Chinua Achebe vs David Bowie
Two child prodigies, compared on what is actually documented: field, era, country and record. No invented numbers.
The record, side by side
| Chinua Achebe | David Bowie | |
| Field | Literature | Film |
| Sub-field | Novelist | Actor |
| Born | 1930 | 1947 |
| Died | 2013 | 2016 |
| Country of birth | Colonial Nigeria | United Kingdom |
| Star sign | Scorpio | Capricorn |
Who they are
Chinua Achebe
Father of African Literature · Author of Things Fall Apart 20 million copies sold · 57 languages translated · Most widely read African novel in history Born November 16, 1930 · Ogidi, Nigeria · Died March 21, 2013
Full biography of Chinua Achebe →
David Bowie
On June 6, 1972, a twenty-four-year-old Brixton-born musician named David Robert Jones — performing under the name David Bowie, inhabiting a character he had named Ziggy Stardust — appeared on the BBC television programme Top of the Pops to perform "Starman," draped his arm around his guitarist Mick Ronson's shoulders in a gesture that was, for British television in 1972, practically avant-garde, and stared directly into the camera. The performance reached approximately fifteen million viewers. Within a week, the Ziggy Stardust album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars was…
Full biography of David Bowie →
What they share
- Their lifetimes overlap.
Where they part
- Different fields: Literature for Chinua Achebe, Film for David Bowie.
- Born in different countries: Colonial Nigeria and United Kingdom.
- 17 years separate their births (1930 and 1947).
Questions people ask
- Who came first, Chinua Achebe or David Bowie?
- Chinua Achebe. Chinua Achebe was born in 1930, David Bowie in 1947.
- What field is each of them in?
- Chinua Achebe is filed under Literature (Novelist). David Bowie is filed under Film (Actor).
- Were they contemporaries?
- Yes - their lifetimes overlap.