Catherine Obianuju Acholonu

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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 Dusseldorf, Germany, and taught at Alvan Ikoku College of Education, Owerri, commencing 1978.

1 Biography
2 Monographs
3 Articles and Chapters
4 Poems
5 External links

[edit] Biography

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.

[edit] Monographs

In the Heart of Biafra. Owerri: Totan Publishers, 1970.
Nigeria in the Year 1999. Owerri: Totan Publishers, 1985.
The Spring's Last Drop. Owerri: Totan Publishers, 1985.
Trial of the Beautiful Ones. Owerri: Totan Publishers, 1985.
The Deal and Who is the Head of State. Owerri: Totan Publishers, 1986.
The Igbo Roots of Olaudah Equiano: An Anthropological Research. Owerri: AFA Publications, 1989.
Motherism: The Afrocentric Alternative to Feminism. Owerri: AFA Publications, 1995

[edit] Articles and Chapters

Acholonu and Joyce Ann Penfield. "Linguistic Processes of Lexical Innovation in Igbo." Anthropological Linguistics. 22 (1980). 118-130.
"The Role of Nigerian Dancers in Drama." Nigeria Magazine. 53.1 (1985). 33-39.
Acholonu, Catherine Obianuju, "The Home of Olaudah Equiano -- A Linguistic and Anthropological Search," The Journal of Commonwealth Literature. 22.1 (1987). 5-16.
"L'Igbo Langue Litteraire: Le Cas du Nigeria." (Literary Igbo Language: The Case of Nigeria.) Notre Librairie: Revue du Livre: Afrique, Caraibes, Ocean Indien. 98 (Jul-Sept 1989). 26-30.
"Mother was a Great Man." The Heinemann Book of African Women's Writing. Ed. Charlotte H. Bruner. London: Heinemann, 1993. 7-14.
"Motherism: The Afrocentric Alternative." Ishmael Reed's Konch Magazine. Online: http://www.ishmaelreedpub.com/CatherineAcholonu.html. (March-April 2002).