Albert Chinalmg Achebe - Essay Example

Born in 1930 in Ogidi, Nigeria, this 78 year old writer is widely known for his work, 'Things fall Apart', the first novel he wrote way back in 1958. This novel is in fact considered an unsentimental novel, depicting the life and ambitions of Okonkwo, a powerful leader of the Igbo community. Chinua Achebe too comes from this very community, therefore in a way he wrote about what he experienced and felt during the childhood and youth days. The main character of 'Things fall Apart, Mr. Okonkwo is the 'big man' of a traditional village, but the manner in which this man started moving towards fulfilling his ambitions led to prosecution and punishment for him.

He was signalled out and targeted for fighting against colonialism. The western effect on values and institutions of traditional Africa, led to isolation of Okonkwo. Such incidents coupled with his approach towards circumstances led to his bad days and ultimately to his downfall. 'Things Fall Apart' narrated the adverse impacts of the influence of western world on the traditional Ibo African society. Without glamorising his community i.e. the Ibo society, Achebe described how 'things' started 'falling apart' after the Europeans set foot on the African land2.

The title of the book, 'Things fall Apart' has been taken from William Butler Yates's The Second Coming - 'Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold'.3 This novel proved to be hugely popular and subsequently translated into some 50 languages. About 10 million copies of this book have been sold around the world. In fact this book also formed the basis of a film 'Bullfrog in the Sun' directed by Hans Jrgen Pohland in 1972.While trying his hand at novels in 1958, Achebe is stated to have said, 'I was quite certain that I was going to try my hand at writing, and one of the things that set me thinking was Joyce Cary's novel set in Nigeria, Mister Johnson, which was praised so much, and it was clear to me that this was a most superficial picture.

and so I thought if this was famous, then someone perhaps ought to try and look at this from the inside' (Gikandi, 1996). Chinua Achebe never looked back thereafter and came out with many popular novels with subjects ranging from satire on corruption to the plight of people in the ethnic violence and civil war. Some of the notable works of Chinua Achebe include Arrow of God (1964), A Man of the People (1966), Beware, Soul Brother (1971), Christmas in Biafra and Other Poems (1973), Anthills of the Savanna (1987) etc.

Achebe started his working days from the Nigerian Broadcasting Co. in Lagos in 1954. He also studied broadcasting from the British Broadcasting Corp. in London, but destiny had something else in store for him and instead of becoming a broadcaster, he went on to become a successful writer. Presently teaching his students as a professor at Bard College, New York, Achebe has also travelled around the world for delivering lectures on subjects dear to his heart, at different universities. He became the Editor of Okike, a reputed and most influential African literary magazine in 1971, and he continued to edit it after having accepted the post of Professor of English at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 1971.

Married with four children, Achebe met with a serious car accident in the year 1990, and subsequently the lower part of his body was paralyzed. But the manner in which