Achebe, Chinua: 1930 - 2013
Information about Chinua Achebe
- General Information
- Information from Wikipedia
- Information from Britannica
- Information from Encyclopedia
- Information from the British Council
- Facts
- Biography from Gale
- Brief Biography with Bibliography
- Brief biography read by Garrison Keillor. Can be used as listening comprehension exercise.
- TranscriptIt's the birthday of the author Chinua Achebe, born in Ogidi, Nigeria in 1930. His parents were evangelical protestants and when he went to university he gave up his birthname, Albert, and he took his Ebo middle name Chinua. He joined the Nigerian Broadcasting Service when he was 24 years old and it was then he wrote his first novel "Things Fall Apart."
Which is still today the most widely read book of African literature. Achebe describes himself as a cultural nationalist, but nevertheless he writes his books in English, which he has been criticized for.
He said colonialism for all of its evils at least gives divers communities a language with which to talk to one another. And therefore they can reach people all across Nigeria, all the different small language groups.
- Transcript
- Audio (48:00)
The life and ideas Chinua Achebe, in his own words, and in the words of those who knew, loved, and were inspired by him. BBC; June 19, 2022 - Contributions from Achebe's close friend, Nuruddin Farah, the author Caryl Phillips, the young Nigerian writer Esther Ifesinachi Okonkwo, and Achebe's youngest child, Dr Nwando Achebe.
- Articles
- A Tribute to Chinua Achebe by various authors. Pen America. February 26, 2008
- Toni Morrison Introduces and Reads "English and the African Writer" by Chinua Achebe
- A life in writing: "I feel that the English language will be able to carry the weight of my African experience. But it will have to be a new English, still in full communion with its ancestral home but altered to suit its new African surroundings." The Guardian; December 13, 2010
- Achebe had a keen grasp of how language demonstrated power: "The debate over the appropriate language choice between indigenous African languages and the languages of the former colonial masters came to a head at the Conference." The Republic; January 13, 2020
- A Tribute to Chinua Achebe by various authors. Pen America. February 26, 2008
- Obituaries
- Chinua Achebe, the David and Marianna Fisher University professor and professor of Africana studies at Brown University, died in Boston Thursday evening, March 21, 2013. Achebe joined the Brown faculty in the fall of 2009.
- Chinua Achebe obituary from the Guardian
- Chinua Achebe Dies at 82. WQXR Radio, New York; March 22, 2013
- African 'literary gem' Chinua Achebe dies; from ABC News
- Audio (8:47)
Remembering Chinua Achebe And The Importance Of Struggle; from NPR Radio; March 25, 2013
Transcript - Chimamanda Adichie shares her thoughts on the passing of Chinua Achebe. Channels Television, Nigeria; March 26, 2013
- Chinua Achebe, the David and Marianna Fisher University professor and professor of Africana studies at Brown University, died in Boston Thursday evening, March 21, 2013. Achebe joined the Brown faculty in the fall of 2009.