Chinua Achebe

Chinua Achebe

• Chinua Achebe was born in Eastern Nigeria in 1930 and raised by Christian parents in the Igbo town of Ogidi in southeastern Nigeria.

• He went to the local public schools and was among the first students to graduate from the University of Ibadan.

• He became fascinated with world religions and traditional African cultures, and began writing stories as a university student.

• After graduation, he worked for the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation as a radio producer and Director of External Broadcasting.

• Chinua Achebe is a novelist, poet, professor at Brown University and critic. 

• He is best known for his first novel, Things Fall Apart (1958), which is the most widely read book in modern African literature. It has been translated into at least forty-five languages, and has sold eight million copies worldwide.

• His later novels include No Longer at Ease (1960), Arrow of God (1964), A Man of the People (1966), and Anthills of the Savannah (1987). 

• Achebe writes his novels in English and has defended the use of English, a "language of colonizers", in African literature. 

• Achebe's novels focus on the traditions of Igbo society, the effect of Christian influences, and the clash of values during and after the colonial era. He combines straightforward narration with representations of folk stories, proverbs, and oratory. 

• He has also published a number of short stories, children's books, and essay collections. 

• Achebe has been active in Nigerian politics since the 1960s. Many of his novels deal with the social and political problems facing his country, including the difficulty of the post-colonial legacy.

• He is married and has four children. He is currently the David and Marianna Fisher University Professor and Professor of Africana Studies at Brown University, United States.