Chinua Achebe (born Albert Chinụalụmọgụ Achebe, 16 November 1930 — 21 March 2013) was one of, if not the most significant 20th century African author and literary star to emerge from the continent. Achebe was born in an Igbo village in British Nigeria to Pentecostal parents into an era when the continent was undergoing the transition from colonial Protectorate to emerging nation-state.
From the publication of Things Fall Apart in 1958 Achebe's works dealt with themes of the effects of colonization on the African people, tribal customs, gender roles and the desire of Africans to write tell their own stories following years of having only limited representation by White and European authors.
He is particularly famous for challenging the depiction of Africans in Joseph Conrad's novella Heart of Darkness which he deemed dehumanizing and racist despite Conrad's intent to illustrate the exploitation of Africa by Europeans.
Alongside helping establish African literature on the world stage Achebe was actively involved in continental politics, becoming a representative for the short-lived Republic of Biafra during the Nigerian Civil War which would weigh heavily on him when the Nigerian government restricted his travel.
In 1990 Achebe was left paralyzed from the waist down following a traffic accident leaving him to rely on the use of a wheelchair and remain permanently in the United States for medical care. After a short illness Achebe passed away in Boston in 2013. He was 82 years old.
His works include:
- Things Fall Apart (1958)
- No Longer At Ease (1960)
- Arrow Of God (1964)
- A Man of the People (1966)
- Anthills of the Savannah (1987)
Tropes associated with his work include:
- Culture Clash: Often between African natives and European colonialists.
- Darkest Africa: One of its most famous critics, leading to this becoming a Deconstructed Trope if there ever was one, intending to shift the perspective on Africa in literature away from white Western authors to native and black writers.
- Deliberate Values Dissonance: Achebe loves this trope. He wrote historical novels about the Igbo people, and doesn't fail to include disturbing cultural practices like abandoning newborn twins in the forest to die, a certain caste being forbidden to live with the rest of the people or one protagonist killing his adopted son due to an inscrutable oracular order. The point is that while many aspects of Igbo culture were good and their loss a tragedy, the novels also make it clear why so many Igbo were willing to trade them in for the colonial Anglo-Christian culture, which is also portrayed as neither wholly good nor bad.
