Much of Chinua Achebe's literature was inspired by the events of the Biafran War and by the responses to a war that, for many Igbo writers, was a struggle for survival, a search for a new beginning for Africa, and a redefinition of Black identity in the context of a complex world behavior.[2] A leading novelist at the time, Chinua Achebe was a pioneer in post-war Igbo literary activities. Achebe maintained[3]
It is clear to me that an African creative writer who tries to avoid the big social and political issues of contemporary Africa will end up being completely irrelevant --- like the absurd man in the proverb who leaves his burning house to pursue a rat fleeing from the flames.
Achebe does not hide the fact that the Biafran situation has affected his creativity in no small way.
