Chinua Achebe

(1930 – 2013)

Biographical Sketch

Chinua Achebe (born Albert Chinụalụmọgụ Achebe, Ogidi, Anambra State, Nigeria, November 16, 1930 – Boston, MA, USA, March 21, 2013) was a Nigerian novelist, poet, and critic who is regarded as the most dominant figure in modern African literature. His first novel and magnum opus, Things Fall Apart (1958), occupies a pivotal place in African literature and remains the most widely studied, taught and read African novel. A titled Igbo chief himself, Achebe sought to escape the colonial perspective that predominated African literature, and drew from the traditions of the Igbo people, Christian influences, and the clash of Western and African values to create a uniquely African voice. His style relies heavily on the Igbo oral tradition, and combines straightforward narration with representations of folk stories, proverbs, and oratory. Along with Things Fall Apart, his No Longer at Ease (1960) and Arrow of God (1964) complete the so called “African Trilogy”; later novels include A Man of the People (1966) and Anthills of the Savannah (1987). In addition to his seminal novels, Achebe’s oeuvre includes numerous of short stories, poetry, essay collections and children’s books.

Raised by his parents in the Igbo town of Ogidi in southeastern British Nigeria, Achebe excelled at Government College Umuahia and won a scholarship to study medicine, but changed his studies to English literature at University College (now 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 Service (NBS) and soon moved to the metropolis of Lagos. He gained worldwide attention for his novel Things Fall Apart in the late 1950s which exerted a significant influence on subsequent literature. Achebe wrote his novels in English and defended the use of English, a “language of colonisers,” in African literature. In 1975, his lecture An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness featured a criticism of Joseph Conrad as “a thoroughgoing racist;” it was later published in The Massachusetts Review amid controversy.

When the region of Biafra broke away from Nigeria in 1967, Achebe became a supporter of Biafran independence and acted as ambassador for the people of the new nation. The civil war that took place over the territory ravaged the populace, and as starvation and violence took its toll, he appealed to the people of Europe and the Americas for aid. When the Nigerian government retook the region in 1970, he involved himself in political parties but soon became disillusioned by his frustration over the corruption and elitism he witnessed. He lived in the United States for several years in the 1970s, and returned to the U.S. in 1990, after a car crash left him partially disabled. Upon Achebe’s return to the United States in 1990, he began an nineteen-year tenure at Bard College as the Charles P. Stevenson Professor of Languages and Literature. He won the 1994 International Nonino Prize in Italy. From 2009 until his death, he served as David and Marianna Fisher University Professor and Professor of Africana Studies at Brown University.

Achebe’s work has been widely analyzed, and a massive body of scholarly work discussing it has arisen. Among the themes he touches on are politics, history, culture and colonialism as well as masculinity and femininity. To date, his total influence remains unmatched in African literature. His legacy is celebrated annually at the Chinua Achebe Literary Festival, which is held on his birth date (November 16) in Awka, the capital city of Anambra State, where he was born.

Major Awards and Honors

Federal Government of Nigeria

1979: National Order of Merit – Humanities
1986: National Order of Merit
1999: National Creativity Award
2004: Commander of the Federal Republic
– Refused.
2011: Commander of the Federal Republic
– Refused.

Nigerian National Trophy for Literature

1960: “Things Fall Apart”

Nigerian Hall of Fame

2010: Inductee

Nigerian Academy of Letters

1999: Founding Fellow

Association of Nigerian Authors

1981: Founding President

Society of Young Nigerian Writers

2016: Initiation of annual Chinua Achebe Literary Festival

University of Nigeria, Nsukka

1967 – 1972: Senior Research Fellow, Institute of African Studies
1976 – 1983: Professor of English
1981: Honorary D.Litt.
1990: International Chinua Achebe Symposium
2019: Memorial bust on campus

Anambra State University of Technology at Enugu (Nigeria)

1986 – 1988: Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of Council

Nnamdi Azikiwe University (Nigeria)

2009: Honorary D.Litt.

Lagos State University (Nigeria)

1988: Honorary D.Litt.

University of Port Harcourt (Nigeria)

1991: Honorary LL.D.

University of Ife (Nigeria)

1979: Honorary D.Litt

University of Ibadan (Nigeria)

1989: Honorary D.Litt.

University of Sokoto (Nigeria)

2007: Honorary D.Litt.

Anambra State (Nigeria)

2008: Chinua Achebe Road
– Major road connecting Ogidi and Onitsha.

Awka, Anambra State (Nigeria)

1999: Chinua Achebe Avenue
– Avenue leading to State House in Anambra State Capital.

Nsukka Town (Nigeria)

1990: Chinua Achebe Road

Catholic Archdiocese of Owerri (Nigeria)

1999: Odenigbo Lecturer

Pan African Writers’ Association

2015: International African Writers’ Day – “Celebrating the Life and Works of Chinua Achebe: The Coming of Age of African Literature?”

