THINGS FALL APART

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THINGS FALL APART
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hyperlink
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Chinua Achebe was born in Ogidi, Nigeria, the son
of a teacher in a missionary school.
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His parents, though they instilled in him many of
the values of their traditional Ibo culture, were
devout evangelical Protestants and christened him
Albert after Prince Albert, husband of Queen
Victoria.
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In 1944 Achebe attended Government College in
Umuahia. He was also educated at the University
College of Ibadan, where he studied English,
history and theology.
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At the university Achebe rejected his British
name and took his indigenous name Chinua.
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In 1953 he graduated with a BA. Before joining
the Nigerian Broadcasting Company in Lagos in
1954 he traveled in Africa and America and worked
for a short time as a teacher.
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In the 1960s he was the director of External
Services in charge of the Voice of Nigeria.
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BACKGROUND INFO

• Achebes first novel was published in 1958.

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Achebe wrote his novel in a time often called the
Nigerian Renaissance because during this period a
large number of very strong Nigerian writers
began to create a powerful new literature that
drew on the traditional oral literature, European
literature, and the changing times in Nigeria and
in Africa at large.
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Critics consider Achebe one of the earliest and
best novelists to have come out of modern
Nigeria. He is also one of the top
English-speaking novelists of his time anywhere.
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In 1958 much of Africa was still under the
colonialists yoke. Set in a time of great change
for Africans, Achebes novels illuminate two
painful features of modern African life
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the humiliations visited on Africans by
colonialism and the corruption and inefficiency
of what replaced colonial rule.
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Things Fall Apart focues on the early experience
of colonialism as it occurred in Nigeria in the
late 1800s, from the first days of contact with
the British to widespread British administration.
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Achebe is interested in showing Ibo society in
the period of transition when rooted, traditional
values are put in conflict with an alien and more
powerful culture that will tear them apart.
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Achebe paints a vivid picture of Ibo society both
before and after the arrival of white men and
avoids the temptation to idealize either culture.
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In this context he believes that the novelist
must have a social commitment The writer cannot
be excused from the task of re-education and
regeneration that must be doneI for one would
not wish to be excused.
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I would be quite satisfied if my novels
(especially the ones I set in the past) did no
more than just teach my readers (Africans) that
their past with all its imperfections was not
one long night of savagery from which the
Europeans acting on Gods behalf delivered them.
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Nigerian Literature Oral and Written
Traditionshyperlink
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Proverb and Folklore in the Novels of Chinua
Achebe(hyperlink)
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• PROVERB
• TRADITION
• FOLKTALE