​The late Nigerian author Chinua Achebe has been honoured in a Google Doodle, underscoring his status as a towering figure of 20th century literature.

By creating a doodle marking what would have been Achebe’s 87th birthday, the tech giant is celebrating a writer many consider to be father of modern African literature.

Writing amid a post-colonial movement that saw African nations cast off decades of foreign rule and seek political sovereignty, Mr Achebe lent a voice to a generation of Africans who refused to be defined solely through the lenses of European thought.

Part of that work involved telling distinctly African stories from the perspective of African characters, helping to forge a literature that — like newly created countries — was independent from Europe.

Mr Achebe did so across dozens of novels and books of poetry and essays, leading many to refer to him as “the father of modern African literature”. He died in March of 2013 at the age of 82, having collected accolades that included the Man Booker International Prize.

His oeuvre stood in deliberate opposition to works of European literature that cast Africa as a setting and its people as bit players in the central affairs of Western characters. He denounced novelist Joseph Conrad as a “bloody racist” and called Mr Conrad’s novel “Heart of Darkness”, in which a European explorer plunges into a threatening and unfathomable Africa, as “a totally deplorable book”.

In contrast to European works that allowed Africans only minor or one-dimensional roles, Mr Achebe wrote novels that showed Nigerians as complex characters endowed with agency.

His best-known work, “Things Fall Apart,” remains a staple of school curricula. It tells the story of Okonkwo, the proud leader of his village.

The novel depicts the complex customs of the Igbo people, one of multiple ethnic groups in Nigeria with a distinct culture and language. The book portrays how Okonkwo’s world is upended by the appearance of Christian missionaries, and its closing paragraph — written from the perspective of a recently arrived colonial leader — functions as a haunting allusion to how European observers reduce and dismiss complex African cultures:

“He had already chosen the title of the book, after much thought: The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger.”

http://fabinfos.com/chinua-achebe-nigerian-author-one-worlds-important-modern-writers/



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpL6J64cDvA

My younger sister once asked me a question after reading a few of Achebe's work. She said, "Why does Achebe like killing his main characters in his novels?". As funny and truthful as the question was, I couldn't answer but wished he was alive to give her an answer.

Anyway, Achebe remains one of the best. "There Was A Country and Things Fall Apart" are my favourite of his works. Hope to read more when time permits.

Please we don't want any nonsense comparisons here. Thanks in anticipation

moscobabs:

I am sure many people will agree with me that D.O Fagunwa and JF Odunjo are greatest writes than both Chinua Achebe and Wole Soyinka.

Try to read all Alawiye, Ogboju ode ninu igbo irunmole and Igbo elegbeje and testify.

Maybe because JF Odunjo and Fagunwa wrote their books purely in Yoruba. But yes, I agree with you those 2 were very brilliant writers. Amos Tutuola was another brilliant writer

I am sure many people will agree with me that D.O Fagunwa and JF Odunjo are greatest writers than both Chinua Achebe and Wole Soyinka.

Try to read all Alawiye, Ogboju ode ninu igbo irunmole and Igbo elegbeje and testify.

He still remains the best.Writing in Africa died when Heinmann Publishers discontinued the publication of African Writers Series of which Achebe was the Editor .

Does he have a Foundation for enhancing Igbo culture and studies through monuments devoted to the legacy of the massacre of his people during the civil war?
Abi he did not learn anything from his sojourn in oyinbo land where he was professor paid from funds endowed by a Foundation?

May his soul rest in peace,nobody wants to write again sef

true

Great!

I saw it too..

Legacies keep one alive even after death.

If Chinua Achebe is a modern writer, I wonder what I am.

Anambra born Chinua Achebe is the father of modern African literature and Africa's most influential celebrity.


#RESPECT SIR

I remember him for "things fall apart."

lol :Dlol

I mean no disrespect but i honestly think there is a big difference between 'pioneering' and rating someone as the 'best', i reckon he is a major pioneer of African writing but there are works from some other African writers that are better than his in terms of content and imagination. My number one African writer remains Nyengi Koin, her book 'Time changes yesterday' still remains my number1 book followed by "The bottled leopard" by Chukwuemeka Ike..........

I remember way back in my secondary school, things fall apart was a bomb then i fit don read the book like 1000x sef he was a great writer and needs to be celebrated

anonimi:
Does he have a Foundation for enhancing Igbo culture and studies through monuments devoted to the legacy of the massacre of his people during the civil war?
Abi he did not learn anything from his sojourn in oyinbo land where he was professor paid from funds endowed by a Foundation?

I think Their Was A Country was that monument.

He tried.

But my late grand mother might be better story teller than him.

...and Okorocha can not give this man one statue

There was a country

the man is good no doubt but this man and soyinka, who dope pass ?

He's great

BABA OO LEGENDARY

I don't know much about literary work...I'll leave it to the person below me