Welcome to Litterature Tuesdays of the Black History Month.
Where Joseph Yamoah shares some of his favourite literary works by some of Africa’s prominent writers.
The recommendation for today is Chinua Achebe’s “Things Fall Apart”. This was rated by the BBC as one of the 100 Novels that Shaped our World. This is a must read for everyone and most high school’s in Ghana and Africa in general have this as a recommended reading. I [Joseph] read this during my first year of senior high school. I selected this because Chinua Achebe was one of the first writers to portray Africa from the lens of an African in a time where many colonial writers portrayed the continent as dark place and its people as animalistic, primitive, mysterious and other racist connotations. This novel will take you back to a precolonial life in Nigeria and the arrival of the Europeans during the 19th Century.
The story is about Okonkwo, a wealthy and respected warrior of the Umofia clan, and how he navigates his changing destiny.
“Achebe does not only capture life in a pre-colonial African village, he conveys the tragedy of the loss of that world while broadening our understanding of our contemporary realities.”
The work is divided into three parts. The first part describes his family, personal history, and the customs and society of the Igbo tribe. While the second and third sections focuses on the influence of European colonialism and Christian missionaries on Okonkwo, his family, and the wider Igbo community.
By the way, this is novel is part of Chinua Achebe’s The African trilogy consisting of Things Fall Apart, Arrow of God, and No Longer at Ease
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