Chinua Achebe: The Father of Postcolonial Literature

Chinua Achebe

Chinua Achebe is considered the father of postcolonial literature. His works reflect the effects of colonization in Nigeria. Nigeria became a British colony in the late 19th century, and, contrary to what had happened in Canada or the United States, Nigeria was under indirect rule, meaning that they used native authorities as rulers, and only a few English people actually settled in the country. Nigeria achieved its independence in 1960.

British Colonization and Its Impact

One of Britain's commercial interests that led to colonization was the trade in palm oil, which was very valuable and a much-needed material.

Furthermore, the English language, Christianity, and an English education system began developing with colonization. Nigeria was a territory inhabited by different tribes, over 400 different types of ethnicities and religions, with Islam and indigenous beliefs being the predominant ones. However, some boundaries were established after colonization. Nigeria became a very decentralized country, with no capital city. Britain divided it into two different colonies: North and South Nigeria, with Islam supporters being the majority in the North and Christianity being more prevalent in the South, and Lagos. In the course of time, these territories were united again and became one nation.

Early Life and Education

Chinua Achebe was exposed to different cultures growing up. He was born in Eastern Nigeria, Ogidi, in 1930, and belonged to the Igbo ethnic group. However, he was born into a Christian family, influenced by British missionaries, and his father was an evangelist and a catechist for the Church Missionary Society. Achebe was actually baptized as Albert Chinualumogu Achebe, but he decided to eliminate the "Albert" as an adult.

As for his education, Chinua Achebe attended church schools and began to learn English when he was 8 years old. He experienced the British school system in high school and started a Medicine degree, but then one year later he moved to a Humanities degree. After that, he realized that he had an ability to write and started writing short stories and for magazines. One reason he decided to become a writer was that he used to read novels about Africa written by English authors and he did not like how Africa was portrayed in a superficial way.

Challenging Colonial Narratives

Achebe thought that the story of Africa had to be told by an African writer. He also challenged representations of Africa that were found in English literature, particularly in two novels:

• Mister Johnson
• Heart of Darkness, about which he wrote a whole essay, because he thought that the novel was racist in many ways and presented Africa as the antithesis of Europe, with characters who were mere stereotypes.

The Novelist as Teacher

Chinua Achebe defined himself as a teacher, since he wanted to teach African people to find value in their own culture. Achebe even wrote an essay about this topic in 1965, entitled "The Novelist as Teacher".

Still, he was very critical of how people betrayed their country after independence, since there were several coups in Nigeria and a Civil War that lasted from 1967 to 1970, between the North and West, and Biafra.

Literary Works

Achebe's works address the critical periods in the history of Nigeria since 1890, including both colonial times as well as postcolonial Nigeria and its challenges. Some of his works are:

• Things Fall Apart (1958)
• No Longer at Ease (1960)
• Arrow of God (1964)
• A Man of the People (1966)
• The Education of a British-Protected Child (2009)
• There Was a Country (2012)

Later Life and Legacy

Chinua Achebe was also a professor in Nigeria, and became internationally known, especially when he worked as a professor at Bard College and Brown University, in the United States. He died in Boston, in 2013, at the age of 82.