Chinua Achebe: Google Doodle for Guru of African Prose

On the day Chinua Achebe would have gotten a cake on his 87th birthday—16 November, the guru of African Prose got a doodle from Google. 
 
Doodles are changes made to the Google logo to celebrate anniversaries, holidays, and the lives of famous people, including artists, inventors, and scientists. Google doodles are basically illustrated logos of Google. 
 
Achebe is best known for his novel, Things Fall Apart, an African novel that has sold over 10 million copies and has been translated into more than 50 languages.
 
The pioneer of modern African prose, Achebe authored many other novels, including Anthills of the Savannah, Arrow of God, A Man of the People, and No Longer at Ease. He also has collections of short stories, children books, essays, and poems to his name. Achebe has been described as the “father of modern African literature”. 
 
Achebe won The Man Booker International Prize in 2007 and the Commonwealth Poetry Prize for his collection Christmas in Biafra, a relevant subject till date.
Chinua Achebe died in March 2013 in the US aged 82. Before his death on 21 March 2013, at 82, Achebe rejected Nigerian national honours twice— first in 2004, and later in 2011.  
The first Google Doodle honoured Burning Man Festival of 1998. Interestingly, doodle was designed by Google Founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, to let users know they were out of the office just in case the servers crashed. (Aren’t some of the most brilliant ideas from ordinary, simple things!)
Before you google that doodle, one IP food for thought: Since the Google doodle contains Chinua Achebe’s image, if without permission, does Google’s doodle infringe on Chinua Achebe’s image rights?

Senator Ihenyen is the Lead Partner at Infusion Lawyers. He heads the firm's Intellectual Property Practice and Blockchain & Virtual Asset Practice.

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