Things Fall Apart

Like most Americans, I am sadly ignorant about African literature.  According to a recent New Yorker profile of Chinua Achebe, who wrote Things Fall Apart in 1959, Americans have limited access to African literature of the past 50 years because of a dearth of English translations.  I don't buy it.  More likely, the dearth of translations is due to a dearth of interest and demand by American readers. Since I count myself among the transgressors, the New Yorker profile struck a chord, and I picked up Things Fall Apart, a cornerstone in 20th century African lit and originally written in English (a choice for which Achebe, born in Nigeria, has taken critical heat ever since).

Achebe's novel is the story of how one man, his family, his village, and his culture are crushed by the arrival of white Europeans in the early 20th century.  Okonkwo is a leader in his village - a brave warrior with a large family and a successful farm, respected for his courage, and feared for his quick temper.  His story is told in the third-person, but from the limited perspective of one who shares the same culture and background as Okwonko, so that we experience Okonkwo's internal struggles with change as he does.  The story is told in the manner of folk tales; many such tales are told within the novel, as they are passed on from Okonkwo's wives to their children.

The most ingenious aspect of Things Fall Apart is that it gives us the time and exposure we need to see and feel life in Okonkwo's village.  Incidents reveal the details of domestic life, the village's system of justice, and its hierarchy, religion, economics and art.  At first, the society seemed foreign and primitive to me; halfway through the book, my growing respect for the sophistication of their culture made me ashamed of my initial response.

Of course, this appreciation and respect (and shame) is what makes the destruction of Okonkwo's society so devastating in the latter chapters of the novel.  The Christian, European conquerors are equally blind to the value of this culture, and don't bother to take the time to learn and appreciate its value.  Their invasion demolishes Okonkwo's life at every level - his family, his village, his culture, and ultimately his own soul.  Fifty years after his novel first appeared, Achebe's voice is still powerful, and his message, sadly, still relevant.