Brief Biography of Chinua Achebe

Achebe was raised by his parents in the Igbo town of Ogidi in southeastern Nigeria.
Although his parents were Protestant and practiced the Christian faith, Achebe and his siblings
were also exposed to traditional Igbo culture, which included a heavy emphasis on storytelling.
Achebe excelled in school and began writing stories as a university student. After graduation, he
worked first as an English teacher in the town of Oba. Later, he worked for the Nigerian
Broadcasting Service (NBS) in the metropolis of Lagos. He published and gained worldwide
attention for Things Fall Apart in 1958. Over the next several decades, Achebe was involved in a
mix of academia and Nigerian politics, publishing a number of short stories, children's books,
and essay collections and splitting his time between Nigeria and the United States until 1990,
when he returned to the US after a car accident left him partially disabled. Achebe continued to
publish and held a faculty position at Brown University from 2009 until his death in 2013.

Historical Context of Things Fall Apart

Things Fall Apart is set in 1890, during the early days of colonialism in Nigeria. Achebe
depicts Igbo society in transition, from its first contact with the British colonialists to the
growing dominance of British rule over the indigenous people. Literary works about this period
often painted stereotypical portraits of native Africans as primitives—even works that were
critical of the European colonizers, such as Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad depicted
Africans as savages who were both oppressed by and excited the savagery of white Christian
Europeans (see “Joseph Conrad: ‘A Bloody Racist'” below). Achebe's novel is a response to
these colonialist works of literature—Things Fall Apart is a postcolonial novel that strives to
revise previous stereotypes by portraying both cultures with a neutral eye, focusing on the
complexity of Igbo traditions.

Other Books Related to Things Fall Apart

While Achebe was working on Things Fall Apart, he had very few models of African
fiction written in English. Two notable exceptions were Amos Tutuola's Palm-Wine
Drinkard and Cyprian Ekwensi's People of the City. However, though Achebe appreciated the
work of these fellow Nigerian writers, he worked to develop a style of his own. In 1962, Achebe
also had the opportunity to attend a conference with several contemporary African writers in
English, including Ghanaian poet Kofi Awoonor, Nigerian playwright and poet Wole Soyinka,
and US poet Langston Hughes. At the conference, Achebe was asked to read a student's
manuscript, and impressed with the work, he forwarded it to an agent. The student was Ngũgĩ wa
Thiong'o, who is now a widely recognized Kenyan writer, and the manuscript was his first
published work, Weep Not, Child.

Key Facts about Things Fall Apart

 Full Title: Things Fall Apart

  When Written: 1957
 Where Written: Nigeria
 When Published: 1958
 Literary Period: Post-colonialism
 Genre: Novel / Tragedy
 Setting: Pre-colonial Nigeria, 1890s
 Climax: Okonkwo's murder of a court messenger
 Antagonist: Missionaries and White Government Officials (Reverend Smith and the
District Commissioner)
 Point of View: Third person omniscient

Extra Credit for Things Fall Apart

Joseph Conrad: “A Bloody Racist”.

Chinua Achebe delivered a lecture and critique on Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness,
calling Conrad “a bloody racist” and provoking controversy among critics and readers. However,
Achebe's criticism of Conrad has become a mainstream perspective on Conrad's work and was
even included in the 1988 Norton critical edition of Heart of Darkness.

Achebe as Politician.

Achebe expressed his political views often in writing, but he also involved himself
actively in Nigerian politics when he became the People's Redemption Party's deputy national
vice-president in the early 1980's. However, he soon resigned himself in frustration with the
corruption he witnessed during the elections.

Things Fall Apart Summary

As a young man, Okonkwo becomes one of the greatest wrestlers in the clan. Okonkwo
values strength and aggression, traits he believes are masculine, and his worst fear is to be
thought of as feminine or weak, like his father, Unoka.

Okonkwo's wealth and status within the tribe grow, and he becomes one of the greatest
men in the land, with three wives and a large stock of yams. He treats his family with a heavy
hand, believing that the only emotion worth showing is anger. Okonkwo is particularly worried
about his eldest son, Nwoye, in whom he sees signs of laziness reminiscent of Unoka.

One day, the clan settles an argument with a neighboring village by demanding the
sacrifice of a virgin and a 15-year-old boy named Ikemefuna, who lives with Okonkwo's family
for the next three years.

