267
See also: Heart of Darkness 196–97 ■ Disgrace 322–23 ■ Half of a Yellow Sun 339The novel’s title is taken from
W. B. Yeats’s poem “The Second
Coming,” which was written in
the aftermath of World War I.
Yeats’s apocalyptic imagery of
the world caught up in anarchy,
and the arrival of an ambiguous
messiah—some unformed,
slouching beast—presages the
novel’s “first coming” of white
Christian colonizers who invade
and break apart tribal cultures.Nigerian reality
Early in Things Fall Apart, we
learn that “Among the Igbo the art
of conversation is regarded very
highly, and proverbs are the palm-
oil with which words are eaten”;
perhaps it is unsurprising that
some of the villagers of Umuofia are
won over by the colonizers’ hymns
and Bible stories. Achebe wins over
his audience in much the same
way, drawing readers into a classic
novel with a three-part structure,compelling plot, and tragic hero,
but infused with the myths and
oral tradition of Nigerian culture.
When Achebe published his
pivotal work, Nigeria was in a state
of political flux in the lead up to
independence in 1960. He wrote
the novel partly as a response
to the representation of Africa in
the books he studied at college. In
2000 he described how Anglo-Irish
writer Joyce Cary’s novel Mister
Johnson (1939), set in Nigeria, was
held up as a fine example of writing
about Africa, although native
Nigerians saw in it an undercurrent
of distaste and mockery. He also
maintained that Joseph Conrad’s
lurid description of natives in Heart
of Darkness (1899) typified the
racism endemic in literature about
Africa shown by European writers.
Achebe’s reply was to write a
textured, immersive story of the
downfall of a traditional society—
a rich, close community of Igbo
people (formerly Ibo, as the novel
refers to them). In place of Conrad’s
indistinguishable hordes of black
“savages,” Achebe peoples his
village of Umuofia with vibrant
characters that leap from the page.Set in precolonial southern Nigeria
in the 1890s, Things Fall Apart
portrays a civilized society that
has rich traditions of culture,
commerce, religion, and justice.
The people’s social courtesies and
greetings—such as the breaking
and sharing of kola nuts—the
bargaining of terms of betrothal,
and the importance of women’s
chastity and obedience in this
patriarchal society would not seem
out of place in a Jane Austen novel.
In Umuofia, life revolves around the
seasons as villagers plant, tend,
and harvest the crop of yams,
observe the “Week of Peace,” and
enjoy celebrations marked with
palm-wine feasts, wrestling
matches, storytelling, and songs.A self-made man
The protagonist, Okonkwo, is a
famous wrestler and warrior, a
quick-to-anger husband of three
wives, and the proud owner of a
large compound. Having inherited
nothing from his idle, cowardly, and
indebted father—whom he strives
to resemble as little as possible—
Okonkwo works the fields as a ❯❯POSTWAR WRITING
The Igbo people celebrate different
festivals throughout the year. In Things
Fall Apart, the Feast of the New Yam is
held just before the yam harvest to give
thanks to the Earth goddess, Ani.The white man is
very clever ... He has put
a knife on things that
held us together and
we have fallen apart.
Things Fall ApartUS_266-269_FallApart.indd 267 08/10/2015 13:09