Chinua Achebe

1) His Biography:

Chinua Achebe was born in Ogidi, Nigeria, on November 15, 1930. He was the fifth of six children in a household of Igbo tribe members. Representatives from the British government, which ruled Nigeria at the time, persuaded his parents, Isaiah Okafor Achebe and Janet Ileogbunam, to renounce their ancient religion and convert to Christianity. Achebe was raised as a Christian, yet he was fascinated by the more traditional Nigerian religions. He went to a government college in Umuahia, Nigeria, and then to the University College in Ibadan, Nigeria, where he graduated in 1954.

Achebe despised British authors such as Joseph Conrad (1857–1924) and John Buchan (1875–1940) who wrote works about Africa, believing that the representations of African people were inaccurate and disrespectful. Things Fall Apart (1959), a story about a traditional warrior hero who is unable to adapt to changing situations in the early days of British administration, was written when he was working for the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation.

The book received rapid international acclaim and was adapted into a play by Biyi Bandele. Years later, in 1997, the Nigerian Performance Studio Workshop staged a production of the play, which was then produced in the United States in 1999 as part of the Kennedy Center’s African Odyssey series. No Longer At Ease (1960) and Arrow of God (1964), Achebe’s following two works, were also set in the past.

Nigeria’s newness of independence had faded by the mid-1960s, and the country confronted the same political issues as many other African countries. The Igbo people, who had previously played a prominent part in Nigerian politics, began to believe that the Muslim Hausa people of Northern Nigeria treated them as second-class citizens.

Achebe authored A Man of the People, a novel about a corrupt Nigerian politician, in 1966. The book was released at the same time that the former political authority was deposed by a military coup. Some Northern military officers suspected Achebe of being involved in the takeover, although there was never any evidence to back up their suspicions.

Achebe, on the other hand, served as an ambassador (representative) to Biafra during the years when Biafra attempted to secede from Nigeria (1967–70). He travelled to several nations to explain his people’s difficulties, particularly the starvation and massacre of Igbo children. He wrote on the Biafran struggle in newspapers and periodicals and co-founded the Citadel Press with Nigerian poet Christopher Okigbo.

In a 1969 interview, he stated that writing a novel was out of the question at the time: “I can’t, and I don’t want to, write a novel right now. I couldn’t even if I wanted to. I can create poetry— short, powerful poems that are more in tune with my feeling.” During this time, three volumes of poetry, as well as a collection of short stories and children’s stories, were published. Achebe continued to teach at the University of Nigeria at Nsukka after the Republic of Biafra fell apart, and he committed time to the Heinemann Educational Books’ Writers Series (which was designed to promote the careers of young African writers). Achebe moved to the United States in 1972 to teach English at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst (he taught there again in 1987).

He began teaching at the University of Connecticut in 1975. In 1976, he returned to the University of Nigeria. Anthills of the Savanna (1987) is a novel about three childhood friends in a West African country and the tragic consequences of the thirst for power and the desire to be elected “president for life.” Following the publication of the book, Achebe returned to the United States to teach at Stanford University, Dartmouth College, and other universities.

In 1990, while celebrating his sixtieth birthday in Nigeria, Achebe was injured in an automobile accident on one of the country’s treacherous highways. He was paralysed from the waist down as a result of the accident. Doctors advised him to return to the United States permanently for better medical care, so he accepted a position as a professor at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York.

After a nine-year hiatus, Achebe returned to his country in 1999, where his ancestral village of Ogidi praised him for his dedication to his ancestors’ stories and traditions. Oxford University Press published Achebe’s nonfiction book Home and Exile, which consisted of three articles, in 2000.

2) Main works:

Things Fall Apart (1958):

Things Fall Apart (1958), Achebe’s first novel, is about traditional Igbo life in Nigeria at the time of the arrival of missionaries and colonial rule. Even though the old order has already collapsed, his main character is unable to accept the new one. He played a freshly appointed public servant, lately back from university study in England, in the sequel No Longer at Ease (1960), who is unable to maintain the moral standards he considers to be correct in the face of the demands and temptations of his new post.

Arrow of God (1964):

In Arrow of God (1964), set in a village under British authority in the 1920s, the main character, the village’s chief priest, whose son becomes a devout Christian, directs his hatred of the white man’s position onto his own people.

A Man of the People (1966):

A Man of the People (1966) is a film about postcolonial African life that deals with corruption and other issues.

