Chinua Achebe had already published Things Fall Apart when he married Christie Chinwe Okoli in September 1961. They stayed married for 52 years, through civil war, exile and the accident that left him paralysed.
Ibadan
Christie was a student at University College Ibadan, where Achebe had also studied. He was working for the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation when they married in September 1961. Christie went on to become a professor of education and psychology in her own right.
War and the United States
The family lived through the Nigerian Civil War in Biafra. They had four children: Chinelo, Ikechukwu, Chidi and Nwando. In 1990 a car accident left Achebe paralysed, and the couple moved to the United States, where he taught at Bard College and Brown University.
A shared legacy
Achebe died in Boston in March 2013. Christie sang at his funeral in Ogidi. In 2025 she turned 90, and the African Studies Association launched a fund in the names of both Chinua and Christie Achebe.
