Since I wanted to broaden my literary horizon a bit, I recently read Things Fall Apart by the Nigerian author Chinua Achebe. To be honest, I didn't love it from the start, since the narrative style and the literary world was quite unfamiliar - it was very hard to get into at first. However, about a quarter into the book I really fell in love with it, partly because it was so unfamiliar, I think. It was really refreshening to take a break from the issues of European societies in various periods, and instead visit a very different culture in a different country. Before I expand on that, though, I should probably tell you what this book was about in the first place.
Summary
Things Fall Apart is a novel which tells the story of Okonkwo, a very successful inhabitant of Umuofia, a village in the territory which is now known as Nigeria. Despite his success, Okonkwo's life is dominated by his fear of becoming like his father, who was a drunkard badly in debt to all his neighbours. This fear is his ultimate flaw, as it makes him the terror of his own family, particularly when he believes they are showing signs of "weakness". There are countless instances when his fear makes him become violent to the point of beating up his own wife or hitting his children. Violence, it seems, is the only way he knows how to triumph over perceived "weakness".
For the majority of the novel, Achebe describes the way of life in an Igbo village pre-colonialisation. The reader gains insight into Igbo tradition and custom, which are not always painted in a positive light (e.g. the abandonment of twins in the wild). Simultaneously, we also get to know Okonkwo's fatal flaw, namely that he will do anything to avoid being weak and remain respected in his village.
Even thouh things already start falling apart for Okonkwo, things get really critical for him when the white man arrives in the midst of the community and starts trying to convert the Igbo people to the Christian faith. It doesn't happen overnight, but gradually a split develops between those villagers who turn to the new faith and those who decide to stick with their own gods and beliefs. Eventually, both the villagers and Okonkwo realise that the world will never be the same again ...
For those of you who like to watch videos, here's Shmoop's really entertaining summary of the novel. Be careful for major spoiler's though!
Right, now that that's out of the way, let's start talking about some of the fascinating things about this novel!
Language
So, the first thing that was so surprising for me about this book was that it was originally written in English, and not in one of the many languages of Nigeria (more than 500!). The author himself gives a very important reason for this though, namely that precisely because of the multitude of languages spoken by the people of Nigeria, it was necessary to use English, as this was the only way to reach as many Nigerians as possible. Nigeria used to be a colony of the British Empire, that's why English is such a wide-spread language even today (next to the obvious English-as-a-global-language phenomenon, of course).
However, just because he used English does not mean that Achebe did not put his personal touch on the language in order to reflect the culture he aimed to describe. In fact, he apparently once said that writers of African origin "should aim to fashioning out an English which is at once universal and able to carry his peculiar experience" (Source). In order to accomplish that in his own novels, he wove together a text which is filled with Igbo words, phrases and proverbs. All throughout the novel, the reader encounters words like harmattan (a dry, sandy wind, typical for the region), chi (a god/karma/fate, personal to every villager), or ogbanje (a special kind of evil spirit), next to the obviously foreign words for plants, food and culture-specific objects.
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| Harmattan |
For honesty's sake though, I have to admit that it was exactly these words, phrases and proverbs which made it difficult to get into the novel at first, because sometimes I just had no clue what Achebe was talking about. However, the deeper I got into the story, the more I started appreciating their inclusion, until in the end I couldn't get enough of them. I think that Achebe was a hundred percent right in using these Igbo words and phrases, because next to the obvious advantage of giving you a bit of an insight into the language the protagonists in this book are really speaking, some things just cannot be readily translated into a foreign language. It's the same nowadays, when people choose to use German words instead of English ones, for instance, because they express certain concepts better (e.g. schadenfreude for the kind of malicious glee you feel when something bad happens to another person). At the end of reading this book, I'm very glad for these words and phrases, to the point where I've even taken a look at a website on the Igbo language :). Something interesting I discovered over there: Igbo is actually a tone language like Chinese, which means that, depending on the pitch you use when pronouncing a word, it could mean something totally different!
Impact of the novel
Achebe has been called as the father or patriarch of the modern African literature, partly because his first novel Things Fall Apart had such a world-wide impact. It was published in 1958, at a time when (brace yourselves) only six other novels by African writers had been published in the West. Isn't that amazing? Things Fall Apart stands at the beginning of a huge effort to reinvigorate African literature - an effort that was further supported by Achebe by serving as advisory editor to the African Writers Series published by Heinemann (according to wikipedia there are nearly 300 titles in this series now - I'll have to check that out, it sounds amazing!).
It wasn't only - or even primarily - an attempt to make African literature appear on the literary radar of the West. Things Fall Apart was also an effort at reconnecting with the culture of Nigerian people before they were colonised and became part of the British Empire and all that entailed - British education, British administration, British religion, etc. This was especially important at the time, as Ghana had just become independent, and Nigeria gained independence from the British Empire only two years later in 1960. People obviously felt a need to re-examine their past and find a new identity.