Another Africa (1998):

Robert Lyons, a renowned photographer, and Chinua Achebe, an internationally acclaimed author, have collaborated on Another Africa to examine the actual Africa beneath the preconceptions held by Westerners.

3) Things Fall Apart:

Plot:

Okonkwo is a wealthy and well-liked warrior from the Umuofia clan, a lower Nigerian tribe that is made up of nine towns. Unoka, his cowardly and spendthrift father, died in disgrace, leaving many village obligations unpaid. He is haunted by his father’s conduct. As a result, Okonkwo rose to prominence as a clansman, warrior, farmer, and family provider. He has a twelve-yearold son named Nwoye, whom he considers lethargic; Okonkwo is concerned that Nwoye would follow in the footsteps of Unoka and become a failure.

Umuofia wins a virgin and a fifteen-year-old boy in a settlement with a neighbouring tribe. Okonkwo takes responsibility of the boy, Ikemefuna, and sees him as the perfect son. Nwoye, too, develops a deep bond with the newcomer. Despite his liking for Ikemefuna and the fact that the youngster begins to refer to him as “father,” Okonkwo refuses to show him attention.

Okonkwo accuses his youngest wife, Ojiugo, of carelessness during the Week of Peace. He severely hits her, upsetting the hallowed week’s serenity. He makes certain sacrifices to demonstrate his repentance, but he has irreparably shaken his community. Ikemefuna spends three years with Okonkwo’s family. Nwoye looks up to him as an elder brother and adopts a more manly attitude, much to Okonkwo’s delight. The locusts arrive in Umuofia one day, and they will return every year for the next seven years until disappearing for another generation. They are eagerly collected by the locals since they are tasty when cooked.

Okonkwo is told in secret by Ogbuefi Ezeudu, a respected village leader, that the Oracle has decreed that Ikemefuna must be slain. He informs Okonkwo that he should not take part in the boy’s death because Ikemefuna refers to him as “father.” Okonkwo deceives Ikemefuna by claiming that they must return him to his hometown. Nwoye sobs uncontrollably. Ikemefuna thinks about seeing his mother as he walks with the men of Umuofia. Some of Okonkwo’s clansmen attack the youngster with machetes after several hours of travelling.

Ikemefuna seeks assistance from Okonkwo. Despite the Oracle’s warning, Okonkwo, not wanting to appear weak in front of his countrymen, cuts the kid down. Nwoye deduces that Okonkwo is dead when he arrives home. Okonkwo falls into a state of depression, unable to sleep or eat. He goes to see his friend Obierika and feels a little better. Ezinma, Okonkwo’s daughter, becomes unwell, but recovers after Okonkwo collects leaves for her treatment.

The ekwe, a musical instrument, is used to announce Ogbuefi Ezeudu’s death to the surrounding villages. Ezeudu’s last visit to Okonkwo was to warn him against taking part in Ikemefuna’s death, and Okonkwo feels responsible. The men pounded drums and fired firearms at Ogbuefi Ezeudu’s enormous and lavish funeral. When Okonkwo’s gun bursts, killing Ogbuefi Ezeudu’s sixteen-year-old son, tragedy multiplies.

Because killing a clansman is a sin against the soil goddess, Okonkwo is forced to exile his family for seven years to atone. He gathers his most prized possessions and transports his family to Mbanta, his mother’s birthplace. To purge the community of Okonkwo’s sin, the men from Ogbuefi Ezeudu’s sector burn down Okonkwo’s buildings and slaughter his animals.

Okonkwo’s relatives, particularly his uncle, Uchendu, warmly welcome him. They assist him in the construction of a new hut compound and loan him yam seeds to establish a farm. Despite being terribly upset by his misfortune, Okonkwo accepts life in his motherland.

Obierika brings numerous bags of cowries (shells used as cash) that he has earned from selling Okonkwo’s yams during the second year of Okonkwo’s exile. Obierika intends to keep doing so till Okonkwo arrives in the village. Obierika also conveys the dreadful news that the white man has destroyed another hamlet, Abame.

Six missionaries travel to Mbanta shortly after that. Mr. Brown, the missionaries’ leader, speaks to the villagers through an interpreter named Mr. Kiaga. He warns them that their gods are bogus, and that worshipping multiple Gods is idolatry. The people, on the other hand, are baffled as to how the Holy Trinity can be regarded as one God. Mr. Brown does not allow his supporters to provoke the clan, despite his goal of converting the citizens of Umuofia to Christianity.

