Thursday, January 31, 2008

Black History Month 2008: Things Fall Apart

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe.

Random House celebrates the 50th Anniversary of Things Fall Apart. Chinua Achebe was my introduction to African writers. This is one story of how Europeans came to Africa and intruded into the cultural, spiritual and economic lives of black Africans. Things Fall Apart is a fictional work based in history.

Through Achebe’s writing, you see the oppression, manipulation and dominance of the Europeans over the Africans.  For this dominance to take hold, there had to be Africans who were ready to betray their own people for financial and political gains. A lot of this was done through white Christian missionaries and British military.

European education was held out like a carrot, to entice African families to turn their sons over to the Europeans for “education.” This caused many great divides between fathers and sons, weakening the strong family unit.

First published in England in 1958, Things Fall Apart tells the story of a Igbo (EE_BO) village in Nigeria and of the tragic figure Okonkwo, a man of great wealth and popularity, yet fearful of appearing weak. This is a story of a clash of cultures, where old customs are replaced with new and unfamiliar customs and things only get worse.

This is the story of colonialism through the eyes of a son of Africa.  Through Okonkwo we step back in time to the arrival of Europeans on African shores.  And things do not only fall apart, they get progressively worse. If you want to understand modern day Africa, this is where you begin.

Posted by Dorothy Ferebee on 01/31 at 12:00 PM
(0) Comments • Permalink
Page 1 of 1 pages