Grand Prix of Literary Associations (Cameroon)

2019: Grand Prix de la Mémoire

Association of Asian and African Writers

1975: Lotus Award for Afro-Asian Writers

University of Witswatersrand (South Africa)

2000: Honorary D.Litt.

Cape Town University (South Africa)

2002: Honorary D.Litt.

United Nations

1963: UNESCO Fellowship
1999: Goodwill Ambassador, United Nations Population Fund

World Bank

1997: World Bank Presidential Fellows Lecturer

Commonwealth of Nations

1983: Commonwealth Foundation – Senior Visiting Practitioner
1984: Commonwealth Foundation Award

Royal Society of Literature (UK)

1983: Fellow

Royal African Society (UK)

1998: Honorary Vice President

Man Booker Prize (UK)

2007: International Prize

Commonwealth Institute (UK)

1972: Commonwealth Poetry Prize – “Beware Soul Brother”

International Committee on Christian Literature for Africa (UK)

1959: Margaret Wrong Memorial Prize – “Things Fall Apart”

Clare Hall, Cambridge University (UK)

1993: Visiting Fellow and Ashby Lecturer

New African Magazine:

2012: Inclusion in List of 100 Most Influential Africans – Arts & Culture

New Statesman (UK)

1965: Jock Campbell Award – “Arrow of God”

South Bank Centre, London (UK)

2018: Celebration of 60th anniversary of the publication of “Things Fall Apart”

Jesuits in Britain

1996: Campion Medal

Scottish Arts Council

1975: Neil Gunn Fellow

American Academy of Arts and Letters

1982: Honorary Fellowship

Academy of American Poets

2004: Associate Member

American Academy of Arts and Sciences

2002: Foreign Honorary Member

National Arts Club (USA)

2007: Medal of Honor for Literature

Modern Language Association (USA)

1974: Honorary Member
1975: Honorary Fellow

Rockefeller Foundation (USA)

1960: Rockefeller Fellowship

Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize (USA)

2010

Harlem Book Fair (USA)

2004: Phillis Wheatley Award

African Overseas Union (USA)

1996: Order of Kilimanjaro

Harvard University (USA)

1996: Honorary D.Litt.
1998: McMillan Lecturer

Georgetown University (USA)

1990: Honorary LL.D.

Dartmouth College (USA)

1972: Honorary D.Litt.
1990: Montgomery Fellow and Visiting Professor of English

Johns Hopkins University Center for Africana Studies

1989: Callaloo Award

Brown University (USA)

1997: Honorary D.Litt.
2010 – 2013: David and Marianna Fisher University Professor and Professor of Africana Studies

University of Massachusetts at Amherst (USA)

1972 – 1975: Visiting Professor of English
1979: Honorary D.H.L.
1987-1988: Fulbright Professor of African Studies

University of California, Los Angeles (USA)

1984: Regents Professor of English

University of Connecticut (USA)

1975-1976: University Professor of English

City College of New York (USA)

1962: Langston Hughes Medal
1989: Visiting Distinguished Professor of English
1992: Honorary D.Litt.

Bard College (NY State, USA)

1990 – 2009: Charles P. Stevenson Professor of Literature
2000: International Chinua Achebe Symposium

Borough of Manhattan, New York City (USA)

1989: Chinua Achebe Day (May 25)

City of Washington, D.C. (USA)

1998: Chinua Achebe Day (February 14)

City of Austin, TX (USA)

1997: Honorary Citizenship

Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. (USA)

1992: First living writer represented in the Everyman’s Library collection

University of Guelph (Canada)

1984: Visiting Professor of English
1984: Honorary D.Litt.

Peace Prize of the German Book Trade

2002

Premio Nonino (Italy)

1994: International Nonino Prize

Academy of Sciences (USSR)

1990: Member

Bibliography

Novels

The African Trilogy

Things Fall Apart (1958)
No Longer at Ease (1960)
Arrow of God (1964)

Stand-Alone Novels

A Man of the People (1966)
Anthills of the Savannah (1987)

Short Stories

In a Village Church (1951)
– Stand-alone short story.
The Old Order in Conflict with the New (1952)
– Stand-alone short story.
Marriage Is a Private Affair (1952)
– Stand-alone short story.
Dead Men’s Path (1953)
– Stand-alone short story.
The Sacrificial Egg and Other Stories (1953)
– Collection.
Civil Peace (1971)
– Stand-alone short story.
Girls at War and Other Stories (1973)
– Collection; includes, inter alia, Vengeful Creditor.
African Short Stories (1985)
– Editor, with C.L. Innes.
The Heinemann Book of Contemporary African Short Stories (1992)
– Editor, with C. L. Innes.
The Voter (1994)
– Stand-alone short story.

Poetry

Beware, Soul-Brother, and Other Poems (1971)
(AKA Christmas in Biafra, and Other Poems)
– Includes Vultures.
Don’t Let Him Die: An Anthology of Memorial Poems for Christopher Okigbo (1978)
– Editor, with Dubem Okafor.
Another Africa (1998)
– With Robert Lyons.
Collected Poems (2004)
Refugee Mother and Child
– Date uncertain.