Mr. Brown becomes ill, and Reverend James Smith, an unpleasant and rigid man, takes his position. Mr. Brown’s policy of constraint has been lifted, and the more zealous converts are relieved. Enoch, one of these converts, takes the risk of unmasking an egwugwu at the annual rite honouring the soil deity, akin to murdering an ancestral spirit. The egwugwu set fire to Enoch’s compound and Reverend Smith’s church the next day.

The District Commissioner is outraged by the church’s burning and seeks a meeting with Umuofia’s officials. The leaders, on the other hand, are handcuffed and thrown in jail, where they are insulted and physically abused.

Following the freeing of the prisoners, the clansmen have a conference at which five court messengers arrive and instruct the clansmen to cease and desist. Okonkwo kills their chieftain with his blade, expecting his fellow clan members to join him in revolt. Okonkwo knows that his clan is unwilling to go to battle when the crowd permits the other messengers to flee.

When the District Commissioner comes at Okonkwo’s property, he discovers that he has committed suicide by hanging himself. The commissioner is led to the body by Obierika and his friends. Obierika emphasises that suicide is a great evil, and that no one from Okonkwo’s clan is allowed to approach his body. The commissioner, who is preparing an African history book, believes Okonkwo’s revolt and death will make for a fascinating paragraph or two. ThePacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger is the title he has picked for the book.

Main themes:

The Struggle Between Change And Tradition:

Things Fall Apart is a narrative about how the potential and actuality of change effect diverse characters in a civilization on the cusp of change. The debate over whether change or tradition should take precedence sometimes involves issues of personal prestige. For example, Okonkwo opposes the new political and religious groups because he believes they are unmanly, and that if he joins or even tolerates them, he will lose his manhood.

To some extent, Okonkwo’s aversion to cultural change stems from his fear of losing his social standing. His sense of self-worth is based on the established norms that society uses to evaluate him.

Many of the clan’s misfits are inspired to accept Christianity by this technique of self-evaluation. Long rejected, these misfits find safety in the Christian value system, which places them above everyone else in Igbo culture. These converts have a higher position in their new community. The villagers, in general, are torn between rejecting and welcoming change, and they are faced with the challenge of figuring out how to effectively adapt to the realities of change. Many of the people are enthusiastic about the missionaries’ new opportunities and tactics. This European influence, on the other hand, threatens to obliterate the need for knowledge of traditional farming, harvesting, construction, and cooking practises.

Traditional ways, which were previously essential for existence, are now, to varied degrees, obsolete. Throughout the novel, Achebe demonstrates how narrative and language are integral to such traditions, and how swiftly the rejection of the Igbo language in favour of English might lead to their extinction.

Varying Interpretations Of Masculinity:

Much of Okonkwo’s angry and ambitious temperament is shaped by his relationship with his late father. He aspires to be more than his father’s spendthrift, lethargic demeanour, which he sees as weak and effeminate. The narrator says that agbala, which also means “woman,” is the word for a guy who has not taken any of the pricey, prestige-indicating titles. However, Okonkwo’s definition of manliness differs from that of the clan for the most part. He equates masculinity with aggression and believes that the only feeling he should express is rage. As a result, he often hits his wives, even threatening to kill them on occasion.

We’re told he doesn’t think things through, and we witness him acting rashly and impetuously. Others, who are not effeminate in any way, do not behave in this manner. Unlike Okonkwo, Obierika “was a man who pondered about things.” While Obierika refuses to follow the men on their mission to assassinate Ikemefuna, Okonkwo not only agrees to join the party that would assassinate his surrogate son, but he also stabs him with his machete because he is scared of appearing weak.

Okonkwo’s seven-year banishment from his village only serves to solidify his belief that men are superior to women. He lives among his motherland’s kinsmen while in exile, yet he resents the entire duration. The exile is an opportunity for him to reconnect with his feminine side and honour his maternal ancestors, but he keeps telling himself that his maternal relatives are not as warlike and aggressive as the residents of Umuofia. He criticises them for preferring compromise, conformity, and avoidance over rage and bloodshed. His uncle Uchendu, in Okonkwo’s opinion, embodies this pacifist (and thus somewhat effeminate) approach.