While living with Okonkwo's family, Ikemefuna becomes very close to Nwoye, sharing
folktales and encouraging him to enjoy masculine tasks. Okonkwo approves of his influence on
Nwoye and grows fond of Ikemefuna himself. Ikemefuna soon starts to call Okonkwo “father.”

After three years, when the oldest man of the tribe, Ezeudu, informs Okonkwo that
Ikemefuna must be killed, he advises him not to participate in the killing, since “the boy calls
you father.” Okonkwo ignores this advice, fearing that others will find him weak or effeminate,
and he proceeds to strike the killing blow when they take Ikemefuna out to be killed the next
day.

Soon, Ezeudu passes away, and his funeral celebration draws the entire clan. During the
burial, Okonkwo's gun explodes, killing Ezeudu's 16-year-old son. Having killed a fellow
clansman, Okonkwo has no choice but to flee the clan with his family. Because the crime is a
“female,” or accidental, crime, they may return in seven years.

During their time in exile, Okonkwo and his family work hard to start a new farm in
Okonkwo's motherland, Mbanta. His mother's kinsmen treat them kindly, but Okonkwo is
extremely discouraged by the circumstances. He plans for the day he can return to his rightful
place in Umuofia.

While he works in Mbanta, the white men begin to appear among neighboring clans,
causing stories to spread about their power and destruction. When they finally arrive in Mbanta
though, the clan is fascinated but finds their religion ridiculous. Nwoye, however, is captivated
by the hymn he hears on the first day, and soon joins the Christians to get away from his father,
who is outraged.

When Okonkwo finally returns to Umuofia, the white men have changed his clan as
well. Mr. Brown, a white missionary who is popular for his patience and understanding
approach, has built a school and hospital, and many clan members are enrolling their children in
the school so that they can one day become clerks or teachers. However, soon after Okonkwo's
return, Mr. Brown leaves the country due to health reasons, and Reverend Smith replaces him.

Reverend Smith is uncompromising, encouraging acts among the converted clan

members that provoke the rest of the clan. When Enoch, a fanatical convert, rips the mask off of
one of the clan's masked egwugwu during a ceremony, the clan retaliates by burning down the
church. Reverend Smith reports this transgression, and the District Commissioner tricks the
clan's leaders into meeting with him before handcuffing them. The clan leaders, including
Okonkwo, suffer insults and beatings before they are released once the village pays the fine.

The morning after their release, the clan leaders speak of war before they are interrupted
by the arrival of court messengers. Full of hate, Okonkwo confronts the leader, who says that the
white man commands the meeting to stop. In a flash, Okonkwo strikes down the messenger with
his machete. Seeing that none of his clansmen support him in his violent action, Okonkwo walks
away and hangs himself.

When the District Commissioner comes to fetch Okonkwo the next day, the clansmen
lead him to his hanging body instead, saying that they cannot touch it, since it's an abomination
for a man to take his own life. The District Commissioner finds this custom interesting, making
note of it for his book on Nigeria, which he plans to title The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes
of the Lower Niger.

Yams Symbol Analysis

Towards the beginning of the novel, Achebe's narrator refers to yam as “the king of
crops,” emphasizing both its importance in Umuofia society and its masculine status. The clan's
year is divided according to the planting and harvesting of yams, and Okonkwo's mood and
actions vary whether it's the Week of Peace, the planting season, or the Feast of the New Yam.
During the Feast of the New Yam, for example, Okonkwo grows restless with celebrations and
the lack of work, and his temper flares, creating an episode of violence against Ekwefi. During
the planting season, Okonkwo berates Ikemefuna and Nwoye for mishandling the seed-yams,
but he's actually the most content during this period of labor, since he can work tirelessly. Yams
are labor intensive and considered a man's crop. Only men plant yams, and their ability to
support their family with their yam harvest is a sign of wealth and ability.

Fire Symbol Analysis

Okonkwo and his fellow clansmen liken him to a “Roaring Flame”—aggressive,

powerful, and strong-willed. For Okonkwo, these are all positive, masculine traits, and he
laments the fact that his son Nwoye doesn't possess the same fiery spirit. However, Okonkwo has
a revelation in Chapter 17, as he gazes into the fire after his son joins the Christians: “Living fire
begets cold, impotent ash.” He realizes that his aggression could foster the opposite in Nwoye,
but he never makes the connection that fire eventually exhausts its source as well. All of
Okonkwo's impatience and aggression eventually lead to his own destruction after a spectacular
final flare of anger when he murders the white messenger.

