Chinua Achebe was a Nigerian novelist and poet, considered one of the most important writers of the twentieth century. He is best known for his debut novel Things Fall Apart (1958), which is the most widely read novel in modern African literature.
Achebe was raised by evangelical Christian parents in the village Ogidi in Igboland, Nigeria. He received an early education in English, but grew up surrounded by a complex fusion of Igbo traditions and colonial legacy. Achebe studied at the University College, a British-style university, originally intending to study medicine, but eventually changing his major to English, history, and theology.
After graduating, Achebe worked for the Nigerian...