Civil Peace | Author Biography

Achebe was born in 1930 in the village of Ogidi in eastern Nigeria. His father worked for the Church Missionary Society, and his early education was through the society's school. At the age of eight, Achebe began to learn English. When he was fourteen, he was one of a few boys selected to attend the government college at Umuahia, which was one of the best schools in west Africa. In 1948, Achebe enrolled at University College, Ibadan, which was a new school. He intended to study medicine, but he soon switched to English literary studies. The college at Ibadan was affiliated with the University of London, and Achebe's course of study was very similar to that required by the University of London' s honors degree program. While at school, he contributed stories, essays, and sketches to the University Herald; these pieces were collected in Girls at War and Other Stories.

Chinua Achebe
Chinua Achebe

After he graduated in 1953, Achebe decided to make writing his life's work. He made as his goal effectively and realistically communicating the stories of the African people, particularly the Igbo civilization. Achebe worked as a teacher in his first year out of school. Then he began a career as a producer for the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation. He remained there for twelve years, and was appointed director of the external broadcasting show, Voice of Nigeria. In 1957, he went to London to attend the British Broadcasting Corporation staff school where one of his teachers was novelist and literary critic, Gilbert Phelps. Phelps recommended for publication Achebe's first novel, Things Fall Apart, which presents an account of colonial history from the point of view of the colonized, and it appeared in the following year, 1958. His writing also encouraged Achebe to learn about his native culture to accurately depict it with his words. He did so by interviewing older people and reading the writings of colonial administrators and missionaries.

In 1967, civil war broke out in Nigeria. The eastern region declared itself the independent state of Biafra. Over the next thirty months, Achebe traveled to Europe and North America on Biafran affairs. During this period, Achebe retreated from long fiction, instead choosing to work on poetry and several short stories, including ‘‘Civil Peace.’’

Achebe's two follow-up novels to Things Fall Apart continue the story the first novel began. Together, these three novels span the pre-colonial Africa to colonial times to the days before Nigeria's independence from Britain. In works published since then, Achebe has continued to explore twentieth-century Nigerian life. Achebe has also published essay collections on literary and political subjects, particularly focusing on the role of the African writer in society.

In 1994, Achebe fled to Europe from the repressive Nigerian regime, which threatened to jail him. He moved to the United States, becoming a professor at Bard College in New York. In 1999, he was named a goodwill ambassador to the world by the United Nations Population Fund.