Things Fall Apart: Context

Historical and Political Context

Chinua Achebe’s novel Things Fall Apart is set in Nigeria during the late 1800s and early 1900s before and during the onset of colonialism and Christian evangelism.
At this time, Africa was being divided among European powers in what was known as the Scramble for Africa, a period of rapid colonisation.
The novel explores these complex themes of the clash of cultures, identities, values, traditional African society, and the effects of colonial rule.

Author’s Background

Chinua Achebe, born in 1930, was a Nigerian novelist lauded for his contribution to African literature. Achebe wrote Things Fall Apart in 1958.
Achebe himself is Christian, but was raised in a family which respected both African and Christian traditions. This dichotomy is reflected in many aspects of the novel.
He wrote the novel partly in response to European depictions of African society as primitive and disordered, and to present the Igbo culture with depth and complexity.

Cultural and Societal Context

Things Fall Apart portrays the life in a typical pre-colonial African society, in particular that of the Igbo people. It shows their traditions, their social, political and religious systems, and their perspectives on masculinity, femininity, and success.
The title “Things Fall Apart” is taken from the W.B. Yeats poem “The Second Coming”. This alludes to the disruption and chaos that comes with the imposition of new ideas upon a stable society.

Themes of Identity and Resistance

The novel explores the resistance between tradition and change and the struggle of a society to adapt and keep its own identity in the face of new ideas, exemplified by the resistance Okonkwo has against the Christian missionaries.
The conflict between the African tradition and the new, imposed Western values is a significant context of the novel, representing the conflict that was occurring in many colonised nations at the time.

Structural Context

The novel is structured in three parts reflecting Okonkwo’s life before colonial influence, the initial encounters with the colonisers, and the ultimate clash of the two cultures.
The story is steeped in oral storytelling tradition, often using folk tales and proverbs integral to the Igbo culture. This is an essential aspect of understanding how the narrative of the novel is built.