Things Fall Apart

Things Fall Apart is a 1958 novel by Nigerian author Chinua Achebe. It is Achebe's debut novel and
was written when he was working at the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation. The novel was first
published in London by Heinemann on 17 June 1958.

First edition cover of Things Fall Apart

(1958)

The story, which is set in British Nigeria, centers on Okonkwo, a traditional influential leader of the
fictional Igbo clan, Umuofia, who opposes colonialism and early Christianity. The novel's title was
taken from a verse of "The Second Coming", a 1919 poem by Irish poet W. B. Yeats. Things Fall Apart
was considered Achebe's magnum opus and formed his "African trilogy" with his other novels; No
Longer at Ease and Arrow of God. The novel explores many themes, especially culture, masculinity,
and colonialism.

Things Fall Apart is regarded as a milestone in African literature. It gained critical acclaim and
popularity upon publication, and has been translated into over fifty languages. It was listed on
Time's "100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005". The novel has had several
adaptations, including the radio drama, Okonkwo (1961), by the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation;
1971 film, Things Fall Apart, which starred Princess Elizabeth of Toro.
Plot

Okonkwo is a famous man in the village of Umuofia. He is a wrestling champion and leader of a
clan. He strives to be the opposite of his father Unoka, who was an indolent debtor unable to
support his wife or children, preferring flute-playing over struggling for success. Okonkwo works
hard from a young age to build fame and wealth all on his own. Obsessed with manly strength and
discipline, he often beats his wives and children.

Okonkwo is selected by the elders to be the guardian of Ikemefuna, a boy who was taken as a peace
settlement between Umuofia and another clan after Ikemefuna's father killed a woman from
Umuofia. The boy looks up to Okonkwo as his second father. The Oracle of Umuofia eventually
pronounces that the boy must be killed. Ezeudu, the village elder, warns Okonkwo to stay away from
the killing, but he brushes off the warning and carries out the grim task. After killing Ikemefuna,
Okonkwo feels haunted by sadness and nightmares. During a gun salute at Ezeudu's funeral,
Okonkwo's gun accidentally explodes and kills Ezeudu's son. He and his family are exiled for seven
years to his motherland, Mbanta, as required to appease the gods.

While Okonkwo is in Mbanta, he learns that the white men are living in Umuofia with the intent of
introducing their religion, Christianity. As the number of converts increases, the foothold of the white
people grows and a new government is introduced. The village is forced to accept or oppose the
imposition of the white people's nascent society. Okonkwo's son Nwoye becomes curious about the
missionaries, and after he is beaten by his father for the last time, he decides to leave his family to
live independently. Nwoye is introduced to the new religion by a missionary, Mr. Brown. In the last
year of his exile, Okonkwo instructs his best friend Obierika to sell all of his yams and hire two men
to build him two huts so he can have a house to go back to with his family. He also holds a great
feast for his mother's kinsmen.

Returning from Mbanta, Okonkwo finds his village changed by the presence of the white men. After
a convert commits the crime of unmasking an elder as he embodies an ancestral spirit of the clan,
the village retaliates by destroying a local Christian church. In response, the District Commissioner
representing the colonial government takes Okonkwo and several other native leaders prisoner
pending payment of a fine of two hundred bags of cowries. Despite the District Commissioner's
instructions to treat the leaders of Umuofia with respect, the native "court messengers" humiliate
them, shaving their heads and whipping them. Outraged, the people of Umuofia finally gather for an
uprising. Okonkwo, being a warrior by nature and adamant about following Umuofian custom and
tradition, despises all cowardice and advocates war.
When messengers of the white government try to stop the meeting, Okonkwo beheads one of them.
Because the crowd allows the other messengers to escape and does not fight alongside Okonkwo,
he realizes with despair that the people of Umuofia will not fight to protect themselves. The result of
this is that when the District Commissioner, Gregory Irwin, comes to Okonkwo's house to take him to
court, he finds that Okonkwo killed himself because he saw he was fighting the battle alone and his
tribe had given up. Among his own people, Okonkwo's actions have tarnished his reputation and
status, as it is strictly against the teachings of the Igbo to commit suicide. Obierika struggles not to
break down as he laments Okonkwo's death. As Irwin and his men prepare to bury Okonkwo, Irwin
muses that Okonkwo's death will make an interesting chapter for his written book, The Pacification
of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger.

