Okonowo is the greatest warrior alive and he is one of the powerful men of his clan. But he also has a fiery temper. Determined not to be like his father, he refuses to show his weakness. When outsiders threaten the traditions of his clan, he takes violent action. Will the great man's pride eventually destroy him?
Chinua Achebe was born in Nigeria in 1930. He was raised in the large village of Ogidi, one of the first centers of Anglican missionary work in Eastern Nigeria, and was a graduate of University College, Ibadan. His early career in radio ended abruptly in 1966, when he left his post as Director of External Broadcasting in Nigeria during the national upheaval that led to the Biafran War. Achebe joined the Biafran Ministry of Information and represented Biafra on various diplomatic and fund-raising missions. He was appointed Senior Research Fellow at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and began lecturing widely abroad. For over fifteen years, he was the Charles P. Stevenson Professor of Languages and Literature at Bard College. He was Professor at the David and Marianna Fisher University and Professor of Africana studies at Brown University. Chinua Achebe wrote over twenty books - novels, short stories, essays and collections of poetry - and received numerous honours from around the world, including the Honourary Fellowship of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, as well as honourary doctorates from more than thirty colleges and universities. He was also the recipient of Nigeria's highest award for intellectual achievement, the Nigerian National Merit Award. In 2007, he won the Man Booker International Prize for Fiction. Chinua Achebe died in 2013.
Chinua Achebe – Biographie de l’auteur africain engagé
Né le 16 novembre 1930 à Ogidi, dans l’Est du Nigeria, et décédé le 21 mars 2013 à Boston, Chinua Achebe est l’écrivain de l’Afrique subsaharienne le plus célèbre dans le monde anglo-saxon, étudié dans toutes les universités. Auteur d’une œuvre immense, qui se déploie du roman à l’essai, des nouvelles à la poésie, il a reçu le Man Booker International Prize en 2007.
Son premier roman, Things Fall Apart (1958), a été traduit en une cinquantaine de langues, vendu à plus de dix millions d’exemplaires en anglais, et le cinquantenaire de sa parution a donné lieu à d’importantes commémorations. Bien que son décès ait suscité de nombreux hommages, Chinua Achebe reste encore méconnu en France.
Pour y remédier, Actes Sud a publié en 2013 une nouvelle traduction de Tout s’effondre, accompagnée du recueil d’essais Éducation d’un enfant protégé par la Couronne.
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🇬🇧 Ce livre est entièrement en anglais.