Things Fall Apart

Article written by Israel Njoku

Degree in M.C.M with focus on Literature from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.

‘Things Fall Apart’ is Chinua Achebe’s attempt at hijacking the prejudicial conception of Africa as seen in the literature of the colonialists and their enablers. He was able to successfully present an image of African society just before and immediately after contact with the Europeans that was deserving of being respected and seen as fully human. The book won him widespread acclaim and became so ubiquitous that it often represents the foreigner’s first contact with traditional African society.

Key Facts about Things Fall Apart

• Book Title: ‘Things Fall Apart’
• Author: Chinua Achebe
• Type Of Work: Novel
• Genre: African Literature
• Language: English
• Place Written: Lagos, Nigeria
• Date Of First Publication: 1958
• Publisher: Heinemann
• Setting (Place): Pre-colonial and Colonial Eastern Nigeria
• Protagonist: Okonkwo
• Perspective and Narrator: Third-person omniscient
• Climax: Okonkwo beheads a representative of the colonial British government

Chinua Achebe and Things Fall Apart

For Chinua Achebe, ‘Things Fall Apart,’ was motivated by his dissatisfaction with the portrayal of traditional Africans in contemporary literature. He wrote the book to correct the negative and uncomplimentary impression about pre-colonial Africa arising out of these accounts. The book is almost singlehandedly responsible for Achebe’s gigantic stature within African literature, earning him the designation of the ‘Father of African literature’ and influencing a generation of young African writers in the process.

Books Related to Things Fall Apart

‘Things Fall Apart‘ is the first of its kind to reconstruct the idyllic setting of pre-colonial African life and to deal with the disruptive influences of colonial forces on this life. A lot of other writers took Achebe’s lead in situating their works within these settings such as Ngugi Wa Thiong’o and Flora Nwapa. Ngugi’s work, ‘Weep Not Child,’ follows the Gikuyu and their struggles with their colonial overlords.

Ngugi would, in this book, contrast the idyllic and communal life of the people of Gikuyu with the disruptions of a power-grabbing colonial government. It follows the opposition to the British within the context of the Mau Mau uprising in Kenya and the effect this has on a Gikuyu family. Flora Nwapa’s ‘Efuru’ has the distinction of being the first work written by a female African writer.

Situated within pre-colonial times in ancient Igboland, it breathes life into the otherwise stationary and passive female figures in works like Achebe’s ‘Things Fall Apart.’ The book follows a woman’s upending of normal social norms and gender prescriptions within a patriarchal context.

Achebe’s own ‘Arrow of God’ is another similar work situated within the context of an Igbo-Colonialist interaction. Here an influential priest of the Ulu deity is locked in an intense power struggle with rivals within his community. The situation is further complicated by the arrival of the White man, his government, and religion.

A proper understanding of the larger ideological and cultural context under which ‘Things Fall Apart‘ is written is not possible without having some familiarity with the works to which ‘Things Fall Apart’ was written in response. One such work offers a competing account of the initial interaction between Africans and Europeans and, through its narration and descriptions, paints an African society that was far less flattering than Achebe would like. This work is Joseph Conrad’s ‘Heart of Darkness’ which follows the adventures of a group of adventurers down the river Congo.

The Lasting Impact of Things Fall Apart