Background

Catherine Acholonu was born on October 26, 1951, in Orlu, Nigeria, to the family of Chief Lazarus Olumba.

Education

Catherine attended secondary schools in Orlu before becoming the first African woman to gain a master's degree in 1977 and a PhD in 1987 from the University of Düsseldorf, Germany.

Career

Catherine Acholonu began her career in 1978 teaching at Alvan Ikoku College of Education, Owerri. Her work embraced ancient and modern literature.

In 1989, as an upcoming scholar, Acholonu toured universities in USA and United Kingdom, lecturing on her research findings and discovery of the Nigerian origin of 17th Century slave author Olaudah Equiano under the United States International Visitor's Program and the British Council sponsorship Program.

She was the Special Adviser on Arts and Culture to the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria from 1999-2002. This 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.

Catherine Acholonu was also Nigeria's Country Ambassador for the UN Forum of Arts and Culture (UNFAC) instituted by the global Secretariat of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification based at the UN Building, Bonn, Germany. Under the leadership of Professor Acholonu, UNFAC launched a number of ambitious programs aimed at creating an interface between cultural development in local communities of Nigeria and sustainable environmental development. Under this program, UNFAC has been partnering with Microsoft to give basic IT Training to under-served community dwellers in Nigeria under the Microsoft Unlimited Potential Program.

Acholonu was the Director of the Catherine Acholonu Research Center, Abuja (CARC). This Center 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.

Acholonu was an incurable idealist and a frontline political activist. She contested for the post of President of Federal Republic of Nigeria 1992. She was one of the founding member of the Peoples Democratic Party, a member of its National Women Mobilization Committee and the Imo State Woman Leader of PDP in the formative years of the party. She was the National Spokesperson of the Movement for Gender Parity, a gender-advocacy group that was in the frontline for the demand for and attainment of the post of the First Woman Speaker of the Nigerian House of Representatives.

Achievements

• Catherine Acholonu is best remembered as a former Special Adviser on Arts and Culture to the Ex-President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo. She is also 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, the most notable of which is The Gram Code of African Adam, which earned her the award of Professor of African History and Philosophy from Pilgrim's University and Theological Seminary, North Carolina.

Works

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• book

  • The Lost Testament of the Ancestors of Adam

    (The Lost Testament of the Ancestors of Adam reveals that ...)

    2010
  • The Gram Code of African Adam

    (The First in the Series of Research Discoveries dealing w...)

    2009
  • Motherism

    (The book Motherism discusses gender, culture and identity...)

    1996
  • The deal and who is the head of state? 1986
  • Nigeria in the year 1999 1985
  • The spring's last drop 1985
  • Trial of the beautiful ones 1985
  • Recite and Learn: Poems for Junior Primary Schools 1986

Politics

As a leading Nigerian political activist Acholonu was an advocate for human rights and women's rights and often expressed burning opinions in the national media on the need for government to put the people first.

Membership

Acholonu was a founding member of the Association of Nigerian Authors.

Connections

Father:

Lazarus Olumba

References

• Who's Who in Contemporary Women's Writing Unique in its breadth of coverage, Who's Who in Contemporary Women's Writing is a comprehensive, authoritative and enjoyable guide to women's fiction, prose, poetry and drama from around the world in the second half of the twentieth century.
  2002
• International Who's Who of Authors and Writers Accurate and reliable biographical information essential to anyone interested in the world of literature.
  2003