Background and publication history

Achebe in Lagos, 1966; eight years after

the publication of Things Fall Apart

Things Fall Apart was Chinua Achebe's first novel. After graduating from the University of Ibadan in
1953, he became a teacher in Oba, Anambra State, before working in the Nigerian Broadcasting
Corporation (NBC) the following year. During his stay at NBC, he started writing the manuscript. He
wrote in English since he considers the existing standard for written Igbo language as stilted;
created by the combination of various dialects, which he revealed in a 1994 interview.[1] In 1957 he
removed the second and third parts of the manuscript, leaving only the story of Okonkwo, ultimately
the main character of the story. He also restructured it and added new paragraphs and chapters.
After Achebe saw an advertisement in The Spectator, he sent copies of his handwritten manuscript
to a typing agency in London by ordinary mail. After he sent the requested fee of £22 by the agency
through the British postal order, he heard nothing from the agency for many months. Towards the
end of the year, his colleague, Angela Beattie, who was about to relinquish her post as Head of Talks
at NBC, was going to London for her annual leave, Achebe asked her to check the status of his
manuscript when she reach London. Following Beattie's intervention, the agency retrieved the
manuscripts already covered with dust from a corner of the office, and sent only one typed copy to
Achebe in Lagos.[2]

Achebe was promoted as the Head of Talks at NBC. He sent his typescript to the literary agent of
Gilbert Phelps in 1958.[3] Several publishing houses rejected the typescript, giving the reason that
fiction by African writers possessed no financial potential. The typescript was eventually taken to
the office of William Heinemann, where it was presented to James Michie and through him, came to
the attention of Alan Hill, a publishing advisor.[4] Things Fall Apart was published in hardback on 17
June 1958 with around 2000 print copies. Although the publishers didn't re-edit or copyedit the
manuscript, it achieved instant acclaim in the British national press. The Times Literary Supplement
said that the novel "genuinely succeeds in presenting tribal life from inside while patterns of feeling
and attitudes of mind appear clothed in a distinctive African imagery, written neither up nor down."[4]

Themes

Culture

Things Fall Apart depicts the cultural roots of the Igbos and refers them as a universal principle,
which revives the lost dignity of the people during the Colonial Nigeria.[5]

one general point...is fundamental and essential to the appreciation of African

issues by Americans. Africans are people in the same way that Americans,
Europeans, Asians, and others are people. Although the action of Things Fall Apart
takes place in a setting with which most Americans are unfamiliar, the characters
are normal people who undergo real life experiences. The necessity even to say this
is part of a burden imposed on us by the customary denigration of Africa in the
popular imagination of the West.

— Chinua Achebe, [6]

Historians focuses on past African Empires in order to improve the status of African history, but
Achebe breaks this pattern by portraying Igbo people as isolated with an established tradition.[6] For
example, when the missionaries entered Mbanta, they expected there to be a king. Upon being told
there was none, they set up their own ruling system. In Things Fall Apart, there is a contradiction
between different cultural practices; for example, the Europeans allow men to fight over religion but
the Igbo tradition forbids the killing of one another.[7]

Achebe presents some standard for the Igbo culture while not idealizing the past, like the troubling
culture for modern democrats is the law that says Ikemefuna should be killed for the sins of his
clans.[8] Although Achebe shows the treachery, ignorance, and intolerance of the British, he doesn't
present them as fully evil people. Instead he uses both cultures—British and Igbo—to represent two
mixtures of human beings as seen in Okonkwo and Mr. Smith, who both refuse to compromise
when their cultures are threatened.[9]

Legacy

Influence

Before the publication of Things Fall Apart, most of the novels about Africa were written by
Europeans and they portray Africans as savages who were in need of western enlightenment.
Things Fall Apart paved way for African culture and it influenced other African writers to write
efficiently about the expression of a particular social, historical, and cultural situation of modern
Africa.[10]

Achebe portrays the Igbo society sympathetically, hence, allows his audience to examine the effects
of colonialism from a different perspective.[10] He asserted that the popularity of Things Fall Apart in
Nigeria can be explained simply that "this was the first time we were seeing ourselves, as
autonomous individuals, rather than half-people, or as Conrad would say, 'rudimentary souls'".[11]
Nigerian Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka called the novel as "the first novel in English which spoke
from the interior of the African character, rather than portraying the African as an exotic, as the
white man would see him."[12]

