African Food and Art

Thank you to our latest donor, Esther. Thank you, Esther. We were able to purchase a new cutting board.

About Chinua Achebe Book Things Fall Apart Proverbs

About Chinua Achebe Book Things Fall Apart Proverbs

About Things Fall Apart

Chinua Achebe was christened at birth Albert Chinualumogu Achebe in an Igbo village in the African country of Nigeria. Things Fall Apart is written in Proverbs intertwined between two tragic stories.

Chinua Achebe Things Fall Apart Proverbs
Chinua Achebe Things Fall Apart Proverbs


About Chinua Achebe Book Things Fall Apart Proverbs

The Igbo are the second largest group of people in Igboland Nigeria living mainly in the southeastern area of the country. Proverbs are important to people of Africa and the world. African proverbs communicate timeless wisdom and insight about truth and sincerity, kindness and wickedness and wisdom and

Albert Chinualumogu Achebe was born November 16, 1930, in the Igbo town of Ogidi, Nigeria and died March 21, 2013, in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. He was a Nigerian novelist acclaimed for his unsentimental depictions of the social and psychological disorientation accompanying the imposition of Western customs and values upon traditional African society.

His particular concern was with emergent Africa at its moments of crisis; his novels range in subject matter from the first contact of an African village with the white man to the educated African’s attempt to create a firm moral order out of the changing values in a large city.

Things Fall Apart was Achebe’s first novel, concerns traditional Igbo life at the time of the advent of missionaries and colonial government in his homeland. His principal character cannot accept the new order, even though the old has already collapsed.

Achebe’s books of essays include Morning Yet on Creation Day (1975), Hopes and Impediments (1988), Home and Exile (2000), The Education of a British-Protected Child (2009), and the autobiographical There Was a Country: A Personal History of Biafra (2012). In 2007 he won the Man Booker International Prize.

About Chinua Achebe characters in his Book Things Fall Apart

Okonkwo (Oh-kawn-kwoh) The central character of Things Fall Apart. A young leader of the African Igbo community of Umuofia (Oo-moo-oh-fee-ah), he is known as a fierce warrior as well as a successful farmer. He is determined to overcome the stigma left by his father's laziness and wastefulness.

Unoka (Ooh-no-kah) Okonkwo's father, known for his debts, laziness, many weakness and lack of responsibility.

Nwoye (Nuh-woh-yeh) Okonkwo's oldest son who is sensitive and nothing like his father.

Ikemefuna (Ee-keh-meh-foo-nah) is a boy of fourteen when he is given to Umuofia by a neighboring village to avoid war. He is a smart trusting boy who forms a bond with Okonkwo's son. Poor Ikemefuna.

Ekwefi (Eh-kweh-fee) Okonkwo's second wife; the mother of Ezinma, her only living child.

Ezinma (Eh-zeen-mah) Daughter of Ekwefi and Okonkwo; Ekwefi's only surviving child who should have been a boy.

Ojiubo (Oh-jee-ooh-boh) Okonkwo's third wife; the mother of several of Okonkwo's male children.

Obierika (Oh-bee-air-ee-kah) Okonkwo's best friend, who often represents the voice of reason.

Chielo (Chee-eh-loh) is the village widow and friend of Ekwefi. Chielo is the priestess of Agbala.

Agbala (Ahg-bah-lah) is the Oracle of the Hills and the Caves, who influences all aspects of Umuofian life. She is based on the real Oracle at Awka, who controlled Igbo life for centuries.

Mr. Brown is the first white Christian missionary in Umuofia and Mbanta who was more interested in numbers than saving souls.

Mr. Kiaga (Kee-ah-gah) is a despised indigenous interpreter for the white missionaries.

The Reverend James Smith is a strict, stereotypical white Christian missionary, he takes over the church after Mr. Brown's departure.

The District Commissioner is a heartless, stereotypical white colonial male administrator of Umuofia.

Links to more valuable information on Africa
Read more about women on the African continent.

The Black Natural and Weaved Hair That Divides Us

Emotional Impact of Infertility

Why People Are Given A Name African Folklore

Genes are speaking, ethnically and genetically diverse Africans

Accept Your Body African Proverbs

Week’s Best African Culture Posts

What is the difference between ugali and fufu

Top 20 Largest Countries in Africa

Southern African Country Swaziland renamed eSwatini

The Equator passes through Nanyuki Kenya