Essay Achebe: Nigeria and Chinua Achebe

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Things Fall Apart

Achebe was born in the Igbo town of Ogidi in eastern Nigeria on November 16, 1930. His father was an instructor in Christian catechism for the Church Missionary Society. During the time Achebe was young Nigeria was a British colony and educated English speaking families like the Achebes, engaged a privileged position in the Nigerian power structure. (Ryan Geertsma 7). Two years before Nigeria achieved its independence a novel was published in 1958 titled Things Fall Apart and written by Nigerian novelist, Chinua Achebe.

In an interview published in 1994 by Uzodinma Iweala, Achebe explains that his anger about the inaccurate portrayal of African culture by white colonial writers does not imply that students should not read African novels. On the contrary, Achebe urges students to read such works in order to truly understand the racism of the colonial era. He truly believes that language and literature greatly influence people as it had influenced him. Achebe also indicated that his purposes towards writing the novel, was an attempt to prove and educate many societies and to help them understand the real history on the African culture as well to inform people that there negative thoughts on African’s are false beliefs and they are not oblivious or uneducated but in fact they had a philosophy of great depth, value’s and above all they had dignity. Unless Africans were able to discuss their personal life styles and side’s of their story. Achebe believed that the African experience would forever really be mistold it is found that many European writers have presented the Nigeria as a negative and dark place inhabited by people with impenetrable and primitive minds as it is considers this reductionist portrayal of Africa racist. Achebe states during his interview that anyone who didn’t live his time period wouldn’t be able to really understand the historical Nigerian culture. The negative representations around the world being observed from Africans had started to even influence Africans themselves. They started to believe that they were not as modern or as good as white European cultures. Achebe writes books to show what the African cultures truly are made of. He educates and encourages African readers. He tries to help his people to understand how valuable their culture is. (Mirmotahari)

In Things Fall Apart, Achebe’s opening page begins with a poem written by W.B. Yeats, Titled The second coming Achebe introduces this poem because it’s very ironic to his novel. Yeats describes an apocalyptic vision in which the world collapses into anarchy because of an internal flaw in humanity. In Things Fall Apart, Achebe illustrates this vision by showing us what happened in the Igbo society of Nigeria at the time of its colonization by the British. The poet and the author both suffer from the unexpected changes which happen during their time. Because of internal weaknesses within the native structure and the divided nature of Igbo society, the community of Umuofia in this novel is unable to withstand the tidal wave of foreign religion, commerce, technology, and government. In "The Second Coming," Yeats evokes the anti-Christ
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