Chinua Achebe was born in 1930, Ogidi, a village in Nigeria. At that time, the Western missionaries were well established. So, Achebe was influenced by both his native culture and Western culture. It is his education in English that enables him to avoid stereotyping neither Africans nor Europeans and to consider colonial expansion from both sides.
In the book, Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe shows his readers how real African cultures were. He shatters Western readers’ stereotype of native Africans by carefully describing their culture, believes, and values before contacting European culture. One important thing to notice is that Achebe not only shatters the stereotype of native Africans, but also managed to avoid stereotyping the Europeans by depicting different white characters like “the most benevolent Mr. Brown, the zealous Reverend Smith, and the ruthlessly calculating District Commissioner. It seems like he also gave his characters the ability to shatter their stereotypes. As he wrote on page 118 of the book that “Whenever Mr. Brown went to that village, he spent long hours with Akunna in his obi talking through an interpreter about religion. Neither of them succeeded in converting the other but they learned more about their different beliefs.”
Similar to other African authors, Achebe is trying to revitalize the native culture; however, instead of using the native language, Achebe decided to wrote this book in English. His target audiences, therefore, are Western readers and he wanted this novel to respond to earlier colonial accounts of Africa. (Colonial Nigeria was the era in the history of Nigeria when the region of West Africa was ruled by the United Kingdom from the mid-nineteenth century until 1960 when Nigeria achieved independence.) In Things Fall Apart, the story takes place during this period when white men are trying to introduce their religion Christianity to native people. Again, Achebe is looking at the colonial expansion from both sides—he is trying to take both the African and European perspectives on colonial expansion into consideration.
Work cited:
“Things Fall Apart: Context | Sparknotes”. Sparknotes.Com, 2021, https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/things/context/.
One thing I enjoyed about your presentation regarding “Things Fall Apart,” was your inclusion of the fact that Chinua in writing this piece made the decision both to create the work in English (a clever way to specify a target audience) and create a balanced portrayal of all the individuals in the story. What appeals to me specifically about this strategy is that it doesn’t make a complete appeal to group identity like so many writings on colonialism do. Instead, this approach supports the view of all people as individuals, and that is truly what separates this writing from so many others. In previous modules we had covered the Master-Slave Dialectic, which converted the individualist relationship of the master and slave to a group relationship of the master and slave. In my mind, this approach seems to refreshingly attempt the opposite.
We are already familiar with the historical knowledge of colonization. At that time there was an obvious hierarchy, and people of different races also had the corresponding status. This should be a period of shame, but there will be authors who use it to publicize and write wildly. But the author’s writing method is different, not only pursues the facts themselves but also quotes other famous events. And has a personal point of view to prove it. I think this is a novel way and allows readers to clearly understand the author’s intentions, and also allows readers to more directly understand what the author wants to express.
I think it’s important as Chinua Achebe explained, that when you are breaking down the stereotype of one culture, you don’t want to stereotype a culture on accident (which happens a lot). It’s also interesting and well done that Achebe looked at the problem from both sides as if we were “walking in someone else’s shoes.” This is something that I think many can even learn from in today’s world.
I loved how your presentation showed the many sides of culture, I like how you stated “Chinua Achebe shows his readers how real African cultures were. He shatters Western readers’ stereotype of native Africans by carefully describing their culture, believes, and values before contacting European culture.” I think it was important during the reading to portrayed both sides of culture but also the reality and truth of the other cultures, instead of having a “single story” about one culture.
Hi great presentation with some really great points! I liked how you pointed out how Achebe tried to avoid stereotyping for both the native Africans as well as the Europeans. It can be easy for the characters and people to fall into stereotypes when you’re writing about topics like colonial expansion. Writing characters so they feel living and breathing in your story can add a layer of sensitivity and reality to the work. It’s also really interesting how Achebe writes his book in English so that Western readers also have access to a perspective that’s from someone who lived through colonialism. This book was made accessible for many people, so that everyone can gain an understanding on the how lives were affected.
Hi, This was a really great presentation of the content. All of your ideas were thorough and well argued. I think it was a good point to bring up that Achebe knew his audience. He was targeting Western readers, trying to combat the single story Western culture has painted about native Africans. In those times, Africa was seen as largely uncivilized socially, politically, and religiously. The truth is however, they had complex cultural practices that were simply different from European practices.
Achebe’s decision to write his book in English ties in with our previous readings and questions about wether Subalterns can speak without being spoken for by other people. This allowed Achebe to tell his story to an international audience of the colonized and the colonizers without the colonizers speaking for him and slightly altering his story.