Novelist, poet, and essayist Chinua Achebe (1930-2013) was one of the most important literary voices to come out of Africa. He is best known for his first novel Things Fall Apart (1958), which has been translated into at least fifty languages and has sold ten million copies worldwide.
Born Albert Chinualumogo Achebe, Chinua Achebe born in the Igbo village of Ogidi, in Igboland, Eastern Nigeria. He was raised by evangelical Christian parents, but several of his other relatives practiced the traditional Igbo religion. Speaking Igbo at home and learning English in school, Achebe grew up surrounded by a complex fusion of Igbo traditions and colonial influence....