We have a new profile of Nigerian author Chinua Achebe, who died 21 March 2013, at the age of 82.
Who is Chinua Achebe, you might well ask? Let’s put it this way: if you ever get kidnapped in Europe or North America, and a gun is put to your head and you’re told “Name me one African author or you die,” you might want to know the name (at least) of Chinua Achebe.
He became internationally famous with his novel Things Fall Apart, published in 1958. Since then, he’s been called the “father of African literature” (and, at times, the “grandfather of African literature”). He certainly influenced a generation (at least) of African writers, if for no other reason than he showed you could actually have a distinguished career, even if you were from Nigeria.
And he did have a distinguished career, despite a two-decade period of a kind of writer’s block.
Here are some links:
Honoring the Memory of Chinua Achebe.
The Economist Remembers Chinua Achebe.
The New York Times Obituary for Chinua Achebe.