Things Fall Apart Study Guide

Chinua Achebe's college work sharpened his interest in indigenous Nigerian cultures. He
had grown up in Ogidi, a large village in Nigeria. His father taught at the missionary school, and
Achebe witnessed firsthand the complex mix of benefit and catastrophe that the Christian
religion had brought to the Igbo people. In the 1950s, an exciting new literary movement grew in
strength. Drawing on indigenous Nigerian oral traditions, this movement enriched European
literary forms in hopes of creating a new literature, in English but unmistakably African.
Published in 1958, Things Fall Apart is one of the masterpieces of 20th century African fiction.

Things Fall Apart is set in the 1890s, during the coming of the white man to Nigeria. In
part, the novel is a response and antidote to a large tradition of European literature in which
Africans are depicted as primitive and mindless savages. The attitudes present in colonial
literature are so ingrained into our perception of Africa that the District Commissioner, who
appears at the end of the novel, strikes a chord of familiarity with most readers. He is arrogant,
dismissive of African "savages," and totally ignorant of the complexity and richness of Igbo life.
Yet his attitude echoes so much of the depiction of Africa; this attitude, following Achebe's
depiction of the Igbo, seems hollow and savage.

Digression is one of Achebe's most important tools. Although the novel's central story is the
tragedy of Okonkwo, Achebe takes any opportunity he can to digress and relate anecdotes and
tertiary incidents. The novel is part documentary, but the liveliness of Achebe's narrative protects
the book from reading like an anthropology text. We are allowed to see the Igbo through their
own eyes, as they celebrate the various rituals and holidays that mark important moments in the
year and in the people's live.

Achebe depicts the Igbo as a people with great social institutions. Their culture is rich and
impressively civilized, with traditions and laws that place great emphasis on justice and fairness.
The people are ruled not by a king or chief but by a kind of simple democracy, in which all
males gather and make decisions by consensus. Ironically, it is the Europeans, who often boast of
bringing democratic institutions to the rest of the world, who try to suppress these clan meetings
in Umuofia. The Igbo also boast a high degree of social mobility. Men are not judged by the
wealth of their fathers, and Achebe emphasizes that high rank is attainable for all freeborn Igbo.
He does not shy from depicting the injustices of Igbo society. No more or less than Victorian
England of the same era, the Igbo are deeply patriarchal. They also have a great fear of twins,
who are abandoned immediately after birth to a death by exposure. Violence is not unknown to
them, although warfare on a European scale is something of which they have no comprehension.

The novel attempts to repair some of the damage done by earlier European depictions of
Africans. But this recuperation must necessarily come in the form of memory; by the time
Achebe was born, the coming of the white man had already destroyed many aspects of
indigenous culture.

Things Fall Apart Summary

The bulk of the novel takes place in Umuofia, a cluster of nine villages on the lower Niger.
Umuofia is a powerful clan, skilled in war and with a great population, with proud traditions and
advanced social institutions.

Okonkwo has risen from nothing to a high position. Through hard work, he has become a great
man among his people. He has taken three wives and his barn is full of yams, the staple crop. He
rules his family with an iron fist.

One day, a neighboring clan commits an offense against Umuofia. To avoid war, the offending
clan gives Umuofia one virgin and one young boy. The girl is to become the offended party's
new wife. The boy, whose name is Ikemefuna, is to be sacrificed, but not immediately. He lives
in Umuofia for three years, and during that time he lives under Okonkwo's roof. He becomes like
a part of Okonkwo's family. In particular, Nwoye, Okonkwo's oldest son, loves Ikemefuna like a
brother. But eventually the Oracle calls for the boy's death, and a group of men take Ikemefuna
away to kill him in the forest. Okonkwo, fearful of being perceived as soft-hearted and weak,
participates in the boy's death. He does so despite the advice of the clan elders. Nwoye is
spiritually broken by the event.

Okonkwo is shaken as well, but he continues with his drive to become a lord of his clan. He is
constantly disappointed by Nwoye, but he has great love for his daughter Ezinma, his child by
his second wife Ekwefi. Ekwefi has born ten children, but only Ezinma has survived. She loves
the girl fiercely. Ezinma is sickly, and sometimes Ekwefi fears that Ezinma, too, will die. Late
one night, the powerful Oracle of Umuofia brings Ezinma with her for a spiritual encounter with
the earth goddess. Terrified, Ekwefi follows the Oracle at a distance, fearing harm might come to
her child. Okonkwo follows, too.

