In 1957, the sun was setting on the British Empire. A decade had passed since India and Pakistan had broken away from British rule. Ghana and Sudan had just won independence; across Africa, nationalist movements were on the brink of victory over their colonial masters. After centuries of subjugationBeing forced to submit to someone else's authority. Under imperial rule, Africans and other colonised peoples were ruled by European governors who exploited their possessions for the sake of material gain., a continent was finding its voice.

Meanwhile in Nigeria, a young writer called Chinua Achebe put the final touches to his tragic novel about the proud fighter from the IgboWith a population of roughly 30 million, the Igbo people are one of the largest ethnic groups in Nigeria. The other main ethnicities are Hausa and Yoruba. tribe whose identity is crushed by the destructive exploits of Europeans. He gathered together his handwritten manuscript and sent it to London, more in hope than expectation that he might be published.

Within two years Achebe's Things Fall Apart had become a sensation. For the first time in literary history, English-speaking readers were devouring a book written by an African, from the perspective of African people.

Today, the world mourns Achebe's death at the age of 82. He is thought of as one of the most important writers of the 20th Century. Chimamanda Adichie (herself an acclaimed Nigerian novelist) cannot imagine African literature without him: 'I had assumed that books, by their very nature, had to have English people in them,' she said. 'And then I read Things Fall Apart.'

It is a tribute of which Achebe would have been proud. The overriding ambition of his public life was to give colonised people a voice, and to create an alternative to the European-centred narrative of colonialismThis refers not only to the material realities of colonial rule, but also to the mindset of the colonising powers and their ways of justifying empire. Most Europeans believed that empire was a moral good, because it imparted 'civilisation' to 'primitive' cultures and so helped them to develop.. In the words of a proverb he regularly quoted: 'Until the lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.'

This 'post-colonialistPost-colonialism is a movement in philosophy, politics and criticism which arose at the time of imperial decline in response to the legacy of colonialism. It introduced the influential concept of 'the other': the idea that observers from a dominant culture portray marginal cultures as a direct opposite to themselves, dividing the world into 'people like us' and 'others' instead of recognising cultural variety.' mission to reassert a suppressed national voice made Achebe a mouthpiece for newly independent Africa. Through him, a crucial turning point in global history found powerful and unique expression.

That is often the way with great writers: times of momentous change and upheaval are fertile ground for creative talent. In the 16th Century, just as England and the English language emerged tumultuously from a long period of obscurity, William Shakespeare arrived on the stage. In the wake of the English Civil War, when the king was fatefully executed in a bloody revolt, John Milton wrote his masterpiece Paradise Lost. These great writers were formed by great times, some say; and so was Chinua Achebe.

But other critics argue that this gives too little credit to the individuals themselves. With genuine talent, they say, it doesn't matter whether you are born in Ancient Greece or Communist China. As long as it is granted an audience, a pen and an opportunity, genius will make its mark.