The language of the novel has not only intrigued critics but has also been a major factor in the
emergence of the modern African novel. Because Achebe wrote in English, portrayed Igbo life from
the point of view of an African man, and used the language of his people, he was able to greatly
influence African novelists, who viewed him as a mentor.[11]

Achebe's fiction and criticism continue to inspire and influence writers around the world. Hilary
Mantel, the Booker Prize-winning novelist in a 7 May 2012 article in Newsweek, "Hilary Mantel's 5
Favorite Historical Fictions", lists Things Fall Apart as one of her five favourite novels in this genre. A
whole new generation of African writers – Caine
External videos
Prize winners Binyavanga Wainaina (current
director of the Chinua Achebe Center at Bard Discussion on the 50th anniversary on
College) and Helon Habila (Waiting for an Angel Things Fall Apart featuring Achebe, 24 March
[2004] and Measuring Time [2007]), as well as 2008 (https://www.c-span.org/video/?199928-

Uzodinma Iweala (Beasts of No Nation [2005]), 1/things-fall-apart) , C-SPAN

and Professor Okey Ndibe (Arrows of Rain [2000])

count Chinua Achebe as a significant influence. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, the author of the
popular and critically acclaimed novels Purple Hibiscus (2003) and Half of a Yellow Sun (2006),
commented in a 2006 interview: "Chinua Achebe will always be important to me because his work
influenced not so much my style as my writing philosophy: reading him emboldened me, gave me
permission to write about the things I knew well."[11]

Things Fall Apart was listed by Encyclopædia Britannica as one of "12 Novels Considered the
'Greatest Book Ever Written' ".[13]

The 60th anniversary of the first publication of Things Fall Apart was celebrated at the South Bank
Centre in London, UK, on 15 April 2018 with live readings from the book by Femi Elufowoju Jr,
Adesua Etomi, Yomi Sode, Lucian Msamati, Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi, Chibundu Onuzo, Ellah
Wakatama Allfrey, Ben Okri, and Margaret Busby.[14][15]

On 5 November 2019 BBC News listed Things Fall Apart on its list of the 100 most influential
novels.[16]

Reception

Things Fall Apart is regarded as a milestone in Anglophone African literature, and for the perception
of African literature in the West. It is studied widely in Africa, Europe,and North America, where it
has been the subject of secondary and tertiary analytical works. It has been translated to over 50
languages.[17] Time listed the novel in its TIME 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to
2005.[18]

Nigerian playwright Wole Soyinka described Things Fall Apart as "the first novel in English which
spoke from the interior of the African character, rather than portraying the African as an exotic, as
the white man would see him." During the 60th anniversary of the novel, it was read at the South
Bank Centre in London on 15 April 2018 by Femi Elufowoju Jr, Adesua Etomi, Lucian Msamati,
Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi, Chibundu Onuzo, Ellah Wakatama Allfrey, Ben Okri, and Margaret
Busby.[19][20]
On 5 November 2019 BBC News listed Things Fall Apart on its list of the 100 most influential
novels.[16]

Adaptations

Things Fall Apart was adapted into a radio drama, Okonkwo, by the Nigerian Broadcasting
Corporation in April 1961. It featured Nigerian playwright and poet Wole Soyinka in a supporting
role.[21]

Cover of Things Fall Apart (1985) | Collage

of film stills by Stephen Goldblatt

In 1970, the novel was turned into a film of the same name - also known as Bullfrog In The Sun -
directed by the award-winning German filmmaker and producer Hansjürgen Pohland and starred
Princess Elizabeth of Toro, Johnny Sekka and Orlando Martins.[22] In 1965, Nigerian co-producer
Francis Oladele founded Calpenny Nigeria Limited, the first film production company in Nigeria after
independence. The American-German-Nigerian production Things Fall Apart was his second film
after Kongi's Harvest. Things Fall Apart was considered lost for decades until more than 2,000 stills
by Stephen Goldblatt, production documents, correspondence, contemporary newspaper clippings a
film print and more were found in a satellite storage of the Deutsche Kinemathek Berlin in 2019.
This led to the development of an extensive research and digitisation project on Nigerian film
heritage, with exhibitions and screenings in Lagos, Kampala, Abidjan, Accra and Atlanta, among
other places.[23][24] In Germany, the film premiered at the Africa Days in Bonn under the patronage of
the then German Foreign Minister Walter Scheel. In the United States, the premiere took place in
Atlanta in 1974, with the then Mayor of Atlanta, Maynard Jackson, as patron.[25] In his essay When
The Bullfrog Jumps In The Sun - Why Things Fall Apart is still a very relevant Black film till this day,
Lagos-based contemporary artist Mallam Mudi Yahaya describes the complex background of the
production.[26]