Language As A Sign Of Cultural Difference:

On various levels, language is a major issue in Things Fall Apart. Achebe underlines that Africa is not the silent or incomprehensible continent that books like Heart of Darkness portray it to be by showcasing the Igbo’s inventive, often formal vocabulary. Rather, Achebe demonstrates that the Igbo language is too difficult for direct translation into English by peppering the narrative with Igbo phrases. Igbo culture, likewise, cannot be defined in terms of European colonialist values. Achebe also emphasises the diversity of African languages: the inhabitants of Umuofia, for example, mock Mr. Brown’s translator because his language differs somewhat from their own.

On a macro level, Achebe’s decision to write Things Fall Apart in English is significant—he certainly intended for it to be read by the West as much as, if not more than, his fellow Nigerians. His purpose was to criticise and improve on the portrait of Africa painted by so many colonial writers. This necessitated the use of English, the colonial writers’ native tongue. Achebe succeeded to capture and express the rhythms, patterns, cadences, and beauty of the Igbo language by including proverbs, folktales, and songs translated from the Igbo language.

Generational Divide:

Things Fall Apart focuses on two major generational differences. Okonkwo and his father, Unoka, are separated by the first split. Unoka, unlike his son, is not a warrior, and he has made no other distinction as a man. Unoka, on the other hand, prefers to drink and play music with his pals. Unoka’s lack of drive is embarrassing for a hypermasculine guy like Okonkwo, and Okonkwo dismisses his father as a coward.

Okonkwo is estranged from his father, and he is estranged from his eldest son, Nwoye. Nwoye has a lot in common with his grandfather Unoka, especially when it comes to his dislike of war and passion for the arts. Nwoye defies his father’s desire for him to become a skilled fighter. He’s also attracted to his mother’s stories, which Okonkwo dismisses as a waste of time. Nwoye eventually runs away and converts to Christianity, escaping his father’s expectations and fury. Despite the fact that Okonkwo is embarrassed of both his father and his kid, the novel argues that Okonkwo is more of an outlier than Unoka or Nwoye.

Pride:

Okonkwo’s greatest flaw is his pride, which is continually threatened both within and outside his community. Okonkwo is proud of his accomplishments. He has a right to be proud because he has accomplished so much. He has not only proven himself to be one of Umuofia’s most fearsome fighters, but he has also risen up Umuofia’s social ranks faster than any of his contemporaries. However, Okonkwo’s pride causes him to dismiss people who do not meet his high standards. Nwoye’s apparent lack of manly attributes, for example, causes Okonkwo to be concerned about his own legacy and hostile against Nwoye.

Okonkwo’s banishment in Mbanta has also taken a toll on his pride. When he returns to Umuofia, he intends to reclaim his glory by protecting his homeland against European encroachment. “What do I do if a man walks into my hut and defecates on the floor?” Okonkwo explains his perspective with an analogy. Should I close my eyes? No! I break his head with a stick.” To maintain his pride, Okonkwo eventually resorts to violence, which leads to his untimely demise.

Repression:

Things are falling apart all over the place. Okonkwo has a hard time suppressing his feelings. He suppresses his emotions above all else because he is afraid of appearing weak and effeminate. Okonkwo’s inner effort to suppress all emotional responses drives him to express himself with excessive brutality throughout the narrative. This psychological tug-of-war is constantly mentioned by the narrator.

The narrator expressly discusses the subject of repression in Chapter 4, for example: “Okonkwo never displayed any emotion openly, unless it was the emotion of fury.” It was a sign of weakness to display affection; the only thing worth demonstrating was power.” Okonkwo’s notion that anger is the only emotion a man should express causes severe problems for him, his family, and ultimately his community.

When Okonkwo kills Ikemefuna despite Ogbuefi Ezeudu’s advise, for example, he does so because “he was scared of being deemed weak.” Nwoye, Okonkwo’s blood son, is broken by Okonkwo’s cruel execution of his adopted son. This behaviour aggravates an already-open sore between Okonkwo and Nwoye, which will never heal. Throughout the story, emotional repression leads to harmful—and ultimately tragic—outbursts of fury and violence for Okonkwo.

4) Main themes in his writings:

Tradition and colonialism:

The convergence of African tradition (particularly Igbo variants) with modernity, especially as reflected by European colonisation, is a recurring theme in Achebe’s works. When white Christian missionaries arrive in the village of Umuofia in Things Fall Apart, for example, the town is brutally disturbed by internal differences.