Later, during a funeral for one of the great men of the clan, Okonkwo's gun explodes, killing a
boy. In accordance with Umuofia's law, Okonkwo and his family must be exiled for seven years.
Okonkwo bears the exile bitterly. Central to his beliefs is faith that a man masters his own
destiny. But the accident and exile are proof that at times man cannot control his own fate, and
Okonkwo is forced to start over again without the strength and energy of his youth. He flees with
his family to Mbanto, his mother's homeland. There they are received by his mother's family,
who treat them generously. His mother's family is headed by Uchendu, Okonkwo's uncle, a
generous and wise old man.

During Okonkwo's exile, the white man comes to both Umuofia and Mbanto. The missionaries
arrive first, preaching a religion that seems mad to the Igbo people. They win converts, but
generally the converts are men of low rank or outcasts. However, with time, the new religion
gains momentum. Nwoye becomes a convert. When Okonkwo learns of Nwoye's conversion, he
beats the boy. Nwoye leaves home.

Okonkwo returns to Umuofia to find the clan sadly changed. The church has won some converts,
some of whom are fanatical and disrespectful of clan custom. Worse, the white man's
government has come to Umuofia. The clan is no longer free to judge its own; a District
Commissioner judges cases in ignorance. He is backed by armed power.

During a religious gathering, a convert unmasks one of the clan spirits. The offense is grave, and
in response the clan decides that the church will no longer be allowed in Umuofia. They tear the
building down. Soon afterward, the District Commissioner asks the leaders of the clan, Okonkwo
among them, to come see him for a peaceful meeting. The leaders arrive, and are quickly seized.
In prison, they are humiliated and beaten, and they are held until the clan pays a heavy fine.

After a release of the men, the clan calls a meeting to decide whether they will fight or try to live
peacefully with the whites. Okonkwo wants war. During the meeting, court messengers come to
order the men to break up their gathering. The clan meetings are the heart of Umuofia's
government; all decisions are reached democratically, and an interference with this institution
means the end of the last vestiges of Umuofia's independence. Enraged, Okonkwo kills the court
messenger. The other court messengers escape, and because the other people of his clan did not
seize them, Okonkwo knows that his people will not choose war. His act of resistance will not be
followed by others. Embittered and grieving for the destruction of his people's independence, and
fearing the humiliation of dying under white law, Okonkwo returns home and hangs himself.

Things Fall Apart Character List

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Okonkwo

Proud, ambitious, and ill-tempered, Okonkwo is the tragic hero of Things Fall Apart. An
ambitious man who has risen from nothing to a man of importance in his tribe, Okonkwo rules
his family with an iron fist. He is deeply dedicated to the traditions and social hierarchies of his
people, and he is determined that his sons and daughters follow his demanding example. The
indignities forced on him and his people by the British eventually prove to be too much for him.
After an act of defiance which goes unsupported by his people, Okonkwo gives in to despair. He
kills himself, partly so that he will not be executed under the white man's laws and partly because
he is grieving for the death of his people.

Unoka

Okonkwo's father. He died when Okonkwo was very young, and he was a failure. Shame for
Unoka drives Okonkwo to work tirelessly. Unoka died in debt and humiliation; the memory of
him gives Okonkwo a terrible fear of failure.

Ikemefuna

A young boy given to Umuofia by a neighboring village as tribute. Ikemefuna is sacrificed to

prevent a war. He lives in Umuofia for three years, under Okonkwo's roof; Okonkwo looks at
him as a son, and to Nwoye he becomes best friend and brother. He is killed by the tribe; out of
fear that otherwise people will think him weak, Okonkwo participates in the boy's death.

Nwoye

Okonkwo's son. Nwoye is sensitive and thoughtful, but he is also somewhat lazy and
sulky. Okonkwo is harsh with the boy, fearing that he will become like Unoka. After the death of
Ikemefuna, something breaks in Nwoye. Later, he converts to Christianity, in part to escape his
father. His betrayal embitters and outrages Okonkwo.

Ogbuefi Ezeudu

One of the oldest men in Umuofia. He warns Okonkwo not to participate in Ikemefuna's death.
Later, at Ezeudu's funeral, Okonkwo's gun explodes and kills a boy, which leads to Okonkwo's
exile.

