FRANKFURT, June 3: Nigerian Chinua Achebe, one of Africa’s most influential and widely published writers, has been awarded the annual Peace Prize of the German Booksellers’ Association, it was announced Monday in Frankfurt.

Achebe, 71, who lives in the United States, will receive the 15,000 euros (13,500 dollars) prize at a ceremony on October 13 during the annual book fair in Frankfurt.

The citation said Achebe’s central concern was “the restoration of peace in regions exposed to a permanent cultural conflict”.

The “father of post-colonial African literature” has written 21 novels as well as short stories and collections of poetry. He published his first and best-known novel, “Things Fall Apart”, in 1958 at the age of 28.—dpa