--- title: Why Google Is Celebrating Chinua Achebe With a Doodle description: Today's Google Doodle honors the legacy of the renowned Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe on what would be his 87th birthday canonical: https://time.com/5026942/chinua-achebe-google-doodle/ author: Casey Quackenbush article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-11-16T10:19:09.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-13T00:16:17.000Z og:title: Google Doodle Celebrates Nigerian Novelist Chinua Achebe og:description: The illustration celebrates his legacy on what would be his 87th birthday og:url: https://time.com/5026942/chinua-achebe-google-doodle/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte6978c3810138965/6988e615656a3f0cbebd27e3/chinua-achebes-87th-birthday-5104396332433408-2x.jpg?branch=production&width=1440&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Google Images og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Google Doodle Celebrates Nigerian Novelist Chinua Achebe twitter:description: The illustration celebrates his legacy on what would be his 87th birthday twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte6978c3810138965/6988e615656a3f0cbebd27e3/chinua-achebes-87th-birthday-5104396332433408-2x.jpg?branch=production&width=1440&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Why Google Is Celebrating Chinua Achebe With a Doodle ## Video: How Google Makes its Doodles [Watch (HLS stream): How Google Makes its Doodles](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/upF0qp1E.m3u8) (3:23)  _Published 2018-07-07. Our videographer went to the Googleplex in Mountain View, California to meet some of the designers and coders who create the special, clever variations on the Google.com logo known as_ by [Casey Quackenbush](https://time.com/author/casey-quackenbush/) ## Casey Quackenbush Updated: Dec 13, 2023 12:16 AM UTCPublished: Nov 16, 2017 10:19 AM UTC  Illustration of Chinua Achebe for Google Images by [Casey Quackenbush](https://time.com/author/casey-quackenbush/) ## Casey Quackenbush Updated: Dec 13, 2023 12:16 AM UTCPublished: Nov 16, 2017 10:19 AM UTC Surrounded by symbols, donning his signature cap and spectacles, [Chinua Achebe is pictured](https://www.google.com/doodles/chinua-achebes-87th-birthday) in front of a green banner decorated with icons of his most famous literary works in Thursday’s Google Doodle. The illustration honors the legacy of the renowned Nigerian writer on what would be his 87th birthday. Widely regarded as the father of modern African literature, Achebe was an illustrious author whose work sought to reclaim Africa’s literary voice from Western control. Achebe rose to international prominence when he published _Things Fall Apart_ at 28 years-old. Based on his own family heritage and upbringing, the story recounts the demise of an Ibo man in southeastern Nigeria under the oppression of 19th century British colonial rule. The book is now a classic and required reading for students, selling more than 20 million copies and translated into 57 different languages. “In the end, I began to understand,” Achebe once wrote. “There is such a thing as absolute power over narrative. Those who secure this privilege for themselves can arrange stories about others pretty much where, and as, they like.” Achebe went on to publish several more works — ultimately winning the Man Booker Prize in 2007 — and then later became a professor at Bard College and Brown University. In 1990, a car accident in Nigeria paralyzed Achebe from the waist down. The writer passed away from illness nearly five years ago. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5026942/chinua-achebe-google-doodle/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5026942/chinua-achebe-google-doodle/"},"headline":"Why Google Is Celebrating Chinua Achebe With a Doodle","datePublished":"2017-11-16T10:19:09.000Z","dateModified":"2023-12-13T00:16:17.000Z","description":"The illustration celebrates his legacy on what would be his 87th birthday today","url":"https://time.com/5026942/chinua-achebe-google-doodle/","keywords":["Newsfeed","society","History","Books","Race","remembrance","Google Doodle","United States","Nigeria","onetime","overnight"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte6978c3810138965/6988e615656a3f0cbebd27e3/chinua-achebes-87th-birthday-5104396332433408-2x.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Casey Quackenbush","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/casey-quackenbush/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte6978c3810138965/6988e615656a3f0cbebd27e3/chinua-achebes-87th-birthday-5104396332433408-2x.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Google Images","caption":"","creditText":"Illustration of Chinua Achebe for Google Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5026942/chinua-achebe-google-doodle/","name":"Why Google Is Celebrating Chinua Achebe With a Doodle"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"How Google Makes its Doodles","description":"Our videographer went to the Googleplex in Mountain View, California to meet some of the designers and coders who create the special, clever variations on the Google.com logo known as","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/upF0qp1E/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2018-07-07T16:09:57.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/upF0qp1E.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/5026942/chinua-achebe-google-doodle/","duration":"PT3M23S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/5026942/chinua-achebe-google-doodle/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```