The Education of a British-Protected Child: Essays

A new collection of autobiographical essays from the celebrated author of Things Fall Apart—his first new book in more than twenty years.Chinua Achebe’s characteristically measured and nuanced voice is everywhere present in these seventeen beautifully written pieces. In “The Education of a British-Protected Child,” Achebe gives us a vivid portrait of growing up in colonial Nigeria and inhabiting its “middle ground,” recalling both his happy memories of reading novels in secondary school and the harsher truths of colonial rule. In “African-American Visitations,” we witness the terrifying nature of the African diaspora and what it means not to know “from whence he came.” Politics and history figure in “What Is Nigeria to Me?,” “Africa’s Tarnished Name,” and “Politics of the Politicians of Language.” And Achebe’s extraordinary family comes into view in “My Dad and Me” and “My Daughters.”Charmingly personal, intellectually disciplined, and steadfastly wise, The Education of a British-Protected Child is an indispensable addition to the remarkable Achebe oeuvre.