Catherine Obianuju Acholonu

Catherine Obianuju Acholonu was born in Orlu, Imo State, Nigeria, to Chief Lazarus Emejuru Olumba and Josephine Olumba in a devout Catholic Igbo household. The eldest of four children, she attended Holy Rosary School for her early education. At the age of 17, she married Brendan Douglas Acholonu, a surgeon of the same lineage based in Germany. In 1974, she enrolled at the University of Düsseldorf, where she studied English, American literature, and Germanic linguistics, earning her Master’s degree in 1977 and her Ph.D. in Igbo Studies in 1982 — a landmark achievement as the first African woman to do so. The following year, she presented four academic papers at the Ibadan Conference on Pan-Africanism (Wikipedia contributors, “Catherine Obianuju Acholonu,” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia.

Career Overview

Professor Catherine Obianuju Acholonu began her academic career in 1978 as a lecturer in the Department of English at Alvan Ikoku College of Education, Owerri, Imo State. Over the course of her life, she authored more than sixteen published works, spanning poetry, cultural studies, philosophy, and historical revisionism.

In 1982, she founded AFA: A Journal of Creative Writing, a groundbreaking publication that was among the first in Nigeria to focus on African literary expressions. Her international engagements included representing Nigeria at the United Nations Expert Group Meeting on Women, Population and Sustainable Development in 1986—an event that laid the groundwork for the UN’s major conferences in Rio, Cairo, and Beijing. She was the only Nigerian, and one of just two African participants in the forum.

By 1990, Acholonu had been selected as a Fulbright Scholar by the United States Government. This honor was conferred primarily due to her acclaimed work on the Igbo ancestry of Olaudah Equiano, the renowned abolitionist and autobiographer. During her Fulbright tenure, she lectured in various U.S. institutions, contributing to the development of African American Studies at Manhattanville College.

In Nigeria, she co-founded the Catherine Acholonu Research Center, the first academic institution named after a Nigerian woman. The center focused on precolonial African history, oral traditions, and what she called “Afrocentric historical reconstruction.”

Political Involvement

In 1992, Acholonu made history by contesting for the Nigerian presidency under the platform of the National Republican Convention (NRC)—a bold and unprecedented move for a woman at the time. Her husband, Dr. Brendan Acholonu, was then serving as the Deputy Governor of Imo State, also under the NRC banner.

After democracy returned in 1999, she was appointed Senior Special Adviser on Arts and Culture to President Olusegun Obasanjo, a role she held until 2002. She resigned to contest for a Senatorial seat in Orlu Zone, Imo State, under the National Democratic Party (NDP). She lost the election to Senator Arthur Nzeribe, a controversial political heavyweight.

Literary Works and Reception

Poetry

Acholonu is widely regarded as one of Nigeria’s most prominent female poets. Her works appear in various anthologies, including the Heinemann Book of African Women’s Poetry. Her poetry is noted for its Afro-surrealist elements, feminist undertones, and cultural allusions.

Academic Criticism

Her PhD dissertation, later published as Western and Indigenous Traditions in Modern Igbo Literature, was met with mixed reviews. Chidi T. Maduka, writing for Research in African Literatures, criticized it for what he termed “agenda-driven logic,” accusing her of using ad hominem attacks against dissenting academic views and of misrepresenting bibliographic data.

Her monograph, The Igbo Roots of Olaudah Equiano, attempted to trace the abolitionist’s ancestral lineage to Isseke, Ihiala. However, it was widely criticized across academic circles. Elizabeth Isichei, in The Journal of African History, called the book a “venture in pseudo-history” and pointed out the use of implausible genealogical timelines. Paul Edwards, Ode Ogede, and Christopher Fyfe also critiqued her reliance on oral sources, some of which came from individuals claiming to be over 200 years old. While some, like Erving Beauregard, found her assertions intriguing, most dismissed the work for its lack of scholarly rigor.

Despite the backlash, Acholonu stood by her research and often responded to critics with personal rebukes, which led to further accusations of ad hominem counterattacks.

Philosophical Contributions

Acholonu developed the concept of Motherism, which she described as an Afrocentric alternative to feminism. Originating during her Fulbright studies, the theory emphasized the roles of motherhood, nurturing, and cultural continuity over gender confrontation. In her view, African women’s power stemmed not from gender struggles but from their maternal roles and socio-economic positions.

She rejected Western feminism, including schools led by Alice Walker, Buchi Emecheta, and Flora Nwapa, whom she accused of misandry and pushing ideologies like lesbianism, which she claimed were incompatible with African moral values. Her ideology remains influential in Afrocentric gender discourse, although it has been challenged by younger African feminist scholars for being essentialist and heteronormative.

Acholonu also labeled Islam in Africa as a form of cultural colonialism, asserting that it degraded indigenous systems and especially oppressed African women.

Other Works

Her environmental book, The Earth Unchained: A Quantum Leap in Consciousness, was a rebuttal to Al Gore’s environmental policies, proposing that indigenous African knowledge could offer solutions to global ecological crises. She claimed the content came to her as a divine revelation, and she wrote the entire manuscript in two weeks.

Two of her later books—They Lived Before Adam and The Gram Code of African Adam—claimed to decode prehistoric African writing systems and civilizations based on the Ikom monoliths. These books won awards such as the Flora Nwapa Award for Literary Excellence and the Phillis Wheatley Book Award at the Harlem Book Fair in 2009, but drew heavy criticism for pseudo-archaeology and speculative assertions.

Death and Honors

Catherine Acholonu was listed among Nigeria’s “Greatest Women Achievers” by the National Council of Women Societies (NCWS) in 1997. Her works have been included in syllabi for Nigerian secondary and tertiary institutions, and in African Studies departments across Europe and North America.

She died on March 18, 2014, at the age of 62, following a prolonged battle with renal failure.

References

1. Umeh, Marie (2011). “Acholonu, Catherine Obianuju”. Oxford African American Studies Center. doi:10.1093/acref/9780195301731.013.48143. ISBN 9780195301731. Retrieved 19 May 2021.
2. “Prof Catherine Obianuju Acholonu”. faculty.ucr.edu. Retrieved 30 May 2020.
3. Uduma, Kalu (29 May 2020). “Celebrated scholar, Acholonu dies at 63”. Vanguard Media Limited. Retrieved 19 March 2014.
4. Akyeampong, Emmanuel Kwaku; Gates, Henry Louis (2 February 2012). Dictionary of African Biography. OUP USA. pp. 85–86. ISBN 978-0-19-538207-5.
5. Owomoyela, Oyekan (2008). The Columbia Guide to West African Literature in English Since 1945. Columbia University Press. pp. 56–57. doi:10.7312/owom12686. ISBN 9780231126861. JSTOR 10.7312/owom12686.
6. Otiono, Nduka (29 May 2020). “Catherine Acholonu (1951-2014) The Female Writer as a Goddess” (PDF). Nokoko. 4: 67–89 – via Institute of African Studies.
7. Chuku, Gloria (2009). “Igbo Women and Political Participation in Nigeria, 1800s-2005”. The International Journal of African Historical Studies. 42 (1): 81–103. ISSN 0361-7882. JSTOR 40282431.
8. Osinulu, Clara (1996). Nigerian women in politics, 1986-1993 /. Ikeja, Lagos State, Nigeria. hdl:2027/uva.x006029213. ISBN 9789780230302.
9. Ohaeto, Ezenwa (1 January 1988). “The Other Voices: The Poetry of Three Nigerian Female Writers”. Canadian Journal of African Studies. 22(3): 662–668.

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