Things Fall Apart is a novel written by Nigerian author Chinua Achebe. It depicts pre-colonial life in the south-eastern part of Nigeria and the invasion by Europeans during the late 19th century.
Chinua Achebe (16 November 1930 – 21 March 2013) was a Nigerian novelist, poet, and critic who is regarded as the dominant figure of modern African literature. His first novel and magnum opus, Things Fall Apart (1958), occupies a pivotal place in African literature and remains the most widely studied, translated and read African novel. He is often referred to as the “father of African literature”, although he vigorously rejected the characterization.
The Igbo people are an ethnic group in Nigeria.
Post colonial literature
Many countries in the world were colonised by the British powers. One of these countries to be colonised was Africa because of which Africa went through a period of crisis. Before the coming of the colonizers, the Africans were embedded in their own culture and traditions but with the advent of the colonizers on African soil, things began to change rapidly. Many writers in Africa wrote about their native culture and in the 1950s there was a powerful movement called Negritude during which the black writers began to understand the value and power of their own native ethos (a set of ideas and attitudes associated with a particular group or society).
Chinua Achebe hailed from a small place in east Nigeria. In this novel, he records the changes that take place in the Igbo community. Igbo was not just a community but it also represented Achebe’s language as he spoke in the Igbo dialect.
LIST OF CHARACTERS
- Okonkwo
- Unoka (Okonkwo’s father)
- Nwoye (Okonkwo’s eldest son)
- Ikemefuna, a fourteen year old boy
- Obierika, a close friend of Okonkwo’s
- Uchendu (maternal uncle of Okonkwo)
- Chielo (priestess of the caves and the hills’ shrine)
- Enoch (son of the snake priest of Umuofia)
- Ekwefi (Okonkwo’s wife)
- Ezinma (Ekwefi’s daughter)
- Mr. Brown
- Mr. Smith