In 1987, The novel was adapted by director, David Orere, into television miniseries broadcast by the
Nigerian Television Authority. It starred Pete Edochie as Okonkwo and Justus Esiri as Obierika.
Others included Nkem Owoh and Sam Loco Efe in supporting roles.

In 1999, the American hip-hop band the Roots released their fourth studio album Things Fall Apart in
reference to Achebe's novel. Also, a theatrical production of Things Fall Apart adapted by Biyi
Bandele was performed at the Kennedy Center.[27] In September 2024, a television adaptation was
announced to be in development at A24 with Idris Elba and David Oyelowo as the producers.[28]

References

1. Brooks, Jerome (24 June 2024). "Chinua Achebe, The Art of Fiction No. 139" (https://www.thep
arisreview.org/interviews/1720/the-art-of-fiction-no-139-chinua-achebe) . The Paris Review.
Retrieved 24 February 2025.

2. Ezenwa-Ohaeto 1997, p. 63.

3. Ezenwa-Ohaeto 1997, p. 64.

4. Ezenwa-Ohaeto 1997, p. 65.

5. Rhoads 1993, p. 61.

6. Rhoads 1993, p. 62.

7. Rhoads 1993, p. 63.

8. Rhoads 1993, p. 68.

9. Rhoads 1993, p. 69.

10. Booker (2003), p. 7.

11. Sickels, Amy. "The Critical Reception of Things Fall Apart", in Booker (2011).

12. The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education 2001, pp. 28–29.

13. Hogeback, Jonathan, "12 Novels Considered the 'Greatest Book Ever Written'" (https://www.brit
annica.com/list/12-novels-considered-the-greatest-book-ever-written) , Encyclopædia
Britannica.

14. Murua, James, "Chinua Achebe's 'Things Fall Apart' at 60 celebrated" (https://www.writingafric
a.com//chinua-achebes-things-fall-apart-at-60-celebrated/) , Writing Africa, 24 April 2018.
Retrieved 11 May 2024.

15. Edoro, Ainehi, "Bringing Achebe's Masterpiece to Life | Highlights from the 60th Anniversary
Reading of Things Fall Apart | Eddie Hewitt" (https://brittlepaper.com/2018/04/fall-60th-annive
rsary-reading-london-15th-april-2018/) , Brittle Paper, 24 April 2018.

16. "100 'most inspiring' novels revealed by BBC Arts" (https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-

arts-50302788) . BBC News. 5 November 2019. Retrieved 10 November 2019.

17. Jilani, Sarah (8 June 2023). "Things Fall Apart: Chinua Achebe and the languages of African
literature" (https://theconversation.com/things-fall-apart-chinua-achebe-and-the-languages-of-
african-literature-106006) . The Conversation. Retrieved 17 November 2024.

18. Grossman, Lev (16 October 2005). "Is Full List one of the All-TIME 100 Best Novels?" (https://e
ntertainment.time.com/2005/10/16/all-time-100-novels/slide/all/) . Time. Retrieved
17 November 2024.

19. James Murua, "Chinua Achebe's 'Things Fall Apart' at 60 celebrated" (https://www.writingafric
a.com//chinua-achebes-things-fall-apart-at-60-celebrated/) , Writing Africa, 24 April 2018.
Retrieved 11 May 2024.

20. Edoro, Ainehi, "Bringing Achebe's Masterpiece to Life | Highlights from the 60th Anniversary
Reading of Things Fall Apart | Eddie Hewitt" (https://brittlepaper.com/2018/04/fall-60th-annive
rsary-reading-london-15th-april-2018/) , Brittle Paper, 24 April 2018.

