Great African Reads discussion

Hi all,

Recently re-read Achebe's Things Fall Apart. Drop in an discuss if you feel so inclined.

Best wishes,

R.


http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23...

This is my Kenyan husband's favorite fiction book. In fact, I think he has the thing about memorized. I'm always bothered by Okonkwo. I just feel very little sympathy for the guy. Even his friends point out to him, when he kills his foster son, that he is being more vindictive than necessary. And he is exiled for, as usual, being violent at an inappropriate time.

i cannot recall if i have already unpacked this book from my move this spring (i have way too many books)...i will check tomorrow. i need to reread it...i really enjoyed seeing achebe last year; he read from it and he has the most amazing reading voice.

Hi, I haven't been "here" for a while but I read Things fall Apart a year ago or so , just after joining the group, and I must say it didn't capture me. It made me think of the discussions we have had about African and non African writers. I think that the culture described in the book, with spirits and men putting on masks - becoming Gods , is so far from my own belief and understanding that I don't understand how it affects the characters in the book. Do they seriously believe that people can be human one moment and Gods the next by putting a mask on or does everybody play long to keep the culture?

For an African reading this book this might evoke memories of stories told by grandmothers etc but for me it becomes more a fairytale that I find hard to relate to. Maybe this is why it might be easier for me to read about for example Karen Blixen's view of the tribal people living on her land instead of reading the tribal stories themselves....

Hi Kiki! i'm so glad you posted here. i've been feeling guilty because i got all three books of the "trilogy" but haven't read them yet. i read "things fall apart" years ago and need to reread it. i can't say it stuck with me well, so i'm not sure if it even makes sense to describe my impression at all (at this point), but i definitely hear where you are coming from in your own reaction. i think a lot of european and american readers have struggled with this problem when we've read african novels together.

i've gotten distracted by the March/April reading for our Tour d'Afrique but want to get back to this Achebe discussion. i hope richard hasn't given up on us. i have a feeling that Achebe's books are something that need to be discussed...reading them alone (as a non-african) will guarantee that we don't develop any real appreciation of them. i don't imagine that i will enjoy them in the sense that i enjoy literature i can more easily relate to, but i hope to come away with a better understanding of achebe's importance in the african canon.

did you read richard's blog post about his reaction to "things fall apart"? if i recall correctly, he also struggles with it. but for totally different reasons than you or i do. and interesting that andrea's husband loves this book, but andrea finds nothing sympathetic about the main character. i think this could shape up into a very engaging conversation!

as i said above, achebe has an amazing voice...i actually looked to see if he ever recorded audio versions of them but sadly he did not...i can't help but feel that his voice reading them aloud would make them more accessible to us. also, i would be wonderful if an african member, especially a nigerian, would join us in this discussion to help us out! :D

I read the article Richard refers to in his blog. It helped me to understand the story a little better but I would like to re-read it with others from this group :-)

Richard, your schooling in South Africa is so interesting!! It gives a very different perspective and is important in discussions like the ones we have here!

The man who rediscovered Africa
How Achebe's novels captured the soul of a continent -- and helped me discover my own history
By Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
http://www.salon.com/books/feature/20...

Hi from Ohio, and thanks to Kiki for alerting me to this discussion group. I often teach Things Fall Apart even though many of my colleagues have passed on to newer, more recent works. My appreciation of the work has to do with the style and structure of the work. Achebe uses the novel form, which is so comfortable for Europeans and Americans, but infuses it with his own culture--riddles, folk tales, praises, Igbo vocabulary. Achebe said he wrote the work because he was tired of Europeans depicting an Africa that he didn't recognize--Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. The title of the work, coming from Yeats's "The Second Coming" really captures, for me, the apocalyptic events that changed Africa through the colonial encounter. There are so many conflicts within the novel: many of my students like Okonkwo because they see him standing up for his culture when no one else will do so, while others see him as a deluded fool who is simply egotistical. Many students recognize that things were falling apart even before the Europeans came (Ikemefuna comes to Okonkwo because of community problems), but once the British are there, everything changes: language, clothing, the economy, religion, legal system, etc. Even now, more than 50 years after its publication, it moves me. I think that Okonkwo is one of the most intriguing and memorable characters of 20th century fiction. He's a great character precisely because he repels some of us and draws sympathy from others. People on the different sides try to reconcile their feelings about him. The whole Unoka-Okonkwo-Nwoye dynamic is one that we can all relate to--the influence our parents have on our lives, for better or for worse.
As for the religious practices of the Umuofians being so strange, well, there are parallels in Christianity (and other religions, too, of course): the consecrated host at Mass, for believers, becomes the body of Christ, the wine His blood, etc. Some of the most interesting conversations are with the elders and the ministers: how are saints different from minor gods and goddesses, why is Christianity not considered polytheistic with all its saints, and certainly with its triune God, etc.
What TFA does for me is offer me a foot in the door of the world of the Igbo at the time that the British were setting up shop on their territory.
Just a few thoughts for sharing!--Ruthmarie

Thank you Ruthmarie for adding to our discussion! and thank you Kiki for sending her here!

I just realized that I can post a link to "An Evening with Chinua Achebe," which I attended. There are also webcasts of the morning and afternoon sessions of the symposium that celebrated "Things Fall Apart" so I will post those too. I have a feeling that at least Ruthmarie will be interested! :D

The Evening, in which Chinua Achebe reads aloud from his book and also recalls his early life and attempts at writing:
http://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feat...

Morning Session
http://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feat...

Afternoon Session
http://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feat...

Thank you, Marieke. It's always good to hear/see an author talk about his or her own work, especially given the long life of Things Fall Apart, in particular. If anyone is interested in reading Achebe talk more about his early years and the influence of the British, there is a new collection of essays by him entitled The Education of a British-Protected Child (2009). It also includes an essay entitled "Teaching Things Fall Apart"--after all, he wrote the book!

Thanks, Marieke!

Intriguing discussion. I wrote a blog post prior to re-reading TFA. Take a look at the comments below the post.

http://richarddenooy.book.co.za/blog/...

More and more questions, I'm afraid. Sadly, I don't have to the time to do the reading required to arrive at some sort of answer.

There's an interview with Achebe in this week's NY Times magazine. Absolutely inane questions, but Achebe is as classy as ever.

Thanks, Alex. That interview has indeed cast a dark shadow on my somewhat exalted opinion of the NY Times. It's little more than a space filler.

Yeah...it was good to read at the end that at least someone was working on the interview.