Master storyteller. Revolutionary author. Passionate poet. Chinua Achebe is one of Nigeria’s most read and highly respected literary masters. He has been awarded more than 30 honorary degrees and won numerous international prizes, including the 2007 Man Booker International Prize for his achievements in literature. His first novel, Things Fall Apart, was published in 1958, two years before Nigeria gained independence from Britain. The groundbreaking story of village leader Okonkwo and his subsequent downfall was globally acclaimed for looking at the destructive impact that Western colonial values had on Igbo society. It’s been translated into over 40 languages, adapted for the stage and screen, and has become required reading for students around the world.
Things Fall Apart was also unique. Achebe used it to fundamentally change the role of African fiction into a tool for social and political analysis and psychological insight. Three days after its publication The Times Literary Supplement wrote that it “genuinely succeeds in presenting tribal life from the inside”. Through Achebe’s storytelling, and due to him writing in English, which was rare in African literature at that time, the world was introduced to African life as seen through African eyes for the first time.
Achebe’s path towards his destination as “the father of modern African writing” began at a young age. Although his family were converts to Christianity, traditional Igbo religion always fascinated Achebe. His interest in Igbo rituals and customs would become a key part of his fictional works, which are filled with stunning depictions of Igbo life and proverbs. At school Achebe was an avid reader. His love for English literature led him to Shakespeare and Dickens. But the books he read, including Joseph Conrad’s Heart Of Darkness, often portrayed Africans as “uncivilised” and in a “dehumanising” light, according to Achebe. At first he had agreed with the depictions. However, by 1948, he realised he had taken on negative Western representations of his own people. He later revealed during a lecture in 1975 that he believed Conrad was a “thoroughgoing racist”.
While studying English, history and theology at Ibadan University, where he graduated from in 1953, Achebe was finally compelled to write. After reading Mister Johnson, the story of a young Nigerian who falls foul of the British colonial regime by Irish novelist Joyce Cary, Achebe was angered by the “most superficial picture of not only the country , but even of the Nigerian character”. His desire to become a rebel against Western representations of Africa was sparked, and he used his prowess for incisive commentary to tear down European notions of Africa and examine the tensions between African traditions, colonial modernity and Christianity. This he powerfully demonstrated in four other novels – No Longer At Ease [1960], Arrow Of God [1964], A Man Of The People [1966], and Anthills Of The Savannah [1987] – as well as several poetry and children’s books, short stories and essays. Achebe can draw the reader in without being overly academic, by using tales about complex individuals as a microcosm for the wider world.
He has used this gift to reflect Africa’s struggles with colonialism to its victorious battles for independence. His criticism has moved from the European colonisers to African leaders and more recently to contemporary Western perceptions of Africa. Now 78, Achebe is the Charles P Stevenson Professor of Languages and Literature at New York State’s Bard College.
[Update: Chinua Achebe sadly passed away on 21 March 2013]
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