Book Review: Things Fall Apart

by Chinua Achebe

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I've been on a Congo/Colonial Africa reading kick, since I reread The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver a little while ago. I remember reading Things Fall Apart in high school almost 10 years ago and not liking it at all. But, I don't think I was mature enough to understand it just yet. Our teacher didn't give us any background information on it whatsoever, so not only had I never heard of colonial Africa, but I had no knowledge of the author, who he was, or why he wrote the book. 

Needless to say, I liked the book much better this time. And even though I didn't particularly like, or relate to the character Okonkwo, (he and his clan and their culture were really foreign to me) what I keep coming back to is that these people had an established culture/government/way of life. And even though this way of life was very different from western culture, it was still there. And as a reader, I didn't like the white men, or their religion, or their government coming in and assuming superiority, without even caring to try and learn about the peoples and tribes they were taking over.

I think Christianity is good. And I think democracy is good. But I read this book and it occurs to me that you can't ramrod either of those things down peoples' throats, because the thing that makes Christianity and democracy good, are people deciding for themselves to follow that way of life.

Anyways, this review is coming out all in a jumble, but my Africa kick has really gotten me thinking. I wonder if I assert myself and my beliefs on others without meaning to because of differences I don't understand. I wonder if I ever think less of people because I haven't taken the time to learn about their way of life or ideology. Not that I feel a need to change my own ideology, I can still have my own beliefs and value system, etc. But maybe what I need to think about changing is the way I treat other people who differ from me in that regard.

So yes, lots to think about coming out of this book. I recommend reading it, but do a little research (Wikipedia would probably enough sufficient info) on colonial Africa and Chinua Achebe before diving in.