The colonial experience in the novel is described by Nigerian English professor Ernest N. Emenyonu as “the systematic emasculation of the entire culture.” In Anthills of the Savannah, Achebe’s character Sam Okoli, the president of Kangan, reflected this struggle between African heritage and Western influence. His Westernised education has separated him from the community’s myths and traditions, and he lacks the capacity for reconnection demonstrated by the character Beatrice.

Individuals from Europe often have an impact on the Igbo in Achebe’s works, but organisations like city offices usually serve a similar purpose. In No Longer at Ease, the character Obi succumbs to colonial-era corruption in the city, as the temptations of his position overpower his identity and fortitude. After demonstrating his ability to depict traditional Igbo culture in Things Fall Apart, Achebe displayed his ability to reflect modern Nigerian society in No Longer at Ease.

The usual Achebean finale involves the death of an individual, which leads to the community’s demise. In A Man of the People, for example, Odili’s plunge into the luxury of corruption and hedonism is indicative of the post-colonial predicament in Nigeria and worldwide. Despite the focus on colonialism, Achebe’s sad endings encapsulate the typical confluence of fate, individuality, and society as portrayed by Sophocles and Shakespeare.

Achebe isn’t interested in portraying moral absolutes or fatalistic inevitability. He declared in 1972: “I will never argue that the Old must triumph or that the New must triumph. The point is that no single reality satisfied me—a sentiment shared by the Igbo people. No single person can be completely perfect all of the time, and no single thought can be completely correct all of the time.”

“Whatever you are is never enough; you must find a way to accept something, however small, from the other to make you whole and to save you from the grave sin of righteousness and fanaticism,” says Ikem, a character in Anthills of the Savannah. Achebe said in a 1996 interview: “Belief in either radicalism or orthodoxy is an oversimplification of reality… Evil is never pure evil; on the other hand, goodness is frequently contaminated with selfishness.”

Masculinity and femininity:

Men’s and women’s gender roles, as well as society’s perceptions of the notions linked with them, are recurrent themes in Achebe’s writing. He has been branded a sexist novelist in response to what many see as an uncritical portrayal of historically patriarchal Igbo society, in which the most manly males take many wives and women are often mistreated. Surprisingly, Igbo society places a high importance on individual achievement while simultaneously viewing women’s ownership or acquisition as a sign of success.

According to African studies expert Rose Ure Mezu, Achebe is either expressing the characters’ restricted gendered viewpoint, or he purposely developed exaggerated gender binaries to make Igbo history familiar to outside readers. In contrast, the scholar Ajoke Mimiko Bestman has stated that reading Achebe through the lens of womanism is “an afrocentric concept forged out of global feminism to analyse the condition of Black African women,” which acknowledges patriarchal oppression of women while highlighting the resistance and dignity of African women, allowing for a better understanding of Igbo gender complementarity conceptions.

According to Bestman, Okonkwo’s furious manhood in Things Fall Apart overpowers everything “feminine” in his life, including his own conscience, whereas Achebe’s portrayal of the chi, or personal god, has been dubbed the “mother within.” Okonkwo’s father was referred to be an agbala, a term that can apply to both a man without a title and a woman. Okonkwo’s feminization of his father’s idleness and cowardice is typical of the Igbo view of any failed male.

His dread of femaleness fuels his preoccupation with maleness, which he shows through physical and verbal abuse of his wife, aggression towards his community, persistent worry that his son Nwoye isn’t manly enough, and his wish that his daughter Ezinma had been born a boy. Despite the fact that Igbo women have traditionally been active in village leadership, the women in the story are docile, silent, and absent from positions of responsibility. Ani, the soil goddess, and the extensive discussion of “Nneka” (“Mother is Supreme”) in Chapter 14 underline the yearning for feminine balance.

Despite her repeated miscarriages, Okonkwo’s second wife Ekwefi’s endurance and love for Ezinma is considered as a homage to Igbo womanhood, which is generally defined by motherhood. Mezu and literature expert Nahem Yousaf regard Okonkwo’s defeat as an affirmation of the necessity for a balancing feminine ethos. Okonkwo’s failings, according to Bestman, are due to his disdain for and fear of women, as well as his inability to develop meaningful personal relationships with the women in his life.

Achebe voiced his dissatisfaction with the fact that he is commonly misinterpreted on this subject, claiming that “Things Fall Apart is on the side of women, I’d like to scream […] And that Okonkwo is paying the price for his abuse of women; that all of his difficulties, all of his wrongdoings, may be understood as assaults on the feminine.” Bestman claims that Okonkwo’s violent and fervent anti-women stance is the exception rather than the rule in his Umuofia community and wider Igbo society.

