“A true classic of world literature . . . A masterpiece that has inspired generations of writers in Nigeria, across Africa, and around the world.” —Barack Obama “African literature is incomplete and unthinkable without the works of Chinua Achebe.” —Toni Morrison Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read Things Fall Apart is the first of three novels in Chinua Achebe's critically acclaimed African Trilogy. It is a classic narrative about Africa's cataclysmic encounter with Europe as it establishes a colonial presence on the continent. Told through the fictional experiences of Okonkwo, a wealthy and fearless Igbo warrior of Umuofia in the late 1800s, Things Fall Apart explores one man's futile resistance to the devaluing of his Igbo traditions by British political andreligious forces and his despair as his community capitulates to the powerful new order. With more than 20 million copies sold and translated into fifty-seven languages, Things Fall Apart provides one of the most illuminating and permanent monuments to African experience. Achebe does not only capture life in a pre-colonial African village, he conveys the tragedy of the loss of that world while broadening our understanding of our contemporary realities.
The author presented his book Igbo Culture in a most convincing way by quoting expert opinions on most of the issues he discussed in the book. Through his carefully researched work and detailed analysis of facts, he showed in the book that Igbo youths working hard like their ancestors can reform Igboland into a new and better civilization by sifting the good aspects of Igbo culture into today's way of life. He started his book by making a brief reference to the possible migration route of Igbo ancestors from their earliest settlements in the forest region of Central Africa to their present-day settlement in Southeastern Nigeria of West Africa. He also made a brief reference to the development of the Igbo civilization through the period covering the Stone Age and Iron Age civilizations (pages 114). He painted a clear picture of the cultural background of the community where he was born and brought up and lived in for more than sixty years before he traveled to the United States of America. He traced the more than twenty-six generations-deep lineages, beliefs, concepts, customs, and history of Ihe Shikeaguma in Ntuegbe clan of Enugu State in Southeastern Nigeria as a sample core Igbo culture community. He also delved into the historical links and social formation of this community, with emphasis on genealogy, religion, settlement, language, government, law enforcement, defense, seasons, festivals, and residential structures (pages 1583). He took his readers to Igbo thought on God, self, family, human life, birth, death, spirit, human mind, and reincarnation (pages 85113). He clearly documented the cultural products of Igbo thought, which can be seen in the formulation of Igbo institutions with special reference to marriage, the extended family system, the social status structure and title system, festivals, informal education, traditional law, community service, religion, divination, and health-care services (pages 114202). He explained that the symbolism of various articles and some spoken words in Igbo culture are products of Igbo thought. He referred to ofo stick, kola nut, alligator pepper, spears, tribal face marks, body paint, white chalk, and the young palm frond as symbols or instruments of Igbo philosophical expressions and concepts (pages 203214). He showed how Igbo culture and philosophy have been affected by the cultures of Igbo neighbors in Nigeria and by other foreign cultures with special references to the following: (a) Ugwuele civilization (a Stone Age culture)1,000,000 BC500,000 BC (b) Nri civilization (a ritualized kingship system)AD 800AD 1700 (c) Aro civilization (slave trade and colonial era)AD 1700AD 1850 (d) Border civilization (slave trade and colonial era)AD 800AD1900 (e) External civilization (slave trade and colonial era)AD 1700AD 2000 (pages 215238) The author concluded his work by making an evaluation of Igbo culture. He carefully examined the oriented values of the Igbo and highlighted those areas of Igbo culture that should be refurbished and reinfused into Igbo life by the Igbo themselves in order to transform Igboland into a big theater of modern civilization (pages 239246).
Appearing in 1966, Efuru was the first internationally published book, in English, by a Nigerian woman. Flora Nwapa (1931–1993) sets her story in a small village in colonial West Africa as she describes the youth, marriage, motherhood, and eventual personal epiphany of a young woman in rural Nigeria. The respected and beautiful protagonist, an independent-minded Ibo woman named Efuru, wishes to be a mother. Her eventual tragedy is that she is not able to marry or raise children successfully. Alone and childless, Efuru realizes she surely must have a higher calling and goes to the lake goddess of her tribe, Uhamiri, to discover the path she must follow. The work, a rich exploration of Nigerian village life and values, offers a realistic picture of gender issues in a patriarchal society as well as the struggles of a nation exploited by colonialism.
In this groundbreaking collection, leading historians, Africanists, and other scholars document the life and work of twelve Igbo intellectuals who, educated within European traditions, came to terms with the dominance of European thought while making significant contributions to African intellectual traditions.
This book explores the strategies and methods of the Protestant and Roman Catholic missionaries in Igboland and Igbo response during the mid-nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries. Using oral traditions, primary sources, and the author's life experience as a Christian convert and missionary, the text examines the missions' programs, missteps, and impact.
A story of desire and vengeance, this book starts with the longing of a wealthy man called Shehu for a child of his own and continues with the obsessive search by Abu Bakir for revenge on Shehu for luring away the woman he was to marry. It ends with the murder of Shehu by his own son..
In twenty-five chapters this book covers phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics. The chapters are organized in four discrete parts: phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics. They are uneven in terms of scope covered, length, the density of their contents and their degrees of difficulty. Each chapter ends with ‘Some References’ relevant to both the topic(s) treated in the chapter, in Igbo linguistics, and in general linguistics.
A study of Igbo ritual symbolism is of primary significance to the systematic reconstruction of Igbo traditional religious experience and life. As the clearest visible expression of the corpus of Igbo beliefs, sacred symbols provide reliable information about indigenous religious thought and socio-cultural life. This is especially the case with the dominant symbol of Ofo, since it occupies a unique place in the Igbo ritual network. The book makes a systematic and detailed analysis of Ofo ritual symbol, including its provenance, structural variations and functional range in the different sub-cultural zones of Igboland, and its dense meaning- content. The study is presented from a historical perspective.
