Nigerian author Chinua Achebe first published his globally acclaimed novel, “Things Fall Apart,” in 1958. Since then, it has become a staple novel read not only in Africa, but in schools around the world. “Things Fall Apart” is split into three parts and centers around a respected Nigerian villager living in Umuofia: Okonkwo. The charged novel addresses tribal life in Nigeria and the cultural shock experienced by the Nigerians as native customs and traditions gave way the Christian evangelism and British colonization of the late nineteenth century.
The novel opens with a contrasting description of Okonkwo as a strong and hard-working farmer who seems to despise the “weaknesses” he saw in his lazy, musician father, Unoka who was unable to provide for his family and who unceasingly had to borrow cowries, or money, from his reluctant neighbors.
The first section of the novel describes Okonkwo’s rise to fame and prominence in the Umuofia tribe and transcendence of his father’s idle reputation. He is a great man with many yams, the king of crops, and held the village’s respect and awe for his fearlessness in battle and his unshakable desire to do what he deems as “manly.” However, in an unfortunate twist, Okonkwo is exiled from Umuofia when his gun explodes and kills a man during the farewell ceremony of a funeral.
The remainder of the novel focuses on Okonkwo’s interaction with Christian missionaries and the slow disintegration of the tribal world he is so used to. White missionaries arrive in villages all around Nigeria with the intent of spreading their religion and to humor the white men, the village leaders allow them to stay. But as the number of converts increase, the animosity and clash of tradition between the Christians and the “heathen” villagers also rise and the tension between the two ideologies thickens.
Things Fall Apart details a time when, for Okonkwo, life really does fall apart and the perceived purity and cleanliness of tribal customs are tainted by the invading white men and their beliefs. The novel has hidden moral lessons in its themes that readers would do well to pay special heed to because they seem more relevant than ever in our cosmopolitan society. Things Fall Apart is a novel that has stood the test of time and significantly impacted the thoughts and attitudes of each generation that has read it and who can attest to its importance in crossing cultural borders.
