed away in 2014. She was the former Senior Special Adviser (SSA) to President
Olusegun Obasanjo on Arts and Culture, and foundation member of the Association
of Nigerian Authors (ANA), was 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 was 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 took 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 was 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 was 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 was 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 has made 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. Her passing will be sorely missed. |