Human tragedy amid the clash of civilisations

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	• Things Fall Apart Chinua Achebe Longman, 1978 - 144 pages average customer review:based on 529 reviews
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highly recommended

Human tragedy amid the clash of civilisations

Chinua Achebe is an accomplished Nigerian writer. "Things Fall Apart" is reputed by Wikipedia to be the most widely read book in modern African literature and has made Achebe the most widely translated African writer of all time.

The book deals with the impact of a foreign culture (the British Empire expanding into Nigeria) on the traditional ways of life and tribal beliefs of the Ibo people of Nigeria. History tells us who inevitably won that "clash of civilisations".

In the book the destruction of a tribal community comes at the hands of well-meaning, but fundamentally arrogant, Christian missionaries, supported by the "civilising mission" of government officials.

Many of the old Ibo beliefs and customs (at least as described by Achebe) were violent and superstitious. The superstition should be no problem for any objective reader - after all, it is simply a different form of spiritual belief to that which most Western readers will be used to, no worse and no better than any of the major religions, just different.

Unfortunately for the Ibo, it was these very beliefs that the christian missionaries found repugnant - perhaps more so than the violence.

However, it is the violence of men towards one another and towards women and children that will appal most modern readers.

Of course, this is a work of fiction and the non-Nigerian reader has no hope of knowing how realistic is the traditional village culture portrayed. Nigerian readers will immediately be able to put it into the correct perspective.

Without any other cultural background or context, books like this in the hands of the unthinking reader can perpetuate stereotypes and even do harm. There is already too much ignorance of, and intolerance to, the customs of other people. One has only to think of today's general ignorance and stereotyping of Muslims - and the general ignorance and stereotyping of Russians during the Cold War.

Sadly, traditional customs and beliefs, even languages, are under increasing threat from the blandishments of the modern world. This is a pity. Most cultural beliefs have a valid place in the human community and are worthy of preservation, as an historical and anthropological record if nothing else. Many of the social and other problems that beset traditional peoples can be laid at the feet of the destruction of customs and beliefs.

The challenge is not only to protect traditional customs, but also to do so in ways that are consistent with preventing violence in those communities. It is difficult, for example, to make any case in favour of female circumcision.

On another level the book can be read as the human tragedy of the principal character, Okonkwo. To our eyes he is a flawed figure, but to his tribe he was an important man.

Achebe's style is very spare and the text is pared to the bone, with few adjectives and adverbs. Sentence constructions are very simple - but not naïve or unsophisticated. Hemingway and other famous writers used a similar style. I like it very much.

I found it helpful to read the Wikipedia entries after I had started the book. This gave me some background and made my reading a more meaningful exercise.

This book made me confront important matters: the clash of civilisations and comparative spiritual beliefs. "Things Fall Apart" is an important book and worth reading.

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The foundation for modern African literature

I was surprised and disappointed in some of the incredibly harsh reviews of this book. Since I've read a decent amount of African literature (not a vast amount), my first thoughts are that "Things Fall Apart" isn't superior to some of those novels. However, it is also important to realize this was a pre-cursor and likely an influence on many if not all of those more recent novels. One needs to think about the historical context and timeframe that this book was written in, the late 1950s. There had not been a large acceptance nor critical recognition of African literature in the Western world during that time, especially of literature from Africa. Achebe's novel had played a critical roled putting African literature on the world map.

The novel centers on one of the leaders of a Nigerian tribe, Okonkwo. Achebe divides the novel into three parts -- setting up tribal life and the Okonkwo's family, his exile to his mother's ancestral tribe and Okonkwo's return to his tribe. The other important theme underlying the story centers on the impact of colonialism, specifically Christianity, on African tribal life.

What "Things Fall Apart" provides us with is deeper knowledge of African tribal life, the customs and mores of a people and the affect of outside influences, in this case Western culture, on traditional tribal life. The book has an elegant simplicity to it, matching the picture Achebe paints of tribal life. While there are a few bits that move slowly, this is a short book and is worthy of a read for both the influence and impact it has had on African literature as well as the the knowledge of a different culture and people that many of us are unlikely to encounter during our life.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

Things Fall Apart tells two intertwining stories, both centering on Okonkwo, a ?strong man? of an Ibo village in Nigeria. The first, a powerful fable of the immemorial conflict between the individual and society, traces Okonkwo?s fall from grace with the tribal world. The second, as modern as the first is ancient, concerns the clash of cultures and the destruction of Okonkwo's world with the arrival of aggressive European missionaries.

These perfectly harmonized twin dramas are informed by an awareness capable of encompassing at once the life of nature, human history, and the mysterious compulsions of the soul.

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