The Nature of Things

Chinua Achebe was the first African writer, published in English, who received wide acclaim by critics and others in the West.  He was really the forerunner who paved the way for such modern writers as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Achebe was Nigerian and was from the Igbo culture which he wrote about in Things Fall Apart , his first and what many consider his best book. It was published in 1958, the first of a trilogy. Things Fall Apart tells the story, in three parts, of an Igbo (called Ibo in the book) man named Okonkwo.  The first part establishes Okonkwo in his village/clan and describes how he was a respected member of that community because of his prowess as a wrestler and as a warrior who had taken heads of his clan's enemies in war. As we meet him, he is a successful farmer of yams, the primary crop of the area and he has three wives and several children. He is a brutal man who beats his wives and children, but that is exactly what is expected of men in this society. His...