Nigeria's Most Wanted Essay example

Chinua Achebe is one of the most known authors in Nigeria. Chinua Achebe, was a nonconformist, because of his strong mind and attitude, the statements he made in his writings, and by the way he disobeyed his family’s rules. As a child, Chinua did not have the option to choose what he wanted to do. He was born on November 16, 1930, in Ogidi, Nigeria, as Albert Chinualumogu Achebe. But as he got older, he wanted to be called, Chinua, instead of Albert. Growing up, Chinua was taught to deny his Ibo religion. Instead, he was supposed to go by Christian teachings. When he was 12, he moved away from his family to go to a different school. In 1948, Chinua enrolled into University College. That was Nigeria’s first college. He went to study medicine, but he did not like it. He then decided that he would study English. After reading Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, that’s when got he inspired to become a writer. In 1950, Chinua began writing a lot of short stories. One way that Chinua showed that he was an nonconformist was in his first book, Things Fall Apart. The story explained how he was forced to go against his original culture, as a child. He spoke about all the negative things that he was taught by the British people about Africans, and Africa itself. Chinua sent it to so many publishers, but most rejected it. They thought that a fiction story from an African Writer would not have potential. (Osinubi) In June 1958, a publisher by the name of Heinemann loved the story. He said, “This is the best novel I have read since the civil war."(Liukkonen) The story was about a collision of African and European cultures in people's lives. Okonkwo, a man in Igbo society, cannot adapt to the profound changes brought by British colonial rule. Black Orpheus Magazine said, “The book as a whole creates for the reader such a vivid picture of Ibo life that the plot and characters are little more than symbols representing a way of life lost irrevocably within living memory.” (Liukkonen). The book sold over eight million copies all over. This meant something to Chinua, because this story was based off his exact life. It was exactly alike, because Chinua was also taught to go against his religion. Another way that showed that Chinua was an nonconformist was in his fourth book, A Man of the People. In the story, he talked about the independence that Nigeria gained from the British. In a interview, he also mentioned, “Europe conceded independence to us and we promptly began to misuse it or rater those leaders to whom we entrusted the wielding of our new power and opportunity. So we got mad at them and came out of brandishing novels of disenchantment.”(Osinubi). In that statement, he was trying to say that after all this time, Africa wanted freedom; and when they did get it, they took advantage of it by starting problems with the British. This also showed that Chinua was a nonconformist because once again he did not agree with the choices that the Africans made. Instead of the Nigerians enjoying their rights they tried to get revenge on the British. A few days after the book was published, over 30,000 Ibo were

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