Nwoye's mother

Never named, Nwoye's mother is Okonkwo's first wife. She is a generous woman, and she has
been fortunate in the number of children she has had.
Ojiugo

Okonkwo's third and youngest wife. Okonkwo beats her savagely during the Week of Peace, and
must pay a heavy fine to the earth goddess.

Ekwefi

Okonkwo's second wife. In her youth, she was one of the great beauties of Umuofia. She has had
ten children, but only one has survived. She is a formidable and brave woman, devoted to her
surviving daughter, Ezinma.

Ezinma

Clever and brave, Ezinma starts as a precocious but sickly child. She is Okonkwo's favorite
daughter, and seems to understand his moods. His attitude toward her shows the more tender side
of his character. She grows into a beautiful and strong young woman.

Obierika

Okonkwo's great friend, and another prosperous and powerful man in the tribe. Obierika is also
thoughtful. He is less misogynistic than Okonkwo, and he has no love for unnecessary violence.
He is a compassionate and just man.

Chielo/ Priestess of Agbala (Oracle of the Hills and the Caves)

In normal life, Chielo is a widow and an ordinary woman. But she is also the Priestess of Agbala,
and when the power of prophecy comes to her she is possessed by the godhead. She is one of the
most powerful figures of the clan; now important decision can be made without her approval.

Okagbue, the Medicine Man

The Medicine Man helps Ekwefi to try and make Ezinma "stay." They fear that she will die like
the earlier children, but the Medicine Man succeeds in finding the supernatural cause of her
sickliness.

Uchendu

Okonkwo's uncle. Elderly and wise, Uchendu is an impressive but gentle patriarch. Even
Okonkwo submits to his authority.
Akwiku

Okonkwo's cousin. He informs Okonkwo that Nwoye is among the Christians.

Mr. Kiaga

A Christian African, Mr. Kiaga heads the congregation in Mbanto. He is a gentle and wise man,
full of unshakeable faith.

Mr. Brown

A white man and missionary. He strives to compromise with the clan; though he is determined to
win converts, he restrains the excessive and violent zeal of some of the converts. He eventually
falls ill due to overwork.

Mr. Smith

Mr. Brown's replacement. Mr. Smith is neither wise nor compromising. Under him, the
fanatics flourish. His foolishness brings the Christians of Umuofia into direct conflict with the
clan.

District Commisioner

The head of British government in Umuofia. He dispenses justice in total ignorance of

local circumstances, and his attitude is arrogant and hypocritical.

Things Fall Apart Themes

Memory/Documentary

Digression is one of Achebe's main tools. The novel is the story of Okonkwo's tragedy,
but it is also a record of Igbo life before the coming of the white man. The novel documents what
the white man destroyed. The reader learns much about Igbo customs and traditions; depicting
this world is a central part of the novel.

Social disintegration

Towards the end of the novel, we witness the events by which Igbo society begins to fall
apart. Religion is threatened, Umuofia loses its self-determination, and the very centers of tribal
life are threatened. These events are all the more painful for the reader because so much time has
been spent in sympathetic description of Igbo life; the reader realizes that he has been learning
about a way of life that no longer exists.

Greatness and ambition

Okonkwo is determined to be a lord of his clan. He rises from humble beginnings to a position of
leadership, and he is a wealthy man. He is driven and determined, but his greatness comes from
the same traits that are the source of his weaknesses. He is often too harsh with his family, and
he is haunted by a fear of failure.

Fate and free will

There is an Igbo saying that when a man says yes, his chi, or spirit, says yes also. The belief that
he controls his own destiny is of central importance to Okonkwo. Later, several events occur to
undermine this belief, and Okonkwo is embittered by the experience. As often happens with
tragedy, the catastrophe comes through a complex mix of external forces and the character's
choices.

Masculinity

Masculinity is one of Okonkwo's obsessions, and he defines masculinity quite narrowly. For
him, any kind of tenderness is a sign of weakness and effeminacy. Male power lies in authority
and brute force. But throughout the novel, we are shown men with more sophisticated
understanding of masculinity. Okonkwo's harshness drives Nwoye away from the family and
into the arms of the new religion.

Fear

For all of his desire to be strong, Okonkwo is haunted by fear. He is profoundly afraid of failure,
and he is afraid of being considered weak. This fear drives him to rashness, and in the end
contributes to his death.

