Since I was interested in the short story, I searched for the author's biography and some backgrounds on the story. .
"Chinua Achebe is one of Africa's most influential and widely published writers." (NYS Writers Institute, 1998) "He was born November 16, 1930, in Ogidi, in eastern Nigeria, the son of a mission-school teacher, one of the early converts to Christianity in his community." (Hastings, 2001) His name in full is Albert Chinualumogu Achebe. He was educated in Western missionary schools and obtained an arts degree at the University College in Ibadan. As the "author of one of the enduring works of modern African literature, Achebe sees post colonial cultures taking shape story by story."(Bacon, 2000) He uses English in writing African fiction, in order to make Europeans understand African culture and tradition more directly and truthfully. He also writes to criticize the postcolonial African leaders who are corrupt. The Sacrificial Egg was firstly published in the April 1959 Atlantic Monthly, as his earlier work. .
From researching deeply, I found Achebe's "great-grandfather, who raised his father, had expressed tolerance towards the Christian missionaries and had no objections to his grandson's conversion. He was baptized Albert Chinualumogu, in tribute to Prince Albert, but adopted a purely African name when he went to university. And his grandfather was an important man in the traditional Igbo culture." (Hastings, 2001).
His background and biography help me to understand he was very familiar with that condition which he describes in the "The Sacrificial Egg". Achebe is a Nigerian, and Nigeria was a British colony. Since he and his father grew up in a traditional African family, converted to Christianity and attended colonial missionary and government schools, Achebe knows well that the traditional Igbo life clashed with colonial powers in the form of missionaries and colonial government.
