Achebe - winner of the Man Booker International Prize
13 06 2007
The acclaimed Nigerian writer, Chiuna Achebe, has been named winner of the second Man Booker International Prize.
A diplomat in the ill-fated Biafran government of 1967-1970, Achebe’s work is primarily centred on African politics, the depiction of Africa and Africans in the West, and the intricacies of pre-colonial African culture and civilization, as well as the effects of colonialisation on African societies.
The Man Booker International Prize is worth £60,000 to the winner and is awarded once every two years to a living author for a body of work that has contributed to an achievement in fiction on the world stage. It was first awarded to Ismail Kadaré in 2005.
Achebe is probably best known for his first novel, Things Fall Apart, written in 1958 and Anthills of the Savannah, shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 1987. Things Fall Apart is considered among the finest novels ever written. Having sold over 10 million copies around the world, it has been translated into 50 languages, making Achebe the most translated African writer of all time.
Chinua Achebe said:
“It was 50 years ago this year that I began writing my first novel, Things Fall Apart. It is wonderful to hear that my peers have looked at the body of work I have put together in the last 50 years and judged it deserving of this important recognition. I am grateful.”
Achebe was born in 1930 and educated at the Government College in Umuahia and at the University College of Ibadan, Nigeria. He joined the Nigerian Broadcasting Company in Lagos in 1954 and during 1956 studied broadcasting at the BBC, in London.
He has lectured at many universities worldwide and is now Charles P Stevenson Jr Professor of Languages and Literature at Bard College, Annandale, New York State.
Many African writers have been inspired by Achebe’s work. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, who won the Orange Prize for Fiction last week for Half A Yellow Sun is one of them, recently commenting: “He is a remarkable man. The writer and the man. He’s what I think writers should be.”
The judging panel for the 2007 Man Booker International Prize is: Professor Elaine Showalter, academic and author; Nadine Gordimer, writer and novelist; and writer and academic, Colm Tóibin.
