Things Fall Apart

I love reading and teaching this classic of postcolonial literature. Written in spare, accessible style on the eve of Nigerian independence from Britain, Achebe tells the story of British colonization of an Igbo clan in Southeast Nigeria near the end of the 19th century. Even as the novel portrays the appalling damages of European colonialism, it subtly critiques the traditional Igbo exclusion of disabled people. It demonstrates one of the paradoxes of human rights: victims of human rights abuses can also be perpetrators of them. The British missionaries first gain a foothold by welcoming those stigmatized people marginalized by… show more.

This novel is such a fertile work of art, that shows the universal nature of humanity. The author takes us into Nigeria, during the colonization by the British Empire and the fight by the protagonists to keep traditional customs with the changing landscapes. I loved the sophistication with which Chinua Achebe took us into colonial Africa and made us become one with the weight of the traditions of that time.

I’ve always read this book as being a lesson from our past and present, and a warning from the future. We simply cannot separate the intertwined histories of imperialism, capitalism, and growing environmental crisis. The experience of pre-colonial life in Nigeria and the searing effects of the arrival of British imperialism and capitalism bring to life the resultant, shattering experience of people and places. The dislocation, the chaos, the disenfranchisement, and exploitation: all these are the lived reality of so many across the world to this day, particularly those on the frontline of worsening environmental impacts. These people are predominantly… show more.

A fictional account of pre-colonial Igbo society in southern Nigeria prior to European colonization. This was a highly democratic society where status was based on achievement and economic success. Debunks one of the most bizarre Eurocentric notions that western societies are “complex” while African societies are “simple”. There was (and is) nothing simple about Igbo society!

This book is a profound description of the customs and life of the Igbo tribe of Nigeria before the political and religious changes brought by the British. Through Achebe’s work we see the philosophy, poetry, and even democratic practice of the Igbo—a salutary counter to assumptions that western culture is automatically superior. Are the Igbo “primitive”? What does this word mean? Maybe it seems strange to worship wooden idols, but to the Igbos it seems strange to say that God has a son when he has no wife. I found the Igbo’s meaning-making practices as profound as any.