1. Things Fall Apart
Chinua Achebe
Traditional Ibo mask

2.                 THE SECOND COMING
    Turning and turning in the widening gyre     The falcon cannot hear the falconer;     Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;     Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,     The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere     The ceremony of innocence is drowned;     The best lack all conviction, while the worst     Are full of passionate intensity.
    Surely some revelation is at hand;     Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
-William Butler Yeats

3. Historical Context Ibo Third most populous ethnic group in Nigeria.
Live in the southeastern part of the country.
Tropical rain forests with a rainy season dominated by the dusty harmattan wind.
Most are subsistence farmers- meaning, they raise crops for their own consumption.
Polytheists and believed in personal guardian spirit, known as a chi.

4. Many Ibos were taken as slaves by European and African slave traders because of their proximity to West African ports of trade.

5. ….History of Ibo continued
Traditionally, the Ibo lived in villages based on lineage: the male heads of household were all related through their father’s sides.
At marriage, a wife went to live with her husband.
A prosperous man would have two or three wives, each living in her own hut within the family compound.
Villages loosely organized into clans of about five thousand people.
Villages share a market, a meeting place, and ceremonies based on a belief in the clan’s descent from a common founder as well as a belief in common ancestral spirits.
No single leader- Decisions made by discussion and consensus during meetings of all the adult males in the clan.

6. Igbo people 1930s

7. …History *Yams are a staple for the Ibo people.
*Traditionally, yams are grown by men, other crops by women.
A yam barn keep the ancient staple crop off the ground, where the tubers would be attacked by insects and fungal rot.

8. TRAGEDY of an individual defeated by fate or by a tragic flaw.
Themes
Balance of traditional masculine and feminine values
Continual and inevitable change
The dynamic between the individual and society
Things Fall Apart is a
TRAGEDY of an individual defeated by fate or by a tragic flaw.

9. Conflicts Generational: Okonkwo vs. Unoka Okonkwo vs. Nwoye Cultural
Ibo vs. Western
Tradition vs. Christianity
Assimilation vs. purity
Gender
Okonkwo vs. his wives
Inner
Okonkwo vs. himself

10. “Let me first make one general point that is fundamental and essential to the appreciation of African issues by Americans. Africans are people in the same way that Americans, Europeans, Asians, and others are people. Africans are not some strange beings with unpronounceable names and impenetrable minds. Although the action of Things Fall Apart takes place in a setting with which most Americans are unfamiliar, the characters are normal people and their events are real human events.”
-Chinua Achebe
Ibo funeral mask

11. August Visitor (Arrival of White Men in an Ibibio Village) 1991
August Visitor (Arrival of White Men in an Ibibio Village) Acrylic on Canvas, 36 1/4 x 72 1/2" (92x184 cm). C.A.A.C. Jean Pigozzi Collection - Geneva
Things Fall Apart takes place during the early period of British colonization (late 1880s).