5) His Legacy:

Achebe has been dubbed the “father of African literature,” the “founding father of African literature,” and the “father of the African novel in English” because he is the most dominating and influential writer of modern African literature. Such descriptions were rejected by Achebe. Things Fall Apart has been termed a masterpiece by critic Dwight Garner and has been called the most important book in modern African literature.

It has been translated into 57 languages and has sold over 20 million copies globally, making Achebe the most translated, studied, and read African novelist. His literary legacy is particularly remarkable in that it has had a significant impact on not just African but also European literature. Professor Robert Gibson stated the Nigerian writer “is now respected as Master by the younger generation of African writers, and it is to him they often look for advise and inspiration” at the ceremony awarding his honorary degree from the University of Kent. “Celebrating the Life and Works of Chinua Achebe: The Coming of Age of African Literature?” was the theme of the Pan African Writers’ Association’s 22nd International African Writers’ Day and three-day conference in November 2015.

Things Fall Apart, according to scholar Simon Gikandi, “changed the lives of many of us” during his and his classmates’ schooling in Kenya. Achebe’s influence is seen widely in literary circles outside of Africa. Margaret Atwood, a novelist, referred to him as “a magical writer—one of the greatest of the twentieth century.” Things Fall Apart was praised by poet Maya Angelou as a work in which “all readers encounter their brothers, sisters, parents, friends, and themselves along Nigerian roads.” Toni Morrison, a Nobel winner, said Achebe’s work “sparked her love affair with African literature” and motivated her to become a writer.

Over 30 honorary degrees were bestowed upon Achebe by universities in Nigeria, Canada, South Africa, Nigeria, the United Kingdom, and the United States, including Dartmouth College, Harvard, and Brown. The first Commonwealth Poetry Prize (1972); the Nigerian National Order of Merit, Order of the Federal Republic (1979); an Honorary Fellowship of the American Academy of Arts and Letters (1982); the St. Louis Literary Award (1999); the German Book Trade Peace Prize (2002); the Man Booker International Prize (2007); and the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize (2010). In 1992, he became the first living writer to be included in Alfred A. Knopf’s Everyman’s Library collection (reprints of classic literature). He was appointed Goodwill Ambassador to the United Nations Population Fund in 1999.

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan indicated that Achebe was perplexed by false information, but that he still admired him. In 2011, Achebe was nominated for the Commander of the Federal Republic again, but he declined “The reasons for first rejecting the invitation have not been addressed, let alone resolved. It’s not proper to offer it to me again “.. Despite his international reputation and stature, Achebe was never awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, which some people, particularly Nigerians, believed was unjust. When a reporter for Quality Weekly asked Achebe how he felt about never earning a Nobel Prize, he replied: “The Nobel Prize, in my opinion, is significant. However, it is a European award. It isn’t an African award… Literature isn’t like a heavyweight fight. Nigerians may believe that this man has been defeated. That hasn’t got anything to do with it.”

Despite his personal apathy, Soyinka claims that he got a flood of messages shortly after Achebe’s death requesting him to nominate Achebe posthumously. Such requests were turned down by Soyinka, who explained that Achebe was the one who made them “is entitled to more than being led to his grave by that monotonous, hypocritical aria of deprivation’s lament, orchestrated by those who, as we say in my part of the world, “dye their mourning weeds a deeper indigo than those of the bereaved.” He is deserving of peace. Yes, I agree! And, for the time being, not posthumously.”

In 2005, Bard College established the Chinua Achebe Center to “develop exciting programmes for the most outstanding among a new generation of African authors and artists.” A Chinua Achebe Fellowship in Global African Studies was also established by Bard. In 2013, the people of Achebe’s native community dubbed him “Ugonabo” of Ogidi, a Nigerian chieftain. Taking a title like this is the highest honour a man can obtain in Igbo society.

Young writers in Anambra State launched the Chinua Achebe Literary Festival on Achebe’s 86th birthday in 2016. [193] The Chinua Achebe Literary Court and a memorial bust honouring Achebe were erected in December 2019 at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. In the 2019 edition of the Grand Prix of Literary Associations, Achebe was awarded the Grand Prix de la Mémoire (Grand Prize for Memory)