Home and Exile book review

Home and Exile was a quick read with a unique focus. Classified as an autobiography it is a great view into the perspective of one of the most well known "African authors." Chinua Achebe became a famous Nigerian author after the publication of Things Fall Apart and has been called the "Father of modern African Literature." Home and Exile reads like you are sitting in a lecture listening to the author tell his experience and story. Achebe's perspectives described in Home and Exile seem like a perfect example of the purpose of the Global Certificate program. Achebe describes the damages to self esteem among African readers because of "traditional African Literature" which was written by Europeans prior to African countries gaining their independence. The type of African Literature that was really written to support and defend the Slave trade throughout the 16th and 19th centuries and the lasting image of Africans as well as the African continent because of that literature.

If you are looking for a novel and story for your next global certificate read, maybe look for one of Achebe's other books (Things Fall Apart is found in our MHS Library) but if you are interested in the background of literature, this book will put you in the mind of an author and get you thinking about the larger impact literature genres can have on a writer and an audience.