information:extraction, linguistic:voice_change
Overview

It is a tag of either literary ignorance or 'momentary exuberance' Those who seriously believe or promote this must be asked: have you the sheerest acquaintance with the literature of other African nations, in both indigenous and adopted colonial languages? Education is lacking in most of those who pontificate.

Chinua Achebe on being called the "father of African literature"

Achebe is regarded as the most dominant and influential writer of modern African literature, and has been called the "father of African literature", the "founding father of African literature", and the "'father of the African novel in English". Achebe rejected such descriptions as patronising and eurocentric, which were qualities his work sought to critique in the first place. He countered white descriptions of himself as such by claiming that "education is lacking in most of those who pontificate". Things Fall Apart has been described as the most important book in modern African literature and was described as his masterpiece by critic Dwight Garner. Selling over 20 million copies worldwide, it has been translated into 57 languages, making Achebe the most translated, studied, and read African author. His legacy as a writer is particularly unique in regard to its substantial impact on not only African literature but Western literature as well.

At the ceremony for his honorary degree from the University of Kent, professor Robert Gibson said that the Nigerian writer "is now revered as Master by the younger generation of African writers and it is to him they regularly turn for counsel and inspiration." In November 2015 the theme of the Pan African Writers' Association 's 22nd International African Writers' Day and three-day conference was "Celebrating the Life and Works of Chinua Achebe: The Coming of Age of African Literature?" The scholar Simon Gikandi, recalling the schooling of himself and his classmates in Kenya, said Things Fall Apart "changed the lives of many of us". The anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela remarked that "There was a writer named Chinua Achebe in whose company the prison walls fell down".

Outside of Africa, Achebe's impact resonates strongly in literary circles. Novelist Margaret Atwood called him "a magical writer—one of the greatest of the twentieth century". Poet Maya Angelou lauded Things Fall Apart as a book wherein "all readers meet their brothers, sisters, parents and friends and themselves along Nigerian roads". Nobel laureate Toni Morrison noted that Achebe's work inspired her to become a writer and "sparked her love affair with African literature".