Chinua Achebe is an Igbo writer, critic, and activist from Nigeria.http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/achebe.htm His debut novel, Things Fall Apart was immensely successful, selling over 2,000,000 copies and seeing translation into 30 languages.http://www.iblist.com/author611.htm He has written in a wide variety of forms, ranging from books for children to political monographs.http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/achebe.htm In 1990, he was permanently paralyzed from the waist down due to a car-accident.http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/achebe.htm

Achebe's work is marked by stylistic innovation; an idiosyncratic, purposed fusion of Igbo storytelling tradition with Western literary forms in search of an authentic "African English."http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/achebe.htm Literary critics also point to the anti-colonial and Black nationalist themes in his work, and Achebe himself acknowledges his strong emphasis on West African identity.http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/achebe.htm

Chinua Achebe has led a very active career in both academia and politics. He received honorary doctorates from the University of Stirling, the University of Southhampton, and the University of Kent.http://www.iblist.com/author611.htm In 1987, Achebe received his home country's highest honor, the Nigerian National Merit Award.http://www.iblist.com/author611.htm

He was involved in the Nigerian Civil War, backing the secessionist Republic of Biafra.http://www.conjunctions.com/archives/c17-ca.htm He toured the United States to raise awareness of the conflict, and collaborated with the secessionist government as an ambassador and ideologue.http://www.conjunctions.com/archives/c17-ca.htm

Since 1990, Achebe has been a Charles P Stevenson Jr. Professor of Languages and Literature at Bard College, in Annendale-on-Hudson, NY.http://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=1419 In 2009, Achebe joined the faculty of Brown University as a David and Marianna Fisher University Professor and professor of Africana studies.http://news.brown.edu/pressreleases/2009/09/achebe

"I would be quite satisfied if my novels (especially the ones I set in the past) did no more than teach my readers that their past - with all its imperfections - was not one long night of savagery from which the first Europeans, acting on God's behalf, delivered them."http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/achebe.htm

"Literature, whether handed down by word or mouth or in print, gives us a second handle on reality."http://web.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/achebe2.htm

"The African writer should aim to use English in a way that brings out his message best without altering the language to the extent that its value as a medium of international exchange will be lost. He should aim at fashioning out an English which is at once universal and able to carry his peculiar experience."http://web.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/achebe2.htm

"When suffering knocks at your door and you say there is no seat for him, he tells you not to worry because he has brought his own stool."http://chinuaachebe.net/more.html

"People go to Africa and confirm what they already have in their heads, and so they fail to see what is there in front of them. This is what people have come to expect. It's not viewed as a serious continent. It's a place of strange, bizarre and illogical things, where people don't do what common sense demands."http://chinuaachebe.net/more.html

• 1958: Things Fall Aparthttp://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/achebe.htm

• 1966: A Man of the Peoplehttp://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/achebe.htm

• 1975: Morning Yet on Creation Dayhttp://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/achebe.htm

• 1983: The Trouble with Nigeriahttp://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/achebe.htm

• 1988: Hopes and Impedimentshttp://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/achebe.htm

• 1972: How the Leopard Got His Clawshttp://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/achebe.htm

• 1972: Girls at Warhttp://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/achebe.htm

• 1973: Christmas in Biafra and Other Poemshttp://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/achebe.htm

• 2000: Home and Exilehttp://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/achebe.htm

• 2009: The Education of a British-Protected Childhttp://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/achebe.htm

• 1987: Anthills of the Savannahhttp://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/achebe.htm