LP HOT NEWS: Google honours Chinua Achebe today

Google honours Chinua Achebe today.

On Thursday, Africa's greatest storyteller, Chinua Achebe has been honored by google. Google is changing its logo into a doodle, or illustration, describing him.

What did you know about Chinua Achebe?

Chinua Achebe was born in Albert Chinụalụmọgụ Achebe; 16 November 1930 – 21 March 2013. He was a Nigerian novelist, poet, professor, and critic. His first novel Things Fall Apart (1958), often considered his best, is the most widely read book in modern African literature. He won the Man Booker International Prize in 2007.

He lived in the Igbo town of Ogidi in southeastern Nigeria, where he studied at the school and was awarded a scholarship to study medicine, but changed his education to English literature at University College, now the University of Ibadan. Chinua Achebe became fascinated with world religions and traditional African cultures, and began writing stories as a university student.

After graduation, he worked for Nigerian radio station (NBS) and quickly moved to Lagos in 1961. He married Christie Okoli. They had four children together.

He has attracted worldwide attention for his novel Strange Things in the late 1950s; His novels include No Longer at Ease (1960), Arrow of God (1964), A Man of the People (1966), and Savannah Anthills (1987).

When the Biafra region split from Nigeria in 1967, Achebe became a supporter of Biafran's independence and ambassador to the people of the new nation. The war ravaged the populace, and as starvation and violence took its toll, he appealed to the people of Europe and the Americas for aid.

When the Nigerian government re-established the region in 1970, he joined political parties but quickly resigned due to disappointment over the corruption and elitism he witnessed. He lived in the United States for many years in the 1970s, and returned to the United States in 1990, after a car accident that left him partially disabled.

In 1975, his lecture An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" featured a famous criticism of Joseph Conrad as "a thoroughgoing racist"; it was later published in The Massachusetts Review amid some controversy.

Upon his return to the United States in 1990, he began an eighteen-year tenure at Bard College as the Charles P. Stevenson Professor of Languages and Literature. From 2009 until his death, he served as David and Marianna Fisher University Professor and Professor of Africana Studies at Brown University.

The point of interest in his career was he had a titled Igbo chieftain himself, Achebe's novels focus on the traditions of Igbo society, the effect of Christian influences, and the clash of Western and traditional African values during and after the colonial era.

His style is highly dependent on the oral tradition of Igbo, and combines direct narrative with the expressions of folk tales, proverbs and presentations. He has also published a number of short stories, children's books, and essay collections.

Chinua died in Boston on March 21, 2013, at the age of 82.