Chinua Achebe Biography

Quick Facts

NAME: Chinua Achebe
OCCUPATION: Educator, Publisher, Author
BIRTH DATE: November 16, 1930
DEATH DATE: March 21, 2013
EDUCATION: University of Ibadan
PLACE OF BIRTH: Ogidi, Anambra, Nigeria
PLACE OF DEATH: Boston, Massachusetts
Full Name: Albert Chinualumogu Achebe
AKA: Albert Achebe
AKA: Chinua Achebe

Best Known For

Chinua Achebe is a Nigerian novelist and author of Things Fall Apart, a work that in part led to his being called the "patriarch of the African novel."

Quiz

Think you know about Biography?

Answer questions and see how you rank against other players.

Play Now

Print Cite This

Chinua Achebe

APA Style

Chinua Achebe. (2013). The Biography Channel website. Retrieved 08:08, May 21, 2013, from http://www.biography.com/people/chinua-achebe-20617665.

Harvard Style

Chinua Achebe. [Internet]. 2013. The Biography Channel website. Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/chinua-achebe-20617665 [Accessed 21 May 2013].

MLA Style

"Chinua Achebe." 2013. The Biography Channel website. May 21 2013, 08:08 http://www.biography.com/people/chinua-achebe-20617665.

MHRA Style

"Chinua Achebe," The Biography Channel website, 2013, http://www.biography.com/people/chinua-achebe-20617665 [accessed May 21, 2013].

Chicago Style

"Chinua Achebe," The Biography Channel website, http://www.biography.com/people/chinua-achebe-20617665 (accessed May 21, 2013).

CBE/CSE Style

Chinua Achebe [Internet]. The Biography Channel website; 2013 [cited 2013 May 21] Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/chinua-achebe-20617665.

Bluebook Style

Chinua Achebe, http://www.biography.com/people/chinua-achebe-20617665 (last visited May 21, 2013).

AMA Style

Chinua Achebe. The Biography Channel website. 2013. Available at: http://www.biography.com/people/chinua-achebe-20617665. Accessed May 21, 2013.

The work referred to Conrad as a "thoroughgoing racist," and, when published in essay form, it went on to become a seminal postcolonial African work. Achebe joined the faculty at the University of Connecticut that same year, returning to the University of Nigeria in 1976.

Later Years

The year 1987 would mark the release of Achebe's Anthills of the Savannah, which was shortlisted for the Booker McConnell Prize. The following year, he published Hopes and Impediments (1988).

The 1990s began with tragedy: Achebe was in a car accident in Nigeria that left him paralyzed from the waist down and would confine him to a wheelchair for the rest of his life. Soon after, he moved to the United States and taught at Bard College, just north of New York City, where he remained for 15 years. In 2009, Achebe left Bard to join the faculty of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, serving as professor of Africana Studies as well as the David and Marianna Fisher University professor.

Chinua Achebe won several awards over the course of his writing career, including the Man Booker International Prize (2007) and the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize (2010). He also received honorary degrees from more than 30 universities around the world.

Chinua Achebe died on March 21, 2013, at the age of 82, in Boston, Massachusetts.