How did Chinua Achebe grow up?
Achebe grew up in the Igbo (Ibo) town of Ogidi, Nigeria. After studying English and literature at University College (now the University of Ibadan), Achebe taught for a short time before joining the staff of the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation in Lagos, where he served as director of external broadcasting in 1961–66.
What is Chinua Achebe’s educational background?
University of Ibadan
What influenced Chinua Achebe in Things Fall Apart?
Achebe was raised in Ogidi, Nigeria by Christian convert parents; therefore, he had an abundance of knowledge about both European and African traditions and culture. The truthful knowledge Chinua possessed about Nigeria influenced him to write a book portraying Africans as realistically as possible.
What is the history of Chinua Achebe?
Chinua Achebe (/ˈtʃɪnwɑː əˈtʃɛbeɪ/; born Albert Chinụalụmọgụ Achebe, 16 November 1930 – 21 March 2013) was a Nigerian novelist, poet, professor, and critic. His first novel Things Fall Apart (1958), often considered his masterpiece, is the most widely read book in modern African literature.
Where is Achebe from?
Ogidi, Nigeria
Is Chinua Achebe a Nobel Prize winner?
The West, puppeteering the Swedish Academy, denied Achebe the Nobel Prize and awarded it to Wole Soyinka because Achebe’s works conflicted, in most cases, against Western values; whereas Soyinka’s works often emphasized the triumph of Western civilization and modernization over traditional African values.
How do you pronounce Chinua Achebe?
Chinua Achebe (pronounced CHIN-you-ah Ah-CHAY-bay) caught the world’s attention with his first novel, “Things Fall Apart.” Published in 1958, when he was 28, the book would become a classic of world literature and required reading for students, selling more than 10 million copies in 45 languages.
What according to Achebe is the social responsibility of the writer?
Beauty of art and education Achebe (1982) stresses in his essay that the duty of a writer is to teach and educate the society. He tries to depict the history of pre-colonial Ibo culture to the present day youths.
Why is Chinua Achebe important to English?
Achebe believes that the justification for using English as means of communication in his novel is that British colonialism gave the opportunity for different ethnic groups around Africa and overall to efficiently be able to communicate with each other.
What was Chinua Achebe’s religion?
He grew up in the care of people of both Christianity and the traditional Igbo religion, which meant that Achebe daily experienced the two religions first hand as he partook in both religions’ religious activities.
What was Chinua Achebe’s original name and why did he change it?
The growing nationalism in Nigeria was not lost on Achebe. At the university, he dropped his English name “Albert” in favor of the Igbo name “Chinua,” short for Chinualumogo.
How did Chinua Achebe’s life influence his story?
By presenting the world and history as seen through different eyes, he gave voice to the previously unheard. Achebe inspired writers in both Africa and elsewhere to tell their stories, most notably African-American Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison. Achebe’s most famous novel Things Fall Apart was published in 1958.
Why is the book Things Fall Apart named that?
Things Fall Apart even has a tragic-sounding title. The title is a quote from W. B. Yeats’s ominous poem “The Second Coming.” The reference to Yeats provides the novel with a sense of tragic inevitability.
What was Chinua Achebe’s plea to the African critics?
Achebe opposes, the European colonial prejudice, habit of ruling and discriminating other and comparing African people their literature, art and culture etc. He argues that African literature should not be judged with the canonical literature since it has its own particularity and peculiarity.
Who is the main character of things fall apart?
Ikemefuna
What was one purpose Achebe had for writing things fall apart?
When Things Fall Apart was first published, Achebe announced that one of his purposes was to present a complex, dynamic society to a Western audience who perceived African society as primitive, simple, and backward. Achebe also kept in mind his own Nigerian people as an audience.