Nigeria’s, and arguably Africa’s, most acclaimed novelist Chinua Achebe has lived a life as rich and audacious as the stories he told in his illustrious fifty-plus year writing career. This new collection of autobiographical essays is a candid reflection by the author about the inextricable blend of his writing and his personal life. From family and household stories to African and African-American reflections, The Education of a British-Protected Child offers some original insights about why he wrote what he wrote.

Exhibiting that unmistakable trademark of simple, nuanced, and parabolic composition, Achebe narrates his formative years of education in colonial Nigeria, identifying himself in the “middle ground” of events, delighting in his reading experiences made possible by Englishmen of his school while at the same time struggling to live with the nuisance of colonialism. In “My Dad and Me,” Achebe acknowledges his harvests from the missionary enterprise, but yet again reminds us of the slave trade that “unleashed darkness” centuries ago. His aim, however, is neither to praise nor denigrate colonial rule but rather not to fall into the trap of simplifying its troubles on account of some of the benefits it introduced in the form of education.

One of the book’s themes is the importance of identity, ranging from the personal to the African. This is a familiar affair with the writings of Achebe, which are never short on skepticism about African portraits by non-African painters. In essays such as “Traveling White” and “Spelling Our Proper Name,” Achebe calls for Africa to capitalize on its own authorship and “speak for itself after a lifetime of hearing Africa spoken about by others.”

For Achebians, The Education of a British-Protected Child, is an account of an Achebe beyond the Achebe of his 1958 classic, Things Fall Apart. It is a book as much for those familiar with Achebe as for those who are not.

TEWODROS W. WORKNEH was a lecturer of African literature and media studies at Arba Minch University, Ethiopia. He is currently a doctoral student at the School of Journalism and Communication, University of Oregon.