http://news2.onlinenigeria.com/headlines/115519-nigeria%26%23039%3Bs-chinua-achebe-named-africa’s-most-powerful-celebrity.html



Nigeria’s foremost novelist, Prof. Chinua Achebe, has been declared as the number one top celebrity in Africa in a poll conducted by Forbes magazine.
The literary icon and one of Africa’s most celebrated writers came out tops in the debut list of The 40 Most Powerful Celebrities in Africa.
Achebe, the 80 –year- old novelist of repute and a father of African literature, wrote the 1958 classic, ‘Things Fall Apart’ which has been translated into over 50 languages and sold over 10 million copies.
The literary titan was in the news recently when an American rapper and actor, 50 Cents, reportedly offered Achebe $1m to use the title ‘Things Fall Apart’ for his upcoming film just as Achebe turned down the request.
The celebrity list include actors, cerebral authors, musicians, movie producers, supermodels, TV personalities and athletes from Africa that traversed the generational divide and drew about 7,500 nominations out of which the list was compiled.
Senegalese musician, Youssou N’dour, 51, was number two on the list, while the Ivorian soccer sensation, Didier Drogba was number three.
The list also included Nigerian screen goddess Genevieve Nnaji. Perhaps not surprisingly, the list was dominated by musicians, like Akon, Angelique Kidjo and a Nigerian music producer, Michael Collins (a.k.a. Don Jazzy).