The novel, however, wasn't just about telling a story in which the original customs and tradition are portrayed as good vs. the evilness of the colonisers. Achebe worked really hard at painting an ambiguous picture, where there is good and evil on both sides. For instance, the first converts to Christianity in the story are exactly those people who were disadvantaged by the old customs and traditions or thought there was something wrong with them - those people who were branded as outcasts or those who didn't believe in the practice of abandoning babies in the wild just because they were born as twins. Similarly, the first Christian missionary who arrives in the village of Umuofia is actually accepted by the villagers and is even allowed to eat with the elders. It is only the second missionary, who comes after the first one falls ill, who is the typical bad guy most of us know from films.
It's quite fascinating, really, the way that this story both changed African literature and the way books by African writers are viewed all over the world - and I love it all the more for it.
Finding one's own voice
This sort of ties in with both of the points above: one thing that was particularly important to Achebe was to tell the story of African history and culture in a new way, namely one that would be truer than the sort of stories Europeans wrote about Africa, in which Africans of whichever country where either portrayed as savages or as innocent (but stupid) children. Achebe had a particularly big beef with Joseph Conrad who, in his view, outed himself as a "thoroughgoing racist" (Source) in Heart of Darkness. His main evidence for that accusation was that Africans, in Conrad's novel, are hardly capable of speech. There are only two instances in which they are allowed to pronounce actual words, the rest of the time they babble and grunt, such as in the quotes that Achebe uses:
Furthermore, he argues that Africa in European literature in general has always been portrayed as more primitive and backwards - "uncivilised" - in order to boost European's self-confidence. A fact which reveals itself to devastating effect in Heart of Darkness.
Thus, Achebe wrote Things Fall Apart to tell another kind of story, one in which African people appear as fully-formed human beings, capable of both emotions and language, who encounter other fully-formed human beings, equally, but not more, capable of these things. And it works out brilliantly.
Western ignorance gone mad
Finally, I thought I'd share with you all the things I've found out about Nigeria over the last week, since my curiosity was peaked upon finishing the book. I even made a tiny slide about it to make it look pretty:
So, things I shamefully had no clue about: Nigeria acually has a population of over 182 million people. 182 million. That makes it the most populated country in Africa and the seventh most populated in the world! There are also over 500 different ethnic groups living within the borders of Nigeria - borders which, by the way, were only drawn (somewhat arbitrarily) by the British.
Of course these 500 different ethnic groups also have 500 different languages, which is why Achebe was right, I think, in thinking that it would be best to write in a language which would transcend the various first languages of the Nigerian people.
The Igbo people, by the way, are the third biggest ethnic group in the country. They live in the southwestern region (the light-brownish space on the map), where the vegetation ranges from tall-grass savannas to rain forests.
There was a civil war in Nigeria from 1967-1970. Nigeria had gained independence from the British Empire in 1960, but the post-colonial period was anything but an easy ride. The Igbo people in particular seem to have felt that they needed to establish their own sovereign territory, which is why they tried to establish the Republic of Biafra. Eventually, they were defeated, however, and after much suffering (about which Achebe wrote poetry, by the way) they were reintegrated into Nigeria.
After Goodluck Jonathan, the current president of Nigeria is Muhammadu Buhari. He led a military coup in the eighties, which brought him into office for a couple of years, but in 2014 he was democratically elected. According to wikipedia, he has called himself a "converted democrat" (Source).
And finally, as a chilling example of how western societies used to view Africa: at the time of publication of the novel, in the late 50s to early 60s, people in NYC could go and look at African cultures in general in the Natural History Museum - you know, right next to the polar bears ... O_O.
Final verdict
I really loved the novel. I loved the language, the different customs, the fascinating way of life, the complexity of Okonkwo's character, the ambiguity of good and evil - and if you've been able to plough on through the entirety of this entry, then I'm sure you'll love it, too ;).
Links & References
Images
Impact of the novel
Achebe has been called as the father or patriarch of the modern African literature, partly because his first novel Things Fall Apart had such a world-wide impact. It was published in 1958, at a time when (brace yourselves) only six other novels by African writers had been published in the West. Isn't that amazing? Things Fall Apart stands at the beginning of a huge effort to reinvigorate African literature - an effort that was further supported by Achebe by serving as advisory editor to the African Writers Series published by Heinemann (according to wikipedia there are nearly 300 titles in this series now - I'll have to check that out, it sounds amazing!).
It wasn't only - or even primarily - an attempt to make African literature appear on the literary radar of the West. Things Fall Apart was also an effort at reconnecting with the culture of Nigerian people before they were colonised and became part of the British Empire and all that entailed - British education, British administration, British religion, etc. This was especially important at the time, as Ghana had just become independent, and Nigeria gained independence from the British Empire only two years later in 1960. People obviously felt a need to re-examine their past and find a new identity.
