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Chronicles of Greatness (15) Chinua Achebe
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Albert Chinualumogu Achebe (1930 –2013)
“The world is like a Mask dancing. If you want to see it well, you do not stand in one place.”
-Chinua Achebe
At birth, Chinua Achebe was christened Albert Chinualumogu Achebe. He was born November 16, 1930 in Ogidi, an Igbo town in eastern part of Nigeria. He was an English graduate of the University of Ibadan.
In 1958, Chinua Achebe published his first novel – Things Fall Apart which centered on cultural clash between native African Culture and the traditional white culture of missionaries and colonial government in Nigeria then. The book was a huge success and is highly recommended in many schools across the world today.
In 1961, Chinua Achebe joined the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) as director of external broadcasting. He served in that position until 1966. Also in 1961, Chinua Achebe married his hearthrob, Christie Chinwe Okoli. They have four children together.
In 1967, Chinua Achebe and Christopher Okigbo (a renowned poet) co-founded a publishing company – The Citadel Press which they both planned to run as an outlet for African – Oriented children's books but Okigbo was killed in the Nigerian Civil War.
In 1969, Chinua toured the United States with Gabriel Okara and Cyprian Ekwensi (who were also writers) to give lectures at various universities.
Between 1960 and 1970, Chinnua Achebe had written four books which are also in high recommendation in schools around the world today.
In the 1970s, Achebe wrote more books including short stories and a book for children titled “How the Leopard got His Claws” (1973), poetry and so on.
In 1975, while in United States, Achebe gave a lecture titled "An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness," at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. During the lecture, he mentioned that Joseph Conrad's famous novel dehumanized Africans and the work only made Conrad a “thoroughgoing racist.” When this lecture was published in essay form, it became a postcolonial African work.
That same year, Achebe joined the faculty at the University of Connecticut and later returned to Nigeria in 1976.
When he returned from the United States, he became a research fellow and then later progressed to be a professor of English Language in the University of Nigeria, Nsukka between 1976-1981. During this period, he served simultaeneously as director of two Nigerian publishing houses, Heinemann Educational Books Ltd and Nwankwo – Ifejika Ltd.
In 1987, he published Anthills of the Savannah which was later shortlisted for the Booker McConnel Prize.
In 1988, he published Hopes and Impediments.
In 1990, Chinua Achebe was involved in a car accident which left him paralyzd from the waist down and confined him to a wheelchair till his death.
After the accident, he moved to the United States and taught at Bard College, just north of New York City, where he remained for 15 years.
In 2009, Achebe left Bard to join the faculty of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. He served as professor of Africana Studies as well as the David and Marianna Fisher University professor.
Chinua Achebe died March 21, 2013, at the age of 82, in Boston, Massachusetts.
Books: No Longer at Ease (1960), Arrow of God (1964), A Man of the People (1966), (Anthills of the Savannah [1987] took on a similar theme.)
Poetry:Beware, Soul-Brother (1971) and Christmas in Biafra (1973), and Achebe's first book of essays, Morning Yet on Creation Day (1975).
Awards: several awards for his writing career, including the Man Booker International Prize (2007) and the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize (2010). He also received honorary degrees from more than 30 universities around the world.
Outstanding Attribute: Ability to write to keep people's attention until the end of the story.
Supporting Attributes: Tenacity, Focus, Consistency and steady growth.
Chinua Achebe. (2015). The Biography.com website. Retrieved 12:10, May 21, 2015, from http://www.biography.com/people/chinua-achebe-20617665.
Copyright © 2015 [Adebola A. Ayoade]. All Rights Reserved.
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