'Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold' launch
An initiative of the Embassy of Ireland in Nigeria in partnership with Poetry Ireland, ‘Things Fall Apart; The Centre Cannot Hold – Contemporary Irish and Nigerian Voices on the Legacy of W.B. Yeats’ is a collection of short poems by Irish and Nigerian poets, themed on the poetry of W.B. Yeats.
The Embassy commissioned and launched this collaborative poetry book in Nigeria in November 2023, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Yeats being awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.
It was edited by Ms Aduke Gomez, a Lagos-based writer of Brazilian, Nigerian and Irish heritage. The project was supported by the newly established Friends of Ireland in Nigeria group, as well as the ZODML Library, which provides public libraries to the 20+ million population of Lagos, Africa’s largest city and business and cultural hub.
This cross-cultural book links the iconic Irish poet Yeats with original contributions from contemporary poets in modern-day Ireland and Nigeria.
It also highlights the linkages of Yeats himself with Nigerian culture and literature, through one of the best-known Nigerian and African poets: the late writer Chinua Achebe (1930-2013).
Achebe is a seminal figure in modern African literature and the title of Achebe’s first novel and masterpiece, ‘Things Fall Apart’, is drawn from ‘The Second Coming’, a poem that Yeats published in November 1920. Achebe’s book is described as the most read, studied, and translated African novel.
The book symbolises the longstanding deep ties between Ireland and Nigeria.
This relationship extends all the way to Nigeria’s beginnings as an independent state: Taoiseach Seán Lemass travelled to Nigeria to attend the country’s Independence Day celebrations in 1960 and the following year, Ireland opened our Embassy in Lagos (the then-capital), which marked the first Irish embassy in Africa.
Construction of a flagship new embassy building is currently underway in the Nigerian capital city of Abuja, further symbolising the bond between both countries.