Chinua Achebe is a renowned Nigerian novelist born in 1930 in Ogidi, Nigeria. He worked as a broadcaster for the Nigerian Broadcasting Service. His most famous novel, Things Fall Apart, tells the story of Okonkwo, a strong man and village leader in the late 19th century Igbo society in Nigeria, set before the arrival of British colonialists. The novel explores Igbo traditions, customs, and culture such as the village's social structure, agriculture, marriage practices, and religion. It examines the clash between Igbo and European culture and the colonial efforts to convert Africans to Christianity.

1. THINGS
FALL
APART
CHINUA ACHEBE
COMPILED BY NTHABISENG MALEPE

2. Chinua Achebe
• Born in 1930, in a village called Ogidi in South Eastern Nigeria.
• Went to University College, Ibadan for undergraduate studies.
• Worked for Nigerian broadcasting service (NBS)
• In 1966 his work was interrupted by the Nigerian civil war,
when South Eastern region attempted to breakaway to form the
independent state of Biafra.

3. Chinua
Achebe
This Photo by Unknown author is licensed under CC BY.

4. Achebe as a writer
• Believed in the power of literature to create and initiate social
change.
• Influenced other African writers to write stories from the
point of view of their own people.
• Pioneer and advocate of the need for the Africans to tell their
own stories from their own perspective.

5. • Achebe sees his role as a writer as one of social responsibility, since
he believes that all good stories should have a purpose.
• His novels were written in English, but he incorporates Igbo
vocabulary and narratives.
• He draws on oral traditions of indigenous tribes, such as folk tales
and songs, and verbal descriptions of life and life lessons
• His goal is to mold the English language to the rhythm and lyrical
quality of the Nigerian language: This style, and the incorporation of
the proverbs and idioms of African culture, combine to mark his
stories as uniquely African.
• Is recognized for his ability to write simply yet eloquently about life’s
universal qualities

6. As a writer, Achebe
• “I believe in the complexity of the human story, and that there's
no way you can tell that story in one way and say, 'this is it.'
Always there will be someone who can tell it differently
depending on where they are standing ... this is the way I think
the world's stories should be told: from many different
perspectives”.

7. Achebe on Eurocentric Depiction
of Africa and Africans
• “The last four or five hundred years of European contact with
Africa produced a body of literature that presented Africa in a
very bad light and Africans in very lurid terms. The reason for this
had to do with the need to justify the slave trade and
slavery…This continued until the Africans themselves, in the
middle of the twentieth century, took into their own hands the
telling of their story”

8. The Igbo culture
• Story takes place in the Igbo village of Umoufia in the late 1880’s, prior to
English colonization
• Third most populous ethnic group in Nigeria (16% of population)
• Live in southeastern part of country in tropical rain forests (deal with rainy
season and dry winds)
• Subsistence farmers – raise their own crops:
• Yam, cassava, taro, corn, etc.
• Palm trees for oil and fiber
• Crafts and manual labor also provide income

9. Y-SA.

10. Igbo Society Marriage
Customs
• Igbo Society Marriage Customs
• Organized in patrilineages. Live in villages a few km from each other based on
male lineage – male heads of household all related on father’s side
(approximately 5,000 people per clan)
• Marriages were discussed in depth as they brought families & entire villages
together
• Most husbands practiced polygamy
• Women go to live with husbands; prosperous men have 2 or 3 wives. Igbo
women lived in separate houses, cooked for themselves, and raised their own
children. Unhappy women could leave a marriage

11. The protagonist
• Okwonkow, son of lazy Unoka.
• His name means “the roaring flame”. He is the central character of Things Fall
Apart. An influential leader of the African Igbo community of Umuofia
• He was a huge strong man with red eyes, flat wide nose and cursed hair. He
had three wives whom he treated with a heavy hand.
• Okwonkow thundered and stammered.
• Being strong meant being a warrior, a defender, a protector and a leader – Ibo
people respected warriors.

12. • He is known as a fierce warrior as well as a successful farmer. Since
early childhood, his embarrassment about his lazy father, Unoka, has
driven him to succeed.
• His hard work and talent in war have earned him a position of high
status. He is strong, proud and driven, despises anything he regards
as weakness and is terrified of looking weak like his father.
• Sometimes he behaves rashly, bringing trouble and sorrow upon
himself and his family.

13. REFERENCES
• Water Birds (Ali). (2011) Things Fall Apart, WHAT DOES THE PHRASE“FALL APART” MEANS,
an awesome PowerPoint Presentation. Available
at https://www.slideshare.net/befriends/things-fall-apart-by-chinua-achebe-
10444682?qid=214d15df-3bc5-4fdb-ad08-
b652aa133ef2&v=&b=&from_search=1 (Accessed 12 August 2020).
• Tsehloane, T. (2020) lecture slides on the novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe,
University of Johannesburg. An awesome PowerPoint Presentation.
• Gembey,B. 2016) Extensive introduction to Things Fall Apart, an awesome PowerPoint
Presentation. Available from SlideShare
at https://www.slideshare.net/bobgembey/things-fall-apart-65672924?qid=e8de7222-
8c8c-463e-9bf8-25f0bef5b283&v=&b=&from_search=2 (Accessed 12 August 2020)