Chinua Achebe was born in Eastern Nigeria on November 16, 1930. His father Isaiah was a missionary in eastern Nigeria before returning to his Igbo village when Chinua was five. Growing up in the Igbo area in a village called Ogidi gave Chinua exposure to both traditional Igbo beliefs and the Christian worldview. It also meant he had an opportunity for progressive education which he enjoyed.

A keen writer, Chinua Achebe published Things Fall Apart in 1958. It won immediate acclaim and he became a forerunner in African Literature. He published the novel No Longer at Ease in 1960 – the year of Nigeria’s independence – and was awarded the National Trophy for Literature. Following this he travelled throughout Nigeria and was later appointed as a Director for the Nigerian Broadcasting Service (NBS) where he met his wife, Christiana Chinwe (Christie) Okoli. Together they have four children.

In the 1970’s Achebe was on staff at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst and the University of Connecticut. However after the assassination of Nigerian leader Murtala Muhammed, Achebe returned to Nigeria to be more involved with the Nigerian University and be close to national politics. He spent time after this between Nigeria and the United states teaching at Universities and working on Anthills of the Savannah which he published in 1987.

In 1990 Achebe was involved in a car accident that left him paralysed from the waist down. He remained in a wheelchair until his death in 2013. A titled Igbo chieftain himself, Achebe’s novels focus on the traditions of Igbo society and Christian influences, as well as the cultural divide of Western and traditional African values. His style relies heavily on the Igbo oral tradition, and combines straightforward narration with representations of folk stories and proverbs. Things Fall Apart will undoubtedly remain the book for which Achebe is best known, but the entire body of his fiction, poetry, and essays makes a consistent and central contribution to the world’s literature.