Chinua Achebe Biography

Many critics and teachers view Chinua Achebe as the most important African writer of his generation. His works, particularly the novel Things Fall Apart, have introduced readers all over the world to creative language and form, as well as factual insider views of modern African life and history. Achebe has helped to transform the perspective of African history, culture, and place in world events, not only via his literary contributions but also through his promotion of bold objectives for Nigeria and Africa. 

Things Fall Apart, Achebe's first work is considered a literary classic and is taught and read throughout the English-speaking globe. The novel is translated into at least 45 languages and has sold millions of copies worldwide. The Margaret Wong Memorial Prize, a significant literary honour, was given to the book a year after it was published. The novels of Achebe focus on Igbo society's traditions, the impact of Christian influences, and the clash of ideals during and after colonialism.

His storytelling combines plain narrative with portrayals of folk stories, proverbs, and oratory and is greatly influenced by the Igbo oral culture. Achebe is widely regarded as the founder of modern African literature, an essayist, and a professor of English literature at New York's Bard College. But it is Achebe's dominance in Nigeria's intellectual culture, as well as its literary and political institutions, that best reflects his achievements. In this article, let’s discuss Chinua Achebe life and works, Chinua Achebe background and Achebe Biography.

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An image of Chinua Achebe

Chinua Achebe Early Life

Chinua was born in the Igbo village of Ogidi in Anambra, Nigeria. He was the 5th child of six children for Isaiah and Janet Achebe. They were early Protestant converts in the region. Before returning to his village, Isaiah worked as a missionary teacher in various locations of Nigeria. In Igbo, Achebe's name means "May God Fight on My Behalf." He later famously discarded his first name, noting in an essay that he and Queen Victoria shared a thing in common, which is, they had both "lost Albert."

Achebe was raised by parents who were devout Christians. He was educated in English from an early age but grew up in an environment that was a complicated combination of Igbo traditions and colonial history. Achebe attended University College, a British-style university, where he initially planned to study medicine before switching to English, history, and theology.

Chinua Achebe Educational Background

Although Achebe was raised as a Christian, many of his relatives continued to follow their ancestral polytheistic beliefs. His early schooling took place at a local school where youngsters were taught to renounce their parents' faith and were banned from speaking Igbo. At the age of 14, Achebe was enrolled into the Government College at Umuahia, a prestigious boarding school. Christopher Okigbo, a poet who became Achebe's longtime friend, was one of his classmates. In 1948, Achebe received a scholarship to study medicine at the University of Ibadan, but after a year, he changed his major to writing. At university, he majored in English literature and language, history, and theology.

Achebe worked for the Nigerian Broadcasting Company in Lagos after graduation and went on to study at the British Broadcasting Corporation's staff school in London. During this time, Achebe was working on his writing career. He aspired to create African literature that would reflect African characters and society in all of their depth and complexity, having been taught that Igbo values and culture were inferior to those of Europeans and finding only caricatured stereotypes of Africans in Western literature. In the 1950s, he was a key figure in the development of a Nigerian literary movement that drew on the oral traditions of Nigeria's indigenous tribes. Despite the fact that Achebe wrote in English, he tried to include Igbo vocabulary and stories. Many of his novels dealt with the country's social and political issues, especially the challenges of its postcolonial legacy.

Personal Life And Works 

In 1953, Achebe graduated from the University of Ibadan and went on to work for the Nigerian Broadcasting Service as a scriptwriter, eventually rising to the position of head programmer for the discussion series. In 1956, he travelled to London for the first time to attend a BBC training course. After returning to Enugu, he worked for the NBS as an editor and producer of stories. He wrote "Things Fall Apart" in his free time. In 1958, the novel was published.

His second novel, "No Longer at Ease," was released in 1960 and is set in the decade leading up to Nigeria's independence. Okonkwo’s grandson is the protagonist, as he learns to fit into British colonial culture.

