Things Fall
Apart by
Chinua
Achebe
Background
 Born
in Nigeria in 1930.
 His father was an early Christian convert
among the Ibo people.
 He received a British education.
 Working for the Nigerian Broadcasting
Corporation provided him with the
opportunity to travel throughout Nigeria.
 Material for his novel about the history of
the Ibo people stemmed from his travel.
Continued Career
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Things Fall Apart was written in 1958.
Achebe states, that the writing of the novel “was
an act of atonement with my past.”
The massacre of the Ibos in Northern
Nigeria in 1966 and the resulting civil war
led him into politics and later as a university
lecturer in Nigeria and the U.S.
He has also published other novels, short stories
and poetry.
Structure of Novel:
 Divided
into three parts:
1. life of Ibo people before the white
people.
2. Exile of Okonkwo and arrival of
colonial culture.
3. The effect of the white people’s
arrival on the Ibo culture.
Overall colonization of Africa.
Names and places:
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Okonkwo-protagonist and son of Unoka
Unoka-Okonkwo’s father
Rival village of Mbaino-rival of Umofia
Ikemefuna-male hostage
Nwoye-Okonkwo’s eldest son
Ekwefi-second wife of Okonkwo
Mbanta-native village of Okonkwo’s mother
Umofia-village of Okonkwo
Continued names/places.
 Oberieka-best
friend of Okonkwo
Background of Nigeria
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Christianity did not become a major part of the
Nigerian life until British Anglican missionaries
arrived in 1800.
Official British control began in 1861 with the
annexation of the port of Lagos.
In 1886 Nigeria became a separate British colony.
Nigeria became one territory when the British
united three colonial administrations into one in
1914.
Nigeria gained independence on October 1, 1960
when the British Parliament made the nation a
member of the British Commonwealth.
The Ibo
 The
Ibo are the third most populous ethnic
group in Nigeria.
 They live mostly in the southeastern part of
the country, a tropical rainforest.
 Most rural Ibo are subsistence farmers.