Nwando Achebe

Nwando Achebe
Nationality	Nigerian-American
Relatives	Chinua Achebe (father)
Philosophical work
School	West Africanist, oral historian, feminism
Institutions	Michigan State University, University of California, Los Angeles
Main interests	Women, gender, oral history, Sexuality, Africa, West Africa
Notable works	Farmers, Traders, Warriors, and Kings: Female Power and Authority in Northern Igboland: 1900–1960, The Female King of Colonial Nigeria: Ahebi Ugbabe, History of West Africa E-Course Book, A Companion to African History, Holding the World Together: African Women in Changing Perspective, Female Kings and Merchant Queens in Africa.
Website	nwandoachebe.com

Nwando Achebe // ^ⓘ (born 7 March 1970), is a Nigerian-American academic, academic administrator, feminist scholar, and historian.^[1] She is a University Distinguished Professor,^[2] Jack and Margaret Sweet Endowed Professor of History,^[3] and the Associate Dean for Access, Faculty Development, and Strategic Implementation in the College of Social Science at Michigan State University.^[4] She is also founding editor-in-chief of the Journal of West African History.^[5] She works on 19th- and 20th-century cultural, political, social, and religious histories with a focus on women and gender.^[6]

Early life and education

Nwando Achebe was born in Enugu, eastern Nigeria^[7] to Nigerian writer, essayist and poet, Chinua Achebe and Christie Chinwe Achebe, a professor of education.^[8]

Achebe received her Ph.D. in African History from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2000. An oral historian by training, her areas of expertise are West African History, women, gender and sexuality histories.^[9]

Career

In 1996 and 1998, Achebe served as a Ford Foundation and Fulbright-Hays Scholar-in-Residence at The Institute of African Studies and The Department of History and International Studies at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Her first academic position was as an assistant professor of history at the College of William and Mary. She then moved to Michigan State University in 2005 as a tenured associate professor, professor in 2010, and is presently a University Distinguished Professor as well as the Jack and Margaret Sweet Endowed Professor.^[9]

Achebe is also a member of the Nigerian Academy of Letters and Vice President/President-Elect of the African Studies Association.^[9]

Writing

Achebe has published six books. Her first book, Farmers, Traders, Warriors, and Kings: Female Power and Authority in Northern Igboland, 1900–1960, was published by Heinemann in 2005. The book has been described by scholars such as Isidore Okpewho, and Obioma Nnaemeka as a significant contribution to African historiography, gender studies, as well as political and religious change during the colonial period. Reviewers Simon Ottenberg^[10] and Edna G. Bay^[11] praised Achebe for her detailed analysis of women’s economic and spiritual roles and emphasized that her rich field data is invaluable for understanding Igbo women’s agency in colonial-era society. The book introduces the concept of “female principle” as a theoretical framework, and examines examines northern Igbo lives in ways that previous studies have not, presenting them as active participants in shaping the region.^[12] Throughout the study northern Igbo gendered histories are used to raise questions about prevailing assumptions that characterize African women as subordinate, offering evidence of female power and authority in the society.^[13]

Her second book, The Female King of Colonial Nigeria: Ahebi Ugbabe, was published in 2011 by Indiana University Press. It is a full-length biography on the only female warrant chief and king in British Africa. The book has received three awards: the Aidoo-Snyder Book Prize, the Barbara "Penny" Kanner Book Prize, and the Gita Chaudhuri Book Prize.^[14] A review in the Leeds African Studies Bulletin describes it “one of the most compellingly argued, rigorously researched scholarly writings in the fields of history and women studies in colonial Igbo society, Nigeria and Africa."^[15]

Achebe is a co-author of the 2018 History of West Africa E-Course Book (British Arts and Humanities Research Council, 2018), a textbook for students taking the West African Senior School Certificate Examination.^[16] She is also co-editor with William Worger and Charles Ambler of A Companion to African History (Wiley Blackwell, 2019), and with Claire Robertson, Holding the World Together: African Women in Changing Perspective (University of Wisconsin Press, 2019). Achebe's 2020 Female Monarchs and Merchant Queens in Africa is published by Ohio University Press.^[17] Laura Seay of The Washington Post, described Female Monarchs and Merchant Queens in Africa' as "a brilliant, thoroughly engaging and accessible book."^[18]

Personal life

She is married to Folu Ogundimu, professor of journalism at Michigan State University and they have a daughter, Chino.^[19] Her older brother, Chidi Chike Achebe is a physician-executive.

