₦airaland Forum

Top 5 African Authors of All Time
1. Chinua
Achebe
Chinua Achebe is
one of the best
African
authors who have
contributed a lot in
the field of African
literature. He was
born in 1930, and
schooled at the
University of Ibadan,
Nigeria. His first
groundbreaking
novel titled ‘Things
Fall Apart” was
published in 1958.
This novel made
Chinua Achebe very
popular and it was
then translated to
over 50 languages
due to its high
demand. Later, he
served as the
professor of David
and Marianna Fisher
University as well as
a professor of
African Studies at
the Brown
University in the
Providence, Rhode
Island. He died early
2013 at the age of
82 years old, in
Boston,
Massachusetts.
2. Wole
Soyinka
Wole Soyinka is also
one of the great
heroes in the list of
top and best African
authors who have
won great awards
and honours in the
world of literature.
He was born in
1934 in Nigeria and
he became the first
African author to be
awarded the Nobel
Prize award in
literature. Late
1950’s, he wrote his
very first important
play titled ‘A Dance
of the Forests’ that
satirizes a fledgling
nation by
highlighting that the
present days is no
longer a golden age
than was in the
past. In some cases,
his writing focuses
on the modern West
Africa in a style of
satire, but his belief
and serious intent
in the evils
fundamentals in the
practice of power
are common in his
present work.
3. Amos
Tutuola
Amos Tutuola was
born in 1920,
Abeokuta in
Western Nigeria and
died in 1997. He
was a self-taught
African author who
usually focused his
literature on the
Yoruba folk tales. He
became popular
after gaining the
world fame with his
best story ‘The Palm-
Wine Drunkard’ that
completed in 1946.
4. Camera
Laye
Camera Laye was
born in 1928 in
Kouroussa, Upper
Guinea and later
died in 1980. He
was the first African
author from
a French-
speaking African
country. His French
novel “L’Enfant noir”
made him one of
the best and
important novelists
from the French-
speaking country in
Africa.
5. Dinaw
Mengestu
Dinaw Mengestu
was also one of the
best African
authors who have
contributed greatly
in the field of
African literature. He
was born in 1978 in
Addis Ababa the
capital city of
Ethiopia. He moved
to the USA together
with his sister and
mother two years
after his birth, to
reunite with his
father who had previously fled the country during the Red Terror. He graduated from Georgetown University. So far, he has written two novels titled “The Beautiful Things that Heaven Bears” which was established in 2007 and “How to Read the Air” established in 2010. He also recently received a MacArthur Foundation, usually known as “genius grant”.