Achebe's Things Fall Apart | Date: 14 April 2011, 08:53
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First, before you proceed any further with this book, you ought to know that it's not a chapter-by-chapter synopsis of Things Fall Apart. If you're looking for a book on plot details and character profiles, this is not really the book for you. Ogede's study is specifically about the context, style, and themes of the African classic, and generally intertextual, placing the novel within a broader framework of postcolonial writing.
Having said that, it needs to be pointed out that Ogede's book is the most brilliant reading of Things Fall Apart ever published. He explores the background, themes, and stylistic patterns of the novel, focusing especially on proverbs and the structure of Achebe's sentences. This, of course, has been done repeatedly over the 50 years since the novel's publication, but Ogede's perspective is startlingly new. Rather than simply reproducing the same tired explanations, he pools the materials into fresh combinations and also brings in entirely new insights. To begin with, Ogede goes over the novel's background--the author's upbringing, colonial education, historical accounts of colonial rule in Africa where the novel is set--and relates these to the themes of traditional Ibo (African) culture, the role of missionaries, soldiers, and colonial administrative officers in establishing colonial rule, how these impacted the native peoples of Africa, and how they attempted to fight off the intrusive forces. By exploring these subjects, Ogede puts together a picture of Ibo daily life, onset of colonial rule and native resistance to foreign occupation, how the native peoples lived, worked, played, made conversation, and acquired friends; and these were traumatically disrupted. Ogede uses these accounts as evidence of a vibrant Ibo culture before the arrival of European rulers destroyed it beyond a point where it could be reclaimed.
In the end, Ogede gives a scene by scene account of the television adaptation of the novel and provides expert guidance to the reader on essential criticism relating to the text. Ogede's final argument is that Things Fall Apart is Africa's best cultural export internationally.
When all is said and done, Ogede's book is dazzling. Well written, engrossing, lively, and felicitously expressed, this book is a must for anyone interested in African literature or world fiction generally. The witty style, accuracy of claims, sound literary judgment, scientific exactness, and detailed documentation simply add to the value of the book.
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