Chinua Achebe is perhaps the world’s best-known African author. His novel Things Fall Apart is regarded as a masterpiece for its description of the clash of cultures during the European colonization of Africa. Here he turns to autobiography, describing his education at British schools and his role in the formation of an independent Nigerian government free from British rule. Soon hopes are dashed as the new Nigeria is convulsed in ethnic war leading the region known as Biafra to declare their own independence from the Nigerian state. Achebe gracefully tells a story of unbearable complexity and human suffering, with hope that solutions are still possible for the daunting problems facing Africa.

posted Mar 14, 2013 at 11:02AM

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