Postmodern
Chinua Achebe
1930 – 2013
Nigerian novelist, poet, professor, and critic (1930-2013)
- Colonial Nigeria · Nigeria
- African
- Postcolonial Literature
About
Chinua Achebe was a Nigerian novelist, poet, and critic who is regarded as a central figure of modern African literature. His first novel and magnum opus, Things Fall Apart (1958), occupies a pivotal place in African literature and remains the most widely studied, translated, and read African novel. Along with Things Fall Apart, his No Longer at Ease (1960) and Arrow of God (1964) complete the "African Trilogy". Later novels include A Man of the People (1966) and Anthills of the Savannah (1987). Achebe is often referred to as the "father of modern African literature", although he vigorously rejected the characterization.
Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA). Portrait by Stuart C. Shapiro (CC BY 3.0) via Wikimedia Commons.
Life on the Timeline
Major Works
Exam Dossier
Most-asked topics
- Things Fall Apart as founding text of African fiction in English
- The African Trilogy (Things Fall Apart, No Longer at Ease, Arrow of God)
- Achebe's response to Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness ("An Image of Africa")
- Igbo culture, proverb, and orality in Achebe's fiction
- Postcolonialism and the writing back to empire
- Okonkwo as tragic hero and colonial disruption
- Achebe's essays: Morning Yet on Creation Day, Hopes and Impediments
- Language debate: English vs. indigenous language in African writing
Previous-year themes
- Achebe's role as father/founder of modern African literature (a title he himself resisted)
- Things Fall Apart's structure and its depiction of Igbo society before and after colonial contact
- Achebe's critique of Conrad and Heart of Darkness as racist text
- Use of proverbs and oral tradition as narrative device
- The African Trilogy and its chronology/sequence
- Achebe's stance in the language debate (English vs. African languages) versus Ngugi wa Thiong'o
- Postcolonial theory application to Achebe's fiction
- Title source of Things Fall Apart from Yeats's 'The Second Coming'
Common confusions
- Confusing Things Fall Apart's protagonist Okonkwo with his son Nwoye or grandson Obi Okonkwo (protagonist of No Longer at Ease)
- Mixing up the order of the African Trilogy — Things Fall Apart, No Longer at Ease, Arrow of God — with the order of composition/publication
- Confusing Achebe's critique of Conrad ('An Image of Africa') with Edward Said's Orientalism as the same text
- Attributing the 'father of African literature' label to Achebe as something he claimed for himself rather than a title he rejected
- Confusing Achebe's pro-English-language stance (adapting English for African expression) with Ngugi wa Thiong'o's advocacy for writing in indigenous African languages
- Mixing up Arrow of God's Ezeulu with Things Fall Apart's Okonkwo as both being clan leaders resisting colonial rule
Memory tricks
TAF (Trilogy African Fiction): Things Fall Apart -> No Longer at Ease -> Arrow of God, in narrative/chronological sequence though not composition order
'Things Fall Apart' = Yeats's centre cannot hold, so remember TITLE comes from POETRY, not Achebe's own coinage
Achebe vs Conrad: A for Achebe, A for 'An Image of Africa' — his direct riposte to Heart of Darkness
MAN of the People = corruption of a post-independence political MAN (Chief Nanga) — satire of new African elite
Anthills of the Savannah = LAST novel, published 1987, set in a military-ruled fictional African state (Kangan)
