Black History Month Essay

February is a month dedicated to shedding light upon the discrimination, oppression and dehumanization of black people troughout history. It is usually referred to as ”Black History Month”. The main goal with the intiative is to inform, educate and encourage people (preferrably those with more privilegies and power in the hierarchy of society) to understand and use their voice to make a change. Some would argue that ”Black History Month” is a product of Civil Right Movements that started in the United States during the 1950s. Others might say that this is a issue that has been bubbling beneath the surface since the disgraceful colonization of Africa. Regardless of its origins, it’s a magnificent opportunity for the Western World to engage and …show more content…
One particular book that challenges and contradicts the representation of Africans in European Culture as savages is Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe. Throughout the book, Achebe emphazises the complex cultural and social traditions that the Africans tribes (the Igbo culture in particular) did posess which contradicts the, at that time, european belief that Africa was a primordial land of silence. By following the protagonist (Okonkwo) we learn about the highly symbolic way of speaking and also the social structures of the Igbo clan. Achebe succeeds with highlighting the desintegeration of African culture wihtout blaming one part or another. Hence, the name of the book. Things fall apart, which is an anaphor from the poem featured in the beginning of chapter one (W:B Yeats) is Achebe’s way of telling us that it social structures and are determined to fall down. By saying ”Things” he establishes that this is an universal feature of mankind and that, as long as, there is flawed religion or fallacy in the traditions of a society, those ”threads” can easily be cut and result in ”the centres inability to hold” and ”mere anarchy is loosed up in the world, as the poem