Chinua Achebe

Chinua Achebe

Nigerian author, whose novel Things Fall Apart (1958) is one of the most widely read and discussed works of African fiction. In his first novel, Things Fall Apart, Achebe retold the history of colonization from the point of view of the colonized. The novel depicted the first contact between the Igbo people and European missionaries and administrators. Since its publication, Things Fall Apart has generated a wealth of literary criticism grappling with Achebe's unsentimental representations of tradition, religion, manhood, and the colonial experience. Immediately successful, the novel secured Achebe's position both in Nigeria and in the West as a preeminent voice among Africans writing in English.Achebe subsequently wrote several novels that spanned more than a century of African history. Although most of these works deal specifically with Nigeria, they are also emblematic of what Achebe calls the "metaphysical landscape" of Africa, "a view of the world and of the whole cosmos perceived from a particular position." No Longer at Ease (1960) tells the story of a young man sent by his village to study overseas who then returns to a government job in Nigeria only to find himself in a culturally fragmented world. As the young man sinks into materialism and corruption, Achebe represents a new generation caught in a moral and spiritual conflict between the modern and the traditional. Arrow of God (1964) returns to the colonial period of 1920s Nigeria. In this novel, Achebe focuses on a theme that underscores all of his work: the wielding of power and its deployment for the good or harm of a community. A Man of the People (1966), a work Achebe has characterized as "an indictment of independent Africa," is set in the context of the emerging African nation-state. Representing a nation thought to be based on Nigeria, Achebe portrays the vacuum of true leadership left by the destruction of the governance provided by the traditional village. Achebe's critical political commentary continues in Anthills of the Savannah (1987), in which he uses a complex mythical structure to depict an African nation passing into the shadow of a military dictatorship.Achebe helped found a publishing company in Nigeria with poet Christopher Okigbo and in 1971 was a founding editor for the prominent African literary magazine Okike. In addition, he published children's books and award-winning poetry collections.Responding to critics such as Ngugi wa Thiong'o, who point to the political and cultural implications of writing in the colonial language, Achebe has defended his use of English, asserting that as a "medium of international exchange," the language is a lingua franca (common language) that will connect the communities of Africa."Art is man's constant effort to create for himself a different order of reality from that which is given to him," Achebe wrote in his essay "The Truth of Fiction."