The CALP (The Chinua Achebe Literary Prize) is a noble-minded institution set up in 2021 with a cash prize of One Million Naira (N1, 000,000) by the Anambra State government under the leadership of Governor Peter Obi to honour the literary legacies of the colossus, Chinua Achebe, and, as a result, promote literature. Although financially set up by the Anambra State government, the prize was administered by the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) under the nomenclature, The Chinua Achebe Prize for Literature. However, there remained a big gulf in the way of robustly honouring the literary legacies of Africa’s most influential writer, Africa’s most popular and famous writer across the world, who is also hailed as the father of modern African literature, Chinua Achebe, since his passing in 2013. Consequently, in 2022, Professor Emeka Aniagolu, literary practitioner and eminent international scholar, approached the President of ANA, Camillus Ukah, with a vigorous proposal which, among other things, marked a change in the name of the prize from The Chinua Achebe Prize for Literature to what is now known as The CALP (The Chinua Achebe Literary Prize) to fill the big void by instituting the literary legacies of the literary guru, Chinua Achebe, such as matches up to his global stature. 

ANA, led by Camillus Ukah, therefore, set up The CALP committee on 30th April, 2022, a body which initially comprised four dignified and trustworthy members who have excelled in literature and (in some cases) other disciplines, with Professor Emeka Aniagolu in the helm of affairs as Chairman, Architect Chukwudi Eze as Vice-chairman, Professor Razinat Talatu Mohammed as Ex-checker, and a young writer and lecturer from Baze University, Andrew Bula, as Secretary. Before very long, two other distinguished members, Taiwo Francis Akerele, Chairman ANA Abuja Chapter, and Professor James Tar Tsaaior, an intellectual heavyweight and scholar, formerly of Cambridge and of Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Berlin, Germany, were added; thereby making The CALP committee members a group of six, to work out modalities to properly robustly honour the literary legacies of Chinua Achebe.

Existing separately but affiliated to ANA, The CALP as a growing institution has established a website from which you are reading about it and have, accordingly, instituted the following literary awards in honour of Chinua Achebe: Achebe Prize for the Novel, Achebe Prize for Poetry, Achebe Prize for Children’s Literature, Achebe Prize for Literary Criticism, Achebe Prize for Short Story, Achebe Prize for Memoir, and Achebe Prize for Political Treatise. Other interesting proposed handling of the institution are obvious on the website.

As a consequence, The CALP reaches out to governments, grand establishments, and distinguished, concerned individuals within Nigeria and without for financial empowerment to successfully mightily institute Chinua Achebe’s literary legacies, thereby promoting literature, working out the circumstances of literary practitioners, in the finest ways possible.