By using English - in which he has been proficient since childhood - he reaches many more readers and has a much greater literary impact than he would by writing in a language such as Igbo. To further his aim of disseminating African works to a non-African audience, Achebe became the founding editor for a series on African literature - the African Writers Series - for the publishing firm Heinemann.Īchebe presents the complexities and depths of an African culture to readers of other cultures as well as to readers of his own culture. It is this dignity that African people all but lost during the colonial period, and it is this that they must now regain. they had poetry, and above all, they had dignity. their societies were not mindless, but frequently had a philosophy of great depth and value and beauty. In a 1964 statement, also published in Morning Yet on Creation Day, Achebe comments thatĪfrican people did not hear of culture for the first time from Europeans. In contrast to Western writers and artists who create art for art's sake, many African writers create works with one mission in mind - to reestablish their own national culture in the postcolonial era. should aim at fashioning out an English which is at once universal and able to carry his peculiar experience." Achebe accomplishes this goal by innovatively introducing Igbo language, proverbs, metaphors, speech rhythms, and ideas into a novel written in English.Īchebe agrees, however, with many of his fellow African writers on one point: The African writer must write for a social purpose. In a 1966 essay reprinted in his book Morning Yet on Creation Day, he says that, by using English, he presents "a new voice coming out of Africa, speaking of African experience in a world-wide language." He recommends that the African writer use English "in a way that brings out his message best without altering the language to the extent that its value as a medium of international exchange will be lost. For these writers, a "foreign" language can never fully describe their culture.Īchebe maintains the opposite view. Some of these writers argue that writing in their native language is imperative because cultural subtleties and meanings are lost in translation. Achebe states that his two later novels A Man of the People (1966) and Anthills of the Savannah (1987), while not featuring Okonkwo's descendants, are spiritual successors to the previous novels in chronicling African history.Writers in Third World countries that were formerly colonies of European nations debate among themselves about their duty to write in their native language rather than in the language of their former colonizer. Things Fall Apart was followed by a sequel, No Longer at Ease (1960), originally written as the second part of a larger work along with Arrow of God (1964). The work is split into three parts, with the first describing his family, personal history, and the customs and society of the Igbo, and the second and third sections introducing the influence of European colonialism and Christian missionaries on Okonkwo, his family, and the wider Igbo community. The novel follows the life of Okonkwo, an Igbo ("Ibo" in the novel) man and local wrestling champion in the fictional Nigerian clan of Umuofia. The novel was first published in the UK in 1962 by William Heinemann Ltd, and became the first work published in Heinemann's African Writers Series. It is a staple book in schools throughout Africa and is widely read and studied in English-speaking countries around the world. It is seen as the archetypal modern African novel in English, and one of the first to receive global critical acclaim. It depicts pre-colonial life in the southeastern part of Nigeria and the arrival of Europeans during the late 19th century. Things Fall Apart is the debut novel by Nigerian author Chinua Achebe, first published in 1958.
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