1930-2013

The Nigerian Civil War, also known as the Biafran War of 1967-1970 was the defining experience of Chinua Achebe's life. The conflict was infamous for its savage impact on the Biafran people. Chinua Achebe was already a world-renowned novelist and he took the Biafran side and served his government as a roving cultural ambassador which allowed him to see the war's full horror. Immediately after the war Achebe took refuge in an academic post in the United States and for forty years he has maintained silence on those years addressing them only in his poetry. His memoir on those years now brings all his experiences to the world.

Obi Okonkwo feels separated from his African roots because of his education, and he is forced to choose between his culture's traditional values and the demands of his social class.