The publication in 1958 of Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart was a significant literary and cultural event in Africa, no more so than in Achebe’s own country, Nigeria… The novel’s appeal to the new Nigerian elite derived from the mood of nationalist self-assertion that prevailed in the country.As young, aspiring bearers of an emerging modern culture, the elite looked to a national literature that would reflect the changing shape of the African world… (‘Things Fall Apart’ by Francis Abiola Irele Ed.)
Things Fall Apart presents an archetypal clash between humans and gods, and between identity groups in a pre-modern society among the Igbos.The novel also informs us about a particular indigenous African society’s definition of dystopia as well as its utopian impulses and constructs in the era that led to the arrival of British Christian missions, and later colonial incursions.
What does the novel tell us about African vs. European prescriptions for what makes an ideal world?Identify the characters from the novel who help us highlight the positives and shortcomings of premodern order and society.Why did “Things Fall Apart”?Are these stories best told as evidence of a ‘clash of civilizations’ or a ‘clash of particular social and political visions’?