Chinua Achebe

Chinua Achebe research papers report that Achebe is a native of Nigeria. Achebe now lives in the United States and is a paraplegic, the result of a auto accident more than 12 years ago. His children are all successful, with two recently earning doctorates, a third completing a medical degree, and the fourth attending graduate school at Columbia University.

Facts Regarding Chinua Achebe's work:

• Chinua Achebe wrote Things Fall Apart in 1958
• Achebe's goal was to bring to outsiders' attention life in tribal Africa.
• Things Fall Apart was the first modern novel written in English by an African to be successful
• Achebe's Things Fall Apart has soldmore than 8 million copies to date.

Achebe himself was making a powerful statement in this novel. He said its fundamental theme is "that African people did not hear of culture for the first time from Europeans". Therefore, Things Fall Apart celebrates tribal society in all its value, depth and beauty. Achebe also said his novel is a representation of the dignity that African people mostly lost during the colonial period, when white settlers entered the country. Things Fall Apart traces the downfall of a proud African man, Okonkwo, whose world is destroyed when Europeans "colonize" his village. Okonkwo is man of high standing in his village, famous far beyond his home for a legendary feat of wrestling. He is a man to be feared, but his actions displease the gods, drive him from his home, and leave him powerless against the whites.

Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart takes its readers into the one of the objects of England's desires-Africa. Through the fictional character of Okonkwo, Achebe unfolds a story of the disintegration of a society, a family and a man, that comes about through the invasive forces of British Imperialism. The Ibo tribe, in which Okonkwo was a leader, can be seen as representative of all indigenous peoples worldwide who came face-to-face with British invasive tactics.