Tribal belief

Particularly since one of the threats to Igbo life is the coming of the new religion, tribal belief is
a theme of some importance. Igbo religious beliefs explain and provide meaning to the world;
the religion is also inextricable from social and political institutions. Achebe also shows that
Igbo religious authorities, such as the Oracle, seem to possess uncanny insights. He approaches
the matter of Igbo religion with a sense of wonder.
Justice

Justice is another powerful preoccupation of the novel. For the Igbo, justice and fairness are
matters of great importance. They have complex social institutions that administer justice in fair
and rational ways. But the coming of the British upsets that balance. Although the British claim
that local laws are barbaric, and use this claim as an excuse to impose their own laws, we soon
see that British law is hypocritical and inhumane. The final events leading up to Okonkwo's
death concern the miscarriage of Justice under the British District Commissioner.

Biography of Chinua Achebe




Poet and novelist Chinua Achebe was one of the most important African writers of the last
century. He was also considered by many to be one of the most original literary artists writing in
English during his lifetime. He is best known for his novel Things Fall Apart (1958).

Born Albert Chinualumogo Achebe, Chinua Achebe was raised by Christian evangelical parents
in the large village Ogidi, in Igboland, Eastern Nigeria. He received an early education in
English, but grew up surrounded by a complex fusion of Igbo traditions and colonial legacy.
Achebe would later recall, "on one arm of the cross we sang hymns and read the bible night and
day. On the other my father's brother and his family, blinded by heathenism, offered food to
idols." (“Morning Yet on Creation Day”).

He studied at the University College (now the University of Ibadan), a British-style university,
originally intending to study medicine, but eventually changing his major to English, history, and
theology. After graduating, he went to work for the Nigerian Broadcasting Company in Lagos
and later studied at the British Broadcasting Corporation staff school in London.

During this time, Achebe was developing work as a writer. Having been taught that Igbo values
and culture were inferior to those of Europeans, and finding in Western literature only
caricatured stereotypes of Africans, he wanted to conceive of an African literature that would
present African characters and society in their full richness and complexity. Starting in the
1950s, he helped to found a new Nigerian literary movement that drew on the oral traditions of
Nigeria's indigenous tribes. Although Achebe wrote in English, he attempted to incorporate Igbo
vocabulary and narratives.

Things Fall Apart (1958) was his first novel, and remains his best-known work. It has been
translated into at least forty-five languages, and has sold eight million copies worldwide. Other
novels include: No Longer At Ease (1960), Arrow of God (1964), and A Man of the People
(1966). Many of his novels dealt with the social and political problems facing his country,
including the difficulties of the post-colonial legacy.

Achebe became active in Nigerian politics in the 1960s. He left his career in radio in 1966 during
the national unrest and violence that led to the Biafran War in 1967, when Biafra, an Eastern
region in Nigeria, declared independence. That year he spent thirty months traveling Europe and
the United States advocating for the new country. During this period, he produced several short
stories dealing with the complex realities of the Nigerian Civil War; the best known of these
stories is "Civil Peace."

After Biafra surrendered to Nigeria in 1970, Achebe took a position as a Senior Research Fellow
at the University of Nigeria. That same year he co-founded a publishing company with Nigerian
poet Christopher Okigbo. In 1971, he became an editor for Okike, a prestigious Nigerian literary
magazine. In 1984, he founded Iwa ndi Ibo, a bilingual publication dedicated to Igbo cultural
life.

Achebe's university career was extremely successful: he was made Emeritus Professor at the
University of Nigeria in 1985, he taught at the University of Massachusetts and the University of
Connecticut, and he received over twenty honorary doctorates from universities around the
world. He also received Nigeria's highest honor for intellectual achievement, the Nigerian
National Merit Award, in 1987. His novel Anthills of the Savannah was shortlisted for the
Booker McConnell Prize that same year.

Achebe was married and had four children. He last lived in the United States, where he held a
teaching position at Bard College until 2009, when he joined Brown University as a professor of
Africana Studies. In his later years, he also served as a goodwill ambassador for the United
Nations Population Fund. He continued writing throughout his life, producing both fiction and
non-fiction, and winning awards like the Man Booker International Prize in 2007. His final
published work was the literary autobiography There Was a Country: A Personal History of
Biafra. Chinua Achebe died in 2013, of an undisclosed illness in Boston.