Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe, widely seen as the grandfather of modern African literature, has died at the age of 82.
The statesman, dissident and author of the novel "Things Fall Apart" died on Friday following a brief illness, said Andrew Wylie, Achebe's agent
Achebe's death in Boston was confirmed by Brown University, where he taught.
Literary critics have compared Achebe's eminence worldwide to Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Toni Morrison and a handful of other writers.
Jacob Zuma, president of South Africa, described Achebe as a "colossus of African writing", expressing sadness at his death.
Nelson Mandela, former president of South Africa and an icon of the Apartheid era, has called him a writer "in whose company the prison walls fell down".
