Chinua Achebe

Chinua Achebe (1930–2013) was a Nigerian novelist, poet, professor, and critic widely hailed as the 'Father of Modern African Literature'. Born in the Igbo village of Ogidi, he studied English literature at University College, Ibadan, before working for the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation. Frustrated by European literary misrepresentations of Africa—such as Joyce Cary's Mister Johnson and Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness—Achebe resolved to write the story of Africa from within.

His debut novel, Things Fall Apart (1958), recounting the tragic downfall of the Igbo wrestling champion Okonkwo under the onslaught of British colonial rule, became the most widely read and influential book in modern African literature, translated into over fifty languages. Through subsequent works like No Longer at Ease, Arrow of God, and Anthills of the Savannah, Achebe pioneered the African Writers Series and redefined world literature.