This assignment asks you to research the life and work of Chinua Achebe, a major figure in
African literature, and write a formal paper that relates his life and that of his people, the Ibo, to
his most famous novel, Things Fall Apart (1958), written at the very end of the British colonial
period.
1. Explain how Achebe’s life and Ibo culture shaped the story, the book’s point of view, and
its style?
2. What is the book’s historical significance?
Your answer to these questions or the answers to the question you pose about your own topic
will be your paper’s thesis, which you should state in one or two sentences within the first
paragraph of your paper. You will need to investigate and document British imperialism and its
effects in West Africa, especially in Nigeria, from ca. 1890 to 1960. You will also need to
research and document Ibo culture, the educational and cultural system established by the
British, Chinua Achebe’s life and his reactions to British educational and cultural norms. Finally,
you will need to examine how the novel presents Achebe’s (and the Ibo’s) responses to British
imperialism.
Your essay must be the result of independent research on your part. You may consult course
materials for initial ideas but you may not cite any materials used in this course (that is, the
textbook and websites) as direct sources for the ideas and information in your paper. All of the
sources you use and cite must be the result of library research and Internet research on your part.
Cliff Notes and other such study guide pamphlets do not count as serious historical sources, nor
do textbooks.
Here is a hint to get you started: In an interview in the 1994-95 issue of The Paris Review,
Achebe stated that he became a writer so he could tell his story and the story of his people from
an indigenous viewpoint. He explained the problem of having one’s story told only by others by
citing the following proverb: “until the lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt
will always glorify the hunter.”
Your paper must use at least four (4) separate sources on Chinua Achebe and/or Things Fall
Apart. Of these sources, at least two (2) must be journal articles from the NU Librarys ejournals collections. You can use websites or encyclopedia articles on Achebe and/or Things
Fall Apart as sources for your paper but you may use no more than two altogether (i.e., two
websites or two encyclopedia articles or one website and one encyclopedia article).
here are 3 cititions i would like used
Things Fall Apart [Paperback] [1994] (Author) Chinua Achebe. (1994). Anchor.
Ojaide, T. (2013). Chinua Achebe (1930-2013) [2]. Tydskrif Vir Letterkunde, 50(2), 150151. https://doi.org/10.4314/tvl.v50i2.10
Gagiano, A. (2014). Illuminating Africa: Commemorating and Reassessing the Work of Chinua Achebe (1930-2013): Legacy: Chinua Achebe. Development and Change, 45(5), 10741092. https://doi.org/10.1111/dech.12108
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