Awards recognition

Nwando Achebe has received grants from the Wenner Gren Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Woodrow Wilson, Fulbright-Hays, Ford Foundation, the World Health Organization and the National Endowment for the Humanities. She is also the recipient of three book awards.^[20]

Publications

• Farmers, Traders, Warriors, and Kings: Female Power and Authority in Northern Igboland, 1900–1960. ISBN 0325070784
• The Female King of Nigeria: Ahebi Ugbabe. ISBN 0253222486
• History of West Africa E-Course Book. ISBN 978-9983960204
• A Companion to African History. ISBN 047065631X
• Holding the World Together: African Women in Changing Perspective. ISBN 9780299321109
• Female Monarchs and Merchants Queens in Africa. ISBN 0821424076

References

1. Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation. "Seeing The Whole Dance: Nwando Achebe WS '00 Brings New Perspective to African Women's Power". Retrieved 11 May 2017.
2. MSU Today (17 June 2025). "10 MSU faculty members earn University Distinguished Professor designation".
3. "Nwando Achebe, Department of History". Retrieved 13 May 2017.
4. "Associate Dean of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion". Retrieved 15 August 2020.
5. OkayAfrica International Edition. "Why It is Crucial to Locate the "African" in African Studies". okayafrica.com. Retrieved 11 May 2017.
6. "Nwando Achebe – Department of History". Retrieved 5 September 2023.
7. Daily Trust Newspaper. "Nigeria: Nwando Achebe--The Woman and Her Works". All Africa. Retrieved 13 May 2017.
8. Offiong, Vanessa. "Nigeria: Nwando Achebe--The Woman and Her Works". AllAfrica. Retrieved 11 May 2017.
9. "Nwando Achebe profile".
10. Ottenberg, Simon. "Review of Farmers, Traders, Warriors, and Kings: Female Power and Authority in Northern Igboland, 1900–1960, by Nwando Achebe". African Studies Review. 49 (3): 181–184. doi:10.1353/arw.2007.0059.
11. Bay, Edna G. (2006). "Review of Farmers, Traders, Warriors, and Kings: Female Power and Authority in Northern Igboland, 1900–1960, by Nwando Achebe". The American Historical Review. 111 (5): 1642–1643. doi:10.1086/ahr.111.5.1642.
12. Ejikeme, Anene (2007). "Farmers, Traders, Warriors, and Kings: Female Power and Authority in Northern Igboland, 1900-1960 Nwando Achebe". The International Journal of African Historical Studies. 40 (3): 525–528.
13. Achebe, Nwando (2005). Farmers, Traders, Warriors, and Kings: Female Power and Authority in Northern Igboland: 1900-1960. Heinemann. pp. 5–9, 47–52, 118–123.
14. African Studies Association. "Meet the Winner of the 2013 Aidoo-Snyder Book Prize--Dr. Nwando Achebe". Archived from the original on 31 March 2017. Retrieved 11 May 2017.
15. Ukaegbu, Victor (Winter 2012–2013). "A Review of Nwando Achebe's Female King of Colonial Nigeria". Leeds African Studies Bulletin. 74: 103–105.
16. "History Textbook--West African Senior School Certificated Examination".
17. "Nwando Achebe | College of Social Science | Michigan State University". socialscience.msu.edu. Retrieved 27 May 2020.
18. "The Washington Post". The Washington Post. Retrieved 15 August 2020.
19. "Meet the Winner of the 2013 Aidoo-Snyder Prize--Dr. Nwando Achebe". African Studies Association. Archived from the original on 31 March 2017. Retrieved 13 May 2017.
20. Ejikeme, Anene (2007). "Reviewed Work: Farmers, Traders, Warriors, and Kings: Female Power and Authority in Northern Igboland, 1900-1960 by Nwando Achebe". www.international.ucla.edu. JSTOR 40034048. Retrieved 27 May 2020.