Nigerian literary giant, Chinua Achebe’s novel “Things Fall Apart” has been ranked top 5 of BBC’s The 100 Stories that Shaped the World. According to BBC culture, a poll was conducted with about 108 authors, critics, academics, journalists and translators across 35 countries to nominate five fictional stories that have influenced history.
Homer’s 800BC “Odyssey” topped the list, with Achebe’s “Things Fall Apart” making the 5th position.
Other authors that made list include Harriet Beecher Stowe, William Shakespeare, Mary Shelley, Margaret Atwood, Jane Austen, JK Rowling among others.
“Thing Fall Apart” is a story about the 19th-century pre-colonial life in South-eastern Nigeria and the arrival of Europeans.
Achebe, who died in March 2013 was born on 16 November 1930 in Ogidi town, Anambra state. He studied English Literature at the University of Ibadan, where he fell in love with African culture and began writing stories.
Some of his works include “No Longer at Ease”, “Arrow of God”, “A Man of the People”, Anthills of the Savannah”, “An Image of Africa”, “There was a Country”, “Girls at War and other stories”, “The Trouble with Nigeria”, “Chike and the River”, “Home and Exile”, “Hopes and Impediments” among others.
During his journey as a writer, he received the Nigerian National Order of Merit Award in 1979, the St. Louis Literary Award in 1999, the Man Booker International Prize in 2007 and the Dorothy Lillian Gish Prize in 2010.
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