The novel, however, wasn't just about telling a story in which the original customs and tradition are portrayed as good vs. the evilness of the colonisers. Achebe worked really hard at painting an ambiguous picture, where there is good and evil on both sides. For instance, the first converts to Christianity in the story are exactly those people who were disadvantaged by the old customs and traditions or thought there was something wrong with them - those people who were branded as outcasts or those who didn't believe in the practice of abandoning babies in the wild just because they were born as twins. Similarly, the first Christian missionary who arrives in the village of Umuofia is actually accepted by the villagers and is even allowed to eat with the elders. It is only the second missionary, who comes after the first one falls ill, who is the typical bad guy most of us know from films.
It's quite fascinating, really, the way that this story both changed African literature and the way books by African writers are viewed all over the world - and I love it all the more for it.
Finding one's own voice
This sort of ties in with both of the points above: one thing that was particularly important to Achebe was to tell the story of African history and culture in a new way, namely one that would be truer than the sort of stories Europeans wrote about Africa, in which Africans of whichever country where either portrayed as savages or as innocent (but stupid) children. Achebe had a particularly big beef with Joseph Conrad who, in his view, outed himself as a "thoroughgoing racist" (Source) in Heart of Darkness. His main evidence for that accusation was that Africans, in Conrad's novel, are hardly capable of speech. There are only two instances in which they are allowed to pronounce actual words, the rest of the time they babble and grunt, such as in the quotes that Achebe uses:
In place of speech they made "a violent babble of uncouth sounds." They "exchanged short grunting phrases" even among themselves. But most of the time they were too busy with their frenzy. (Source)
Furthermore, he argues that Africa in European literature in general has always been portrayed as more primitive and backwards - "uncivilised" - in order to boost European's self-confidence. A fact which reveals itself to devastating effect in Heart of Darkness.
Thus, Achebe wrote Things Fall Apart to tell another kind of story, one in which African people appear as fully-formed human beings, capable of both emotions and language, who encounter other fully-formed human beings, equally, but not more, capable of these things. And it works out brilliantly.
Western ignorance gone mad
Finally, I thought I'd share with you all the things I've found out about Nigeria over the last week, since my curiosity was peaked upon finishing the book. I even made a tiny slide about it to make it look pretty:
Of course these 500 different ethnic groups also have 500 different languages, which is why Achebe was right, I think, in thinking that it would be best to write in a language which would transcend the various first languages of the Nigerian people.
The Igbo people, by the way, are the third biggest ethnic group in the country. They live in the southwestern region (the light-brownish space on the map), where the vegetation ranges from tall-grass savannas to rain forests.
There was a civil war in Nigeria from 1967-1970. Nigeria had gained independence from the British Empire in 1960, but the post-colonial period was anything but an easy ride. The Igbo people in particular seem to have felt that they needed to establish their own sovereign territory, which is why they tried to establish the Republic of Biafra. Eventually, they were defeated, however, and after much suffering (about which Achebe wrote poetry, by the way) they were reintegrated into Nigeria.
After Goodluck Jonathan, the current president of Nigeria is Muhammadu Buhari. He led a military coup in the eighties, which brought him into office for a couple of years, but in 2014 he was democratically elected. According to wikipedia, he has called himself a "converted democrat" (Source).
And finally, as a chilling example of how western societies used to view Africa: at the time of publication of the novel, in the late 50s to early 60s, people in NYC could go and look at African cultures in general in the Natural History Museum - you know, right next to the polar bears ... O_O.
Final verdict
I really loved the novel. I loved the language, the different customs, the fascinating way of life, the complexity of Okonkwo's character, the ambiguity of good and evil - and if you've been able to plough on through the entirety of this entry, then I'm sure you'll love it, too ;).
Links & References
Images
Harmattan: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/64/Harmattan._Dust._Fishing_Pirougues._Senegal.jpg
Secondary sources
Achebe, C. (1977) An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness. Massachusett's Review [Online] 18. Available from: http://kirbyk.net/hod/image.of.africa.html.
Annenberg Foundation (2013) Invitation to World Literature: Things Fall Apart. [Video] Available from: https://www.learner.org/courses/worldlit/things-fall-apart/watch/.
Cliffsnotes (2015) Critical Essays: Use of Language in Things Fall Apart. [Online] Available from: http://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/t/things-fall-apart/critical-essays/use-of-language-in-things-fall-apart.
Franklin, R. (2008) After Empire. The New Yorker [Online] Available from: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2008/05/26/after-empire.
Pilkington, E. (2007) A Long Way From Home. The Guardian [Online] Available from: http://www.theguardian.com/books/2007/jul/10/chinuaachebe.