Children’s Books

Chike and the River (1966)
How the Leopard Got His Claws (1972)
– With John Iroaganachi.
The Flute (1975)
The Drum (1978)

Essays and Other Nonfiction

The Novelist as Teacher (1965)
An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness” (1975)
Morning Yet on Creation Day (1975)
The Trouble With Nigeria (1984)
Hopes and Impediments (1988)
– Contains, inter alia, The Novelist as Teacher (1965) and An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness” (1975).
Home and Exile (2000)
The Education of a British-Protected Child (2009)
There Was A Country: A Personal History of Biafra (2012)
Africa’s Tarnished Name (2018)

A Selection of Quotes

1994 Paris Review Interview, “The Art of Fiction”:

“Until the lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.”

Things Fall Apart

“Among the Igbo the art of conversation is regarded very highly, and proverbs are the palm-oil with which words are eaten.”

“‘You do not know me,’ said Tortoise. ‘I am a changed man. I have learned that a man who makes trouble for others makes trouble for himself.'”

No Longer at Ease

“The impatient idealist says: ‘Give me a place to stand and I shall move the earth.’ But such a place does not exist. We all have to stand on the earth itself and go with her at her pace.”

“Women and music should not be dated.”

“A fox must be chased away first; after that the hen might be warned against wandering into the bush.”

Arrow of God

“My father used to say that it is the fear of causing offense that makes men swallow poison.”

“If my enemy speaks the truth I will not say because it is spoken by my enemy I will not listen.”

Anthills of the Savannah

“While we do our good works let us not forget that the real solution lies in a world in which charity will have become unnecessary.”

“Storytellers are a threat. They threaten all champions of control, they frighten usurpers of the right-to-freedom of the human spirit – in state, in church or mosque, in party congress, in the university or wherever.”

“Writers don’t give prescriptions. They give headaches!”

“Don’t disparage the day that still has an hour of light in its hand.”

A Man of the People

“Every man and every woman in Urua and every child and every adult would throw his or her paper for him on the day of election – as they had done in the past. If there was any other name called in the matter the elders and councillors of Urua had not heard it. He said this over and over again with minor changes in detail, like the omission of ‘every child’ which I noticed particularly because it had struck me as odd in the first place. And I thought: if the whole people had taken the decision why were they now being told of it?”

The Education of a British-Protected Child: Essays

“We cannot trample upon the humanity of others without devaluing our own. The Igbo, always practical, put it concretely in their proverb Onye ji onye n’ani ji onwe ya: ‘He who will hold another down in the mud must stay in the mud to keep him down.'”

“I do not see that it is necessary for any people to prove to another that they build cathedrals or pyramids before they can be entitled to peace and safety.”

“Letters are, of course, quite special in my view, for when a reader has been sufficiently moved (or even perturbed) by a book to sit down and compose a letter to the author, something very powerful has happened. Things Fall Apart has brought me a large body of such correspondence from people of different ages and backgrounds and from all the continents.”

Hopes and Impediments: Selected Essays

“Privilege, you see, is one of the great adversaries of the imagination; it spreads a thick layer of adipose tissue over our sensitivity.”

There Was a Country: A Personal History of Biafra

“Some people flinch when you talk about art in the context of the needs of society thinking you are introducing something far too common for a discussion of art. Why should art have a purpose and a use? Art shouldn’t be concerned with purpose and reason and need, they say. These are improper. But from the very beginning, it seems to me, stories have indeed been meant to be enjoyed, to appeal to that part of us which enjoys good form and good shape and good sound.”

“Most writers who are beginners, if they are honest with themselves, will admit that they are praying for a readership as they begin to write. But it should be the quality of the craft not the audience, that should be the greatest motivating factor. For me, at least, I can declare that when I wrote Things Fall Apart I couldn’t have told anyone the day before it was accepted for publication that anybody was going to read it. There was no guarantee; nobody ever said to me, Go and write this, we will publish it and we will read it; it was just there. But my brother-in-law who was not a particularly voracious reader, told me that he read the novel through the night and it gave him a terrible headache the next morning. And I took that as an encouraging endorsement!
The triumph of the written word is often attained when the writer achieves union and trust with the reader, who then becomes ready to be drawn deep into unfamiliar territory, walking in borrowed literary shoes so to speak, toward a deeper understanding of self or society, or of foreign peoples, cultures and situations.”

“Nations enshrine mediocrity as their modus operandi, and create the fertile ground for the rise of tyrants and other base elements of the society, by silently assenting to the dismantling of systems of excellence because they do not immediately benefit one specific ethnic, racial, political, or special-interest group. That, in my humble opinion, is precisely where Nigeria finds itself today!”

Africa’s Tarnished Name

“Our humanity is contingent on the humanity of our fellows. No person or group can be human alone. We rise above the animal together, or not at all. If we learned that lesson even this late in the day, we would have taken a truly millennial step forward.”

Find more quotes by Chinua Achebe on Wikiquote and Goodreads.