Context - Things Fall Apart

Question 1

What is the historical context?

Answer 1

• Britain claimed Nigero in the Berlin conference of 1884-1885 in which various European powers ‘carved up’ Africa.
• Published in 1958, Nigeria gained independence in 1960
• Things Fall Apart is set in 1890, during the early days of
  colonialism in Nigeria.
• Achebe depicts Igbo society in transition, from its first contact with the British colonialists to the growing dominance of British rule over the indigenous people. - Literary
• Things Fall Apart is a postcolonial novel that strives to revise previous stereotypes by portraying both cultures with a neutral eye, focusing on the complexity of Igbo traditions.
• Collective Punishment Ordinance of 1912

Question 2

What is the literary context?

Answer 2

• Responds to Kipling’s ‘Take Up The White Mans Burden’ which portrays colonisation as the white man’s duty + endorses colonialism. Kipling believes that people such as the people in Ibo society should be grateful for being colonised.
• Also responds to Conrad’s ‘Heart of Darkness’ as it portrays the African people as ‘Savages’. Things Fall Apart redresses the idea that Africans are one-dimensional.
• The massacre of the people of Abame after the murder of a white missionary on a bicycle was based on a real event in Ahiara in 1905
• In ‘An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s ‘Heart of Darkness’ Achebe says that Africa is viewed as a metaphysical battlefield devoid of all recognizable humanity