CHINUA ACHEBE (1930-2013)

CHINUA ACHEBE (1930-2013)

Chinua Achebe was a Nigerian novelist, poet, and critic who is regarded as the dominant figure of modern African literature. His first novel and magnum opus, Things Fall Apart, occupies a pivotal place in African literature and remains the most widely studied, translated and read African novel.

CHINUA ACHEBE was Born (16 November, 1930) in Ogidi, in Anambra State, Achebe was baptized Albert Chinualumogu. He is one of Nigeria’s most renowned English-language novelists. He received his bachelor’s degree in literature from the University College (present-day University of Ibadan). Achebe worked for the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation (1954–1967). 

In 1967, he joined the faculty of the University of Nigeria at Nsukka as a literature professor. During the civil war, Achebe worked for the Republic of Biafra. In 1967, he cofounded a publishing company with Christopher Okigbo, who died during the civil war. Many of Achebe’s works touch on Nigerian political issues. 

His famous works include Things Fall Apart (1958), Anthills of the Savannah (1987), and No Longer at Ease (1960). After the war, he worked as the director of African Studies at the University of Nigeria at Enugu. During the 1970s, he taught at several different universities in the United States. He spent the next 20 years living in both the United States and Nigeria, holding various positions such as director of Heinemann (Nigeria). 

Achebe was a member of the People’s Redemption Party. In 1990, he was paralyzed from the waist down by a serious car accident in Nigeria. 

He published his first novel Things Fall Apart in 1958 and has since published four more novels and a series of short stories, essays, and other literature. Much of Achebe’s work focuses on the themes of colonialism, post-colonialism, and the tumultuous political atmosphere in post colonial Nigeria.

Achebe has received numerous awards, including the Margaret Wong Prize, the New Statesman “Jock” Campbell Prize, and the Commonwealth Poetry Prize (1972). He has also received several honorary doctorates from international universities. 

Chinua Achebe died after a short illness on 21 March 2013 in Boston,  United States at the age of 82.

Rest in peace legend...