It's the birthday of the author Chinua Achebe, born in Ogidi, Nigeria in 1930. His parents were evangelical protestants and when he went to university he gave up his birthname, Albert, and he took his Ebo middle name Chinua. He joined the Nigerian Broadcasting Service when he was 24 years old and it was then he wrote his first novel "Things Fall Apart."

Which is still today the most widely read book of African literature. Achebe describes himself as a cultural nationalist, but nevertheless he writes his books in English, which he has been criticized for.

He said colonialism for all of its evils at least gives divers communities a language with which to talk to one another. And therefore they can reach people all across Nigeria, all the different small language groups.