Approaches to Teaching Achebe's Things Fall Apart

by Bernth Lindfors, Bernth (Editor)

Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, with sales exceeding three million copies, is one of the most widely read works of contemporary fiction. A classic of African literature, it is taught in college courses ranging from graduate seminars in English and comparative literature to undergraduate offerings in English, history, ethnic studies, anthropology, folklore, and political science; it is also studied in high school literature and social studies classes. Yet teaching such a book presents special problems; Things Fall Apart is rooted in African social and historical realities that are often unfamiliar to North American readers. This collection of essays, all written by experienced teachers, aims to help instructors introduce students to the rich cultural background of the novel as well as to its narrative and structural complexities.

Like other books in the MLA’s Approaches to Teaching World Literature series, this volume is divided into two parts. Part 1, “Materials,” surveys biographical sources and interviews, background studies, critical commentaries, films based on Things Fall Apart, and other instructional aids. In part 2, “Approaches,” sixteen contributors describe strategies they have used to teach Achebe’s work. Several essays were solicited from eminent African scholars who, having taught abroad, know firsthand the challenges of conveying cross-cultural understanding through African literature. The volume features an introductory statement by Chinua Achebe, in which he comments on the responses his novel has elicited from readers around the world and offers advice on probing the significance of the story.

145 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

Bernth O Lindfors is professor emeritus of English at the University of Texas.

Reviews

[Ratna]

This is a story of the Igbo people from lower Niger in Africa. A story of its strong man Okonkwo who saw the heyday of his beautiful culture, only to face an invasion from an alien culture of the British and the missionaries of ‘Jesu Cristi’.

Okonkwo is a self-made man, a warrior and a man of respect in his community. Because of his stature he is asked to take care of Ikemefuna, a prisoner boy from a rival tribe. Okonkwo grows fond of Ikemefuna and starts to treat like his own son. However when the village decides that the boy must be killed, Okonkwo though wary of murder kills Ikemefuna to avoid being perceived effeminate. After Ikemefuna's death Okonkwo accidentally kills a member of his tribe and is sent into exile. The second phase of his life starts during the exile when white men start preaching an alien culture and religion to his own people. As the Christian dominance increases in the village Okonkwo who has just returned from exile and the village elders start feeling a very great erosion of their way of life. A sequence of events lead to a planned uprising against the white men. However to Okonkwo's dismay his fearsome warrior tribe has changed greatly during this period and is not ready for a war. Instead of dying at the hands of white men he decides to take his own life.

The first part of the novel depicts the way of life of the Igbo people through Okonkwo's own story. A way of life that is beautiful in many ways, and not to mention, its imperfections...superstitions, a-life-for-life kind of laws. The second part shows how British Empire while bringing civilization dismantled many indigenous cultures which are in many ways superior to those of the alien white men.

This is the first book that I have read by an African writer and should say that the author has succeeded retaining great deal of African-ness despite the book being written in English. A great combination of a heart rending story, and an appeal to appreciate the richness of diverse cultures.