English Literature

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe stands out among all published African novels because of its significant impact on the debate around empire and postcolonial literature. It contains themes of self and identity, culture, morality, religion, law, and many others that transcend the boundaries imposed by readers different cultural backgrounds. Unlike many of the novels about Africa and African people written before it, Things Fall Apart was written from the perspective of an African looking at his world that is slowly succumbing to British colonialism. This unique view of colonialism stirred valuable intellectual debate about the clash of cultures in a world thats slowly becoming smaller.

While the overall consensus today is that Things Fall Apart is the most classic of all African novels, Chinua Achebe was not the first African novelist. In Nigeria, Amos Tutola and Cyprian Ekwensi had already published fiction in prose even before Things Fall Apart came out. The difference with Achebes novel and these other African novels however, is that the powerful english language used in Achebes work inspired a whole new generation of African writers who were propelled by Black Nationalist pride and who wanted to depict the clash of cultures theyre witnessing in society. Moreover, because the work could be understood by english readers, it made whites and people of all races sensitive to the concerns and values of the colonized African people.

In many ways, Things Fall Apart depicts a violent clash of cultures reflected in the life of Okonkwo, the famous and strong main character, who gradually lost everything he worked for because of circumstances that are beyond his control, foremost of which is the settlement of white European missionaries in their village. For the first time in the history of African literature, colonialism was vividly depicted from the perspective of African people. The novel did not judge or discriminate against African culture unnlike other novels about Africans written by white novelists, like Joyce Cary and Joseph Conrad. Thus, Things Fall Apart does not share the same cultural biases for the empires or colonialists culture.

Even white novelists who are sympathetic to the concerns of Africans cannot write about them without using their colonial value systems. For example, in Joyce Carys Mister Johnson, the main character, Johnson, a black African man, is described with a profound amusement by the author. He was likened to a skinned rabbit and his skin was compared to the blackness of a stove. He was also described as behaving quite ridiculously like a child. In the opening paragraphs of the novel, Johnson was contrasted against Bamu, the daughter of a ferryman who was, while African had pale skin like milk chocolate and was beautiful in the way European women were at that time. Although the story would progress such that the reader would empathize with Africans, the language used is so loaded with bias against African culture and being that, in the end, Africans are still looked at as inferior to colonialists.

This is not the case with Achebes Things Fall Apart. In this novel, Achebe is unopologetic about the culture of the African village he described. Okonkwo, the main character, was powerful and admired not because of values derived from colonialists, but because of values that are learned from living in an actual African community. Thus, Okonkwo was successful because he was the first one ever to win a wrestling match against a feared wrestler called Amalinze the Cat. He was also well known because of his powerful body and aggressive personality. His success was depicted in terms of his readiness to engage in physical fights with people  something that no white European writer could say in a novel because he didnt grow up with this kind of knowledge and value system.

Thus, Things Fall Apart stirred productive intellectual debate as the other voice was heard, instead of just the colonialists. It was shown that the British Empire was not the only entity with history, but also Africans. And as strange, dangerous and weird African culture can be to white settlers, the colonialists culture can also be as strange, dangerous and weird to native Africans.

The extent to which Things Fall Apart destroyed the boundaries of the novel cant be emphasized enough. The way in which the novel was written was such that the reader is introduced to a way of life he doesnt know. Even the style employed by Chinua Achebe to write the novel affects the overall mood of the story. Things Fall Apart is made up of simple short and structured sentences that give a reader the sense that he is reading someones history through their own language translated into English. This is vastly different from the style employed by Joseph Conrad, for example, in his classic work, Heart of Darkness. Joseph used an eloquent style characterized by long, complex and abstract sentences that condition the reader to read the novel through colonial eyes. This complexity strikes a sharp contrast to the African subjects who are depicted as simple fearsome objects of nature that are quite unintelligible. This results in the reader having an intellectual bias against Africans who they may think as uneducated and ill-informed people who have to be brought out of the darkness into the light.

In contrast to Conrads novel, Things Fall Apart humanizes its characters through simple sentences that describe their worth. African culture is as complex as the empires culture but it doesnt have to be described in the most eloquent and abstract manner. For instance, by simply describing plainly that Ikemefuna is a peace settlement between two villages, and that his fate is in the hands of the village elders, the novel is able to explain the power structure in African society and its customs. Whats more striking about this is that, Achebe doesnt in any hint the reader to hate on the unscientific and sometimes brutal traditions of the African village described. Achebe merely describes the culture using their own language translated into English to inform the reader and make him understand.

Since Achebe doesnt judge African culture and the African people, readers themselves are left to judge the novel and the colonized culture on their own. Having understood their way of life, their day-to-day challenges, their fear of white men spreading a new religion in their old village, readers are able to see that the world is not restricted to the British Empire. There are multiple worlds out there that have their own stories to tell and concerns to forward. There are people who have different lifestyles to maintain and propagate and there are histories that exist alongside theirs.

Perhaps the most significant value of Things Fall Apart is that it sparks intellectual debate about the plurality of cultures and peoples in the world. For example, if colonialists used to think that murder is universally wrong, Achebe proved them false as Ikemefuna was murdered by Okonkwo himself whom he treated as his own father. Okonkwo had to follow the order of the village elders that Ikemefuna was to be killed in order that the village was to attain peace. Pushing things a little further, Achebe made Okonkwo kill Ikemefuna himself despite the elders wishes that his feelings might hinder him. This shocking and gruesome turn of events strikes a chord among European and Western readers who probably havent heard of anything so illogical and inhumane as this act. Achebes challenge to them is that whether they like it or not, this African culture did use to happen and may still be happening today, and everyone needs to discuss it. If cultures and civilizations are going to clash, what should people do to these traditions, defined by some as barbaric, while others, necessary

In this way, Chinua Achebes Things Fall Apart was able to decentralize literature. No longer is literature confined to the boundaries of the empire and London is no longer the center of narrative and history. Literature can exist in any place and written by any people, and it can be about their own domestic concerns. These concerns though are inextricable from the concerns of the globalized world. By understanding them, human beings may be able to understand themselves better. For these and many other reasons, Things Fall Apart in indeed the quintessential voice of the colonized African heard around the world.