Achebe’s book is important because it offers a truer image of Africa that is far more respectful to Africans, and far more acknowledging of their humanity. Although this is a society that could very much do with the sophistication in medicine and technology the West had to offer, it was by no means the primitive and cannibalistic society full of blood-thirsty savages that the likes of Conrad described in their books. However, it was also a very patriarchal society that marginalized women, killed off twins, and cast away people with certain debilitating illnesses.

They buried their dead with much respect and fanfare. They had elaborate marriage rituals that emphasized a wider sense of familyhood and community.

The people of Umuofia judged disputes under an overarching need to preserve harmony and cohesion in society. We also have the likes of Obierika, who straddles a middle ground between both character types.Īchebe constructs a Umuofia society with a fairly sophisticated way of life and institutions. So, we get individuals like Okonkwo and Nwoye occupying worldviews and temperaments that are poles apart. What ‘Things Fall Apart’ did was to present Africans with a wider range of attributes that marked them as fully human, with typical human strengths and weaknesses. Joyce Cary’s work typecasted the African within a very limited and specific category- that of the passionate and emotional but simple individual. In truth, these works only served to advance the imperialist goals of the European colonizers by representing Africans as passionate simpletons at best or as primitive animals at worst. Here we find out what makes ‘Things Fall Apart’ so worthy of this gigantic reputation.īefore Achebe wrote ‘Things Fall Apart,’ students learning about Africa through fiction had to go through works like Joyce Cary’s ‘ Mister Johnson,’ and Joseph Conrad’s ‘Heart of Darkness.’ These are supposedly serious literary works with a clean reputation that purported to accurately represent the African man.

It is the work with the greatest reputation in African literature. ‘Things Fall Apart‘ is an immensely important novel that shines not only because of the relevance of its themes but also the poignancy embedded within its simplicity, and the greatness lying behind a seemingly basic plot.

Things fall apart by chinua achebe