Achebe writes his novels in English and has defended the use of English, a 'language of colonizers', in African literature. He gained worldwide attention for Things Fall Apart in the late 1950s his later novels include No Longer at Ease (1960), Arrow of God (1964), A Man of the People (1966), and Anthills of the Savannah (1987). After graduation, he worked for the Nigerian Broadcasting Service and soon moved to the metropolis of Lagos. He became fascinated with world religions and traditional African cultures, and began writing stories as a university student.

Raised by Christian parents in the Igbo town of Ogidi in southeastern Nigeria, Achebe excelled at school and won a scholarship for undergraduate studies. He is best known for his first novel, Things Fall Apart (1958), which is the most widely read book in modern African literature. Chinua Achebe was a novelist, poet, professor at Brown University and critic.