About Chinua Achebe
Chinua Achebe (1930 – 2013) was a Nigerian poet and writer. His first novel Things Fall Apart often considered his best, is the most widely read book in modern African literature. He won the Man Booker International Prize in 2007. In 1962 he attended an executive conference of African writers in English at the Makerere University College in Kampala, Uganda. He met with important literary figures from around the continent and the world, including Nobel poet Wole Soyinka and US poet-author Langston Hughes. I can write poetry, he said, something short, intense more in keeping with my mood ... All this is creating in the context of our struggle. One of his most famous poems was Refugee Mother and Child who spoke to the suffering and loss that surrounded him.Browse all poems and texts published on Chinua Achebe