Chinua Achebe tells of his youth in Nigeria. He describes himself as a natural storyteller, thirsty for his destiny. We learn about the first time he fell in love, and how he gave up everything to be with her, passing up an opportunity to go to college to study writing on a scholarship. Achebe was an advocate for African Independence, especially Nigeria, since the nation was still under British rule. His early writings were about these political themes.
From basically nothing Achebe builds the life he wants, finding his wife, building a life for them, making a family, and the whole time, he was staying busy as a writer, becoming increasingly successful with each publication, eventually finally, he is so successful, his work becomes famous all over the African world.
During the same years, Nigeria slowly begins to coordinate its local resources. They achieve their independence from Britain in 1960. Unfortunately, local divisions between tribes lead to serious problems during Nigeria's attempt to establish a government.
The Igbo people are the majority of the population in East Nigeria, and in 1967, they declare their independence from Nigeria, calling their new nation, "Republic of Biafra." The Igbo were mistreated in other parts of the country where they were the ethnic minority, so they established the Republic of Biafra as a safe home for the Igbo people, but Nigeria refused to acknowledge the country, and then, war broke out between the nations.
This civil war is the climax of the memoir. The Nigerian civil war, also called the Nigeria-Biafra War or the Birafran War, was one of the most brutal, violent wars in human history, but the story is not widely known. Eventually, the Nigerian forces drained the Biafran army and forced them into submission in 1970.
