When the news of Prof. Chinua Achebe's death broke on Fridaymorning, many people needed to confirm it. It wasn't because they felt he was immortal, but because the thematic thrust of his latest and last literary gift to the world, his civil war memoir - There Was a Country: A personal history of Biafra -would only have been taken upby a warrior ready to deflate hisarrows on the war front. Achebe, 82, played a critical rolein establishing post-colonial African literature. His seminal novel, Things Fall Apart, often cited as the most read book in modern African literature, has been read by students all over the world and translated into 50 languages worldwide. His death on Thursday night is a big blow to the Ndigbo. The death of Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu in 2011 had left the Igbo with fewer voices that can rally them together. Although Achebe was not known to dabble in partisan politics, he was the voice for not only his people, but the African continent. Also, his death has depleted the rankof older gene