SYNOPSIS:
It is late nineteenth century Nigeria, and life is measured by ancient rhythms of market weeks, dry and wet seasons, and war and rituals. Men grow in stature as they become strong and generous. Through transition rites, they grow closer to their ancestors. Okonkwo’s life flourishes in this rich and sometimes violent culture until events overwhelm him — an accidental murder, his subsequent exile, and the arrival of Europeans, with their Christianity and government. Tribal customs are disregarded and outlawed, prisons are built, and clans are thrown into confusion. Men lose their manliness and their very lives. “… Our clan can no longer act like one. He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart.” (from Learner.org)
brief biography and links from Learner.org
New
York State Wrtier's Institiute –Chinua Achebe
Biography, books and musing about his politics and contribution to African
literature.
Creative
Quotations from Chinua Achebe
Quotations on reflecting, adopting, foraging, and other thoughts.
Chinua
Acheve: An Overview
Biographical information on the author and regional problems of Nigeria
by Chinua Achebe
Reed
Way Dasenbrock writes, “Colonialism in a sense
deprived Africans of both their past and their future. They were assured
that they had no past worth bothering about, only a past of brutish savagery.
Europe was the continent with the glorious, rich past, and the history
they studied in school was the history of Europe and the European presence
in Africa… And when today we speak of developed and underdeveloped
countries, we are a of course subscribing to the same sense of history.”
(“Creating a Past: Achebe, Naipaul, Soyinka, Fara,” Salmaguni,
Nos. 68 BS 69, Fall, 1985 and Winter, 1986, pp. 312 ff. as quoted at a
Learner.org
page on the novel.)
some links about Nigeria, African Culture, and European colonialism
this is a listing of links on NIgeria, art, culture, and Achebe, including links to
the national museum of African art
and current Nigerian news from the Washington Post