"Pallbearers carry the coffin of late author Chinua Achebe at his funeral service, held at St. Philip's Anglican Church in Ogidi, Nigeria, Thursday, May 23, 2013. Writer Chinua Achebe shunned Nigeria's corrupt politicians and twice turned down national honors, never fearing to criticizing those he felt ruined a country he once supported breaking away from. On Thursday, however, the lawmakers and the country's elite came to him. Hundreds attended Achebe's funeral among the rolling hills of his eastern Nigeria home, a service that saw even President Goodluck Jonathan literally hold up the writer's books. The gold plaque on his coffin simply called him the ""eagle atop the Iroko tree"" in his native Igbo language. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)"
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