Washington, DC — Many voices have contributed to a better understanding of the complexities, the challenges and the beauty that is all over the African continent. But if we have to ask if there is one voice above all others that has helped us better understand the continent from which we all descended, it is the voice of Chinua Achebe.

Today as I grieve the physical loss of a man I am privileged to call a mentor, a colleague and a friend, I think of words that Chinua taught me. He knew these words from the Ebo language I have come to cherish them in an English translation.  "Not to know is bad, not to wish to know is worse, not to hope is unthinkable, not to care is unforgivable."

One of the many legacies of Chinua Achebe is that inspired writers all of the continent of Africa including many women writers.

To quote Princeton professor Kwame Anthony Appiah, : "He invented a way of writing about Africa that was so natural that most people didn't notice he had to invent it".

Dr. Johnnetta Betsch Cole is director of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of African Art