21. Ezenwa-Ohaeto (1997). Chinua Achebe: A Biography Bloomington: Indiana University Press, p.
81. ISBN 0-253-33342-3.

22. Moore, David Chioni; Analee Heath; Chinua Achebe (2008). "A Conversation with Chinua
Achebe". Transition. 100 (100): 23. JSTOR 20542537 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/2054253
7) .

23. "Things Fall Apart and the Air of Nostalgia, Cultural Restitution – THISDAYLIVE" (https://www.t
hisdaylive.com/index.php/2021/08/15/things-fall-apart-and-the-air-of-nostalgia-cultural-restitu
tion/) . www.thisdaylive.com. Retrieved 14 April 2025.
 24. "Things that Fell Apart were Restored in an Interaction with Time by Tusiime Tutu" (https://anda
riya.com/post/things-that-fell-apart-were-restored-in-an-interaction-with-time) . Andariya.
Retrieved 17 April 2025.

25. "Author Chinua Achebe at the movie premier of "Things Fall Apart," 1974 with Millicent Dobbs
Jordan, Mattiwilda Dobbs and Christiana Chinwe Okoli" (https://dlg.usg.edu/record/gsu_ajc_12
376?canvas=0&x=1413&y=1124&w=4608) . Digital Library of Georgia. Retrieved 17 April 2025.

26. "When The Bullfrog Jumps In The Sun" (https://theexplainer.com.ng/when-the-bullfrog-jumps-in

-the-sun/) . The explainer. 20 February 2025. Retrieved 14 April 2025.

27. Triplett, William (6 February 1999). "One-Dimensional 'Things' " (https://www.washingtonpost.c

om/archive/lifestyle/1999/02/06/one-dimensional-things/39e446c0-9e2b-4ebb-83b5-2f85d9a
6310f/) . Washington Post. Retrieved 14 September 2020.

28. Otterson, Joe (26 September 2024). "Idris Elba to Star in 'Things Fall Apart' TV Series From
A24, Elba's 22Summers, David Oyelowo (EXCLUSIVE)" (https://variety.com/2024/tv/news/idris-
elba-things-fall-apart-tv-series-a24-david-oyelowo-1236156154/) . Variety. Retrieved
26 September 2024.

Bibliography

News and websites

Okwuego, Oluchi (28 September 2024). "Cast Nigerian Actors in 'Things Fall Apart' Remake –
Mike Nliam" (https://von.gov.ng/cast-nigerian-actors-in-things-fall-apart-remake-mike-nliam/) .
Voice of Nigeria. Retrieved 3 February 2025.

admin (23 July 2024). "Chinua Achebe's "Things Fall Apart" makes list of 50 most influential
books of all time" (https://thenicheng.com/chinua-achebes-things-fall-apart-makes-list-of-50-mos
t-influential-books-of-all-time/) . TheNiche. Retrieved 3 February 2025.

Jilani, Sarah (8 June 2023). "Things Fall Apart: Chinua Achebe and the languages of African
literature" (https://theconversation.com/things-fall-apart-chinua-achebe-and-the-languages-of-afri
can-literature-106006) . The Conversation. Retrieved 3 February 2025.

Journal and books

"Chinua Achebe of Bard College". The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. 33 (33): 28–29.
Autumn 2001. doi:10.2307/2678893 (https://doi.org/10.2307%2F2678893) . JSTOR 2678893 (ht
tps://www.jstor.org/stable/2678893) .
Rhoads, Diana Akers (1993). "Culture in Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart". African Studies
Review. 36 (2): 61–72. doi:10.2307/524733 (https://doi.org/10.2307%2F524733) .
JSTOR 524733 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/524733) .

Ezenwa-Ohaeto (1997). Chinua Achebe: A Biography (https://books.google.com/books?id=n1TsuH

uRRn0C) . Bloomington: Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0-253-33342-1. Archived (https://we
b.archive.org/web/20210509084743/https://books.google.com/books?id=n1TsuHuRRn0C)
from the original on 9 May 2021. Retrieved 21 March 2023.

Ochiagha, Terri (20 April 2022). "Chinua Achebe". Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African History.
Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.013.814 (https://doi.org/10.109
3%2Facrefore%2F9780190277734.013.814) . ISBN 978-0-19-027773-4.

Portals: Nigeria 1950s Novels