Imperialization In Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart

Chinua Achebe once said, “It’s not difficult to identify with somebody like yourself, somebody next door who looks like you. What’s more difficult is to identify with someone you don’t see, who’s very far away, who’s a different color, who eats a different kind of food. When you begin to do that, then literature is really performing wonders.” This is what Achebe succeeded in doing when he wrote Things Fall Apart, a historical fiction novel that explores Nigerian culture during the Age of Imperialization. This book was one of the first of its kind to tell the story of European colonization from the perspective of the Africans. It’s a classic that’s been translated into over 50 different languages, and has had a huge impact on how the modern world views the colonization of Africa. The novel focuses on the lives of Okonkwo and his family, and tells the story of how Ibo culture comes to clash with European culture. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe is an …show more content…
Native Africans are not helpless, unintelligent, and primitive nomads. They are an educated, spiritual, and diligent community that has a voice as valuable as every other person in this world, and their voice deserves to be heard. Achebe performed wonders when he wrote this literary breakthrough, and it’s so refreshing and illuminating to learn about a completely different way of life than any of us are used to. Randa Abdel-Fattah once said, “We are, at almost every point of our day, immersed in cultural diversity: faces, clothes, smells, attitudes, values, traditions, behaviors, beliefs, rituals.” We need to learn to give people of different cultures the greatest respect and support that they deserve. I hope that one day, our world can stand together as one peaceful community of people striving to better themselves and the world around them, rather than disrespecting and rejecting our