The Pan African Writers Association (PAWA) has greeted the renown Nigerian critic, essayist, poet, and journalist, Chinweizu Ibekwe, on the occasion of his 83rd birthday on March 26, 2026.
PAWA was represented in a visit to the celebrant in his Accra, Ghana, home today by its Secretary General, Dr Wale Okediran, in the company of one of Chinweizu’s close associates, Albert Tetteh.
The celebrant, born on March 26, 1943, is known mononymously as Chinweizu.
While studying in the United States during the Black Power movement, Chinweizu became influenced by the philosophy of the Black Arts Movement which led to his long term association with Black orientalism, especially Pan Africanism.
After a teaching spell in the U.S., he returned to Nigeria in the early 1980s, working over the years as a columnist for various newspapers in the country and also working to promote Black orientalism in Pan-Africanism.
Chinweizu’s notable intervention on this theme came in the essay “The Decolonization of African Literature” (later expanded into the 1983 book Toward the Decolonization of African Literature).
Among Chinweizu’s other works is Anatomy of Female Power in which he discusses gender roles, masculinity and feminism.
In a press release, PAWA noted: “Chinweizu, who moved to Ghana about twenty years ago, has continued to contribute to academic discourse through lectures and seminars despite his ill health.”