Chinua Achebe married Christiana Chinwe Okoli in 1961, and the couple had four children: Chinelo and Nwando, twin sons Ikechukwu and Chidi, and twin daughters Chinelo and Nwando. "Arrow of God," the third book in the African trilogy, was published in 1964. It tells the storey of Ezeulu, an Igbo priest who sends his son to Christian missionaries to be educated, where the youngster is converted to colonialism and attacks Nigerian religion and culture.

Career and Publications

After the civil war in 1970, Achebe and his family returned to Nigeria. Achebe joined the University of Nigeria in Nsukka as a research fellow, where he launched "Okike," an important journal for African creative writing.  At the University of Massachusetts, Achebe was a guest professor of African literature from 1972 to 1976. He returned to lecture at the University of Nigeria after that. He became the chair of the Association of Nigerian Writers and was the editor of "Uwa ndi Igbo," a journal about Igbo culture and life. He was a relatively active member of the opposition. In 1983, he was elected as the People's Redemption Party's deputy national president and produced a political pamphlet.

Despite writing many essays and remaining active in the writing community, Achebe did not write another book until 1988's "Anthills in the Savannah," about three old school friends who become a military dictator, an editor of the leading newspaper, and the minister of information. Achebe was paralysed from the waist down due to severe spinal injuries in a car accident in Nigeria in 1990. From 1991 to 2009, he taught at Bard College in New York, which provided him with both a career and the necessary resources. Achebe was appointed as a professor of African studies at Brown University in 2009. Achebe continued to lecture and travel all over the world. He had written the essay "There Was a Country: A Personal History of Biafra" in 2012.

'Things Fall Apart'

Things Fall Apart was Achebe's first novel, and it was published in 1958. The novel explores the conflict in Nigeria between traditional African culture and the impact of white Christian missionaries as well as the colonial government. The book was a remarkable success and became required reading in many schools throughout the world because it gave a genuine look at the conflict.

Awards and Accolades

Achebe has received scores of honorary doctorates and other international literary awards over the years. He is an honorary member of the American Academy and the Institute of Arts and Letters, and his work has been translated into over 40 languages. He moved to Europe in 1994 to avoid being imprisoned by the harsh Nigerian regime. He eventually went to Nigeria to serve as president of the town union of his ancestral hamlet of Ogidi, where he was honoured for his dedication to the myths and tales of his ancestors.

Death and Legacy

On March 21, 2013, Achebe died in Boston, Massachusetts, suffering a brief illness. By showing the effects of European colonisation from the perspective of Africans, he is credited with changing the face of world literature. He chose to write in English, which drew some criticism, but his goal was to inform the entire world about the genuine challenges that Western missionaries and colonialists had created in Africa. Achebe was awarded the Man Booker International Prize for his lifetime's work in 2007, as well as more than 30 honorary doctorates. He remained critical of Nigerian politicians' corruption, criticising those who stole or squandered the country's oil reserves. In addition to his own creative success, he was a dedicated and active supporter of African writers.

Chinua Achebe, a Nigerian novelist, poet, and critic, is often considered to be the most influential writer in modern African literature. Chinua Achebe’s background with the release of his first novel, Things Fall Apart, in 1958 made a big impact. Now it has sold more than 20 million copies and been translated into more than 50 languages, making it one of the major works of African literature. Achebe went on to publish books like No Longer at Ease (1960), Arrow of God (1964), and Anthills of the Savannah (1987), as well as teaching at prestigious colleges in the United States and Nigeria. He died on March 21, 2013, in Boston, Massachusetts. His age was 82 at the time of his death. Many books and essays have been written about Achebe's work over the past fifty years, and he is called "the father of modern African writing" and "Africa's finest storyteller." In 1992, he became the first living writer to be included in Alfred A. Knopf's Everyman's Library collection. "An international Who's Who in African Literature" convened at the University of Nigeria to celebrate his 60th birthday.