These perfectly harmonized twin dramas are informed by an awareness capable of encompassing at once the life of nature, human history, and the mysterious compulsions of the soul.'Īccess-restricted-item true Addeddate 03:01:05 Boxid IA1795415 Camera Sony Alpha-A6300 (Control) Col_number COL-609 Collection_set printdisabled External-identifier The second, as modern as the first is ancient, concerns the clash of cultures and the destruction of Okonkwo's world with the arrival of aggressive European missionaries.

The first, a powerful fable of the immemorial conflict between the individual and society, traces Okonkwo’s fall from grace with the tribal world. 'Things Fall Apart tells two intertwining stories, both centering on Okonkwo, a “strong man” of an Ibo village in Nigeria. Achebe prophetically argued that colonial domination and the culture it left in Africa had such a stranglehold on African peoples that its consequences would haunt African society long after colonizers had left the continentĪ Chronology of Achebe's life and work and a Selected Bibliography are also included.'-pub. The brilliance of Things Fall Apart is that it addresses the imposition of colonization and the crisis in African culture caused by the collapse of colonial rule. The book describes the simultaneous disintegration of Okonkwo and his village, as his pleas to his people not to exchange their culture for that of the English fall on deaf ears He returns to his home village, only to witness its disintegration as it abandons tradition for European ways. The book is a parable that examines the colonial experience from an African perspective, through Okonkwo, who was 'a strong individual and an Igbo hero struggling to maintain the cultural integrity of his people against the overwhelming power of colonial rule.' Okonkwo is banished from the community for accidentally killing a clansman and is forced to live seven years in exile. The novel, first published in 1958, has by today sold over 8 million copies, been translated into at least forty-five languages, and earned Achebe the somewhat misleading and patronizing title of 'the man who invented African literature.' It carefully re-creates tribal life before the arrival of Europeans in Africa, and then details the jarring changes brought on by the advent of colonialism and Christianity Set in the Ibo village of Umuofia, Things Fall Apart recounts a stunning moment in African history - its colonization by Britain. It is written by one of Nigeria s leading novelists, Chinua Achebe. 'Things Fall Apart is one of the most widely read African novels ever published.

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe