T H I N G S FA L L A PA R T : A C A S E

S T U DY O F T H E I N F LU E N C E O F
EUROPEAN IMPERIALISM ON SUBS A H A RA N A F R I C A
By: Jonathan Estrella
EDSE 729 Advanced Study of the Teaching of Social Studies in Secondary Schools
October 14, 2015

BOOK SYNOPSIS:
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe examines the relations between traditional African
societies and the influence of European imperialism in the late-19 th century through what
could be called a case study of the Ibo culture in Nigeria. Achebe focuses on a troubled
protagonist named Okonkwo who lives in the village of Umuofia. Quick to aggression,
Okonkwo works hard to move up in society and throw off the shame of his lazy, insolent
father. By following traditional customs, Okonkwo makes something of himself and earns
the title of a respected leader.
Personally, he faces the challenge of having a semi-feminine son, Nwoye, and an intelligent
daughter, Ezinma, (amongst his many children born amongst three wives) in a masculine
society that praises hard work and, when necessary, aggression.
The start of his troubles begin when it is decreed that he should look after a captive child
named Ikemefuna from a nearby village. He looks after the boy for three years, caring for
him as a son. However, when warned by Ezeudu, an old friend, to not harm the child after
oracles of the gods declare Ikemefuna must die, Okonkwo rejects his friends advice, joining
the band of elders who take Ikemefuna away and striking Ikemefuna with his machete so as
not to seem weak. Despite his loyalty to tradition, Okonkwo begins to question some
aspects of it, and the death of one he cared for so much temporarily depresses him. Though
there is evidence that his violent nature has a tendency to reject tradition at times before
the death of Ikemefuna, such as when he beats his second wife during the Week of Peace,
he makes amends and continues to follow tradition. However, the event changes Okonkwo,
and he and his second wife defy one oracle, Chielo, when she takes away Ezinma late at
night with no explanation.
Later, Ezeudu dies, and at his funeral, Okonkwo accidentally shoots and kills a son of
Ezeudu. Okonkwo follows tradition and flees Umuofia to that of his deceased mothers
village for seven years, the punishment for the crime of killing a clansman.
During his seven-year banishment, one of Okonkwos friends, Obierika, visits him and
updates him on events occurring in the village the most prominent being the introduction

of European missionaries. By the time Okonkwo returns, Umuofia has completely changed.
European culture and religion have caused many, including Nwoye, to reject their traditions
and embrace Christianity. When the only missionary leader who attempts to understand
their culture leaves and is replaced by a harsher one, tension and conflicts rise within the
village between those attempting to keep their traditions and those that have embraced
Christianity. After burning a church, Okonkwo and other leaders are embarrassed by the
Europeans, their culture publicly disgraced, and they are forced to pay a penalty for burning
the church. When the village meets later to decide what to do about the Europeans, they
are interrupted by some of the Europeans African messengers. In a fit of rage, Okonkwo
kills a messenger, and when the rest of the village does not support him, but instead acts
out in fear, Okonkwo takes his own life an act so unbefitting to his tradition, that no-one in
the village can touch his body or bury him except for strangers.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY:
Chinua Achebe was born on November 16, 1930 in an Ibo town in Nigeria. Despite growing
up in a Christian home, he maintained his Ibo identity. He attended the University of Ibadan
where he learned English. He grew up during the breakup of colonial and imperial powers in
the 1950s and 1960s, and in order to challenge colonial viewpoints of Africans as savages or
uncivilized, Achebe wrote Things Fall Apart in 1958. He showed how ancient African cultures
had their own unique societies just different from the Eurocentric view of what a society
should be. In a way, it was a mixture of the African and the European he diverged from
oral storytelling traditions in order to reach Europeans, but he depicted Ibo culture in his
novel as just as complex as any European society. In the 1960s, Achebe worked in different
capacities to legitimize Ibo and Nigerian culture and society to a highly westernized world.
He accepted a position at the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation, where he worked until
1966, and he started a joint endeavor with Christopher Okigbo in 1967 to found the Citadel
Press publishing company in order to channel African literature to the world. In the following
years, he taught at different universities in the US and Nigeria, continued to write African
fiction, and helped publishing countries native to Nigeria. By helping Nigeria achieve its own
voice in a world where it was previously expressed through ethnocentric Europeans, Achebe
provided a means for other diverse cultures to not be drowned out by dominating powers.
Instead, he pushed for a world filled with a balance of stories where every people will be
able to contribute to a definition of themselves.
Sources:
http://www.biography.com/people/chinua-achebe-20617665#later-years
http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/03/chinua-achebes-legacy-in-his-own-words/274297/

CONTEXT & RESOURCES:

Things Fall Apart takes place in the late-19th century during Europes scramble for Africa,
but was written in 1958, around the time when European powers began decolonizing their
empires. These dates are important to understand for two main reasons. First, it helps to
explain how biased and dominating Western cultures, which failed to examine the cultures
and societies native in Africa, contributed to the decline of those cultures and identities.
Secondly, it revives the identity, society, and culture of the Ibo (a native African tribe) in
Nigeria (a Western-created state) as intelligent, complex, and adaptable an obvious
counter to the prejudiced views of Africans as savages or uncivilized perpetuated by novels

like Joseph Conrads Heart of Darkness, or the depiction of the Ibo in Mister Johnson by Joyce
Cary, at a time when Nigeria was on the brink of full independence from Great Britain. In a
way, it was Achebes attempt to use Western culture to legitimize his own to Westerners, a
challenge to the prejudiced views of his people and a strong example of how Africans can
rule themselves without the aid of Europeans.
Therefore, it is imperative that teachers and students understand the world that led to the
falling apart of Ibo culture (and other African cultures) in the late-19 th century and its revival
in the mid-20th century. They should have a basic understanding of Europes interest in
Africa in the 17th and 18th centuries, especially in the slave trade as examined in. This
should sufficiently explain why European nations were not as intent on moving deeper into
Africa until the 19th century, when they actually had the technology to do so. Students
should also recognize that many Africans resisted European colonization violently. Students
should also understand some of the causes of decolonization including the Atlantic Charter,
British PM Harold MacMillan, and UN Declaration 1514 and that decolonization was
sometimes peaceful and sometimes violent. Finally, students should understand the lasting
impact of decolonization on Africa.

STANDARDS AND THEMATIC STRANDS:

Standard MWH-7 The Student will demonstrate an understanding of the causes and
consequences of global warfare in the first half of the twentieth century.
Indicator MWH-7.1 - Analyze the relative importance of economic and political rivalries,
ethnic and ideological conflicts, social class, militarism, and imperialism as
underlying causes of World War I and World War II, including the role of nationalism
and propaganda in mobilizing civilian populations around the world to support the two world
wars.
Indicator MWH-7.3 Describe major shifts in world geopolitics between 1900 and 1945,
including the changing role of the United States in international affairs and the
move from isolationism to an increased role as a world power.
Indicator MWH-7.5 Explain the impact of collapsing imperial regimes and growing
nationalist movements in India, Africa, and Southeast Asia, including PanAfricanism and the emerging civil rights movement in the United States.
Standard MWH-8 The student will demonstrate an understanding of the causes and
consequences of decolonization in the second half of the twentieth century and the
beginning of the twenty-first century.
Indicator MWH-8.1 Evaluate the relative importance of factors such as world war,
economic depression, nationalist ideology, labor organizations, communism, and liberal
democratic ideals in the emergence of movements for national self-rule or
sovereignty in Africa and Asia.
NCSS Thematic Strand 1: Culture
Cultures are dynamic and change over time.
NCSS Thematic Strand 2: Time, Continuity, and Change
Knowledge and understanding of the past enable us to analyze the causes and
consequences of events and developments, and to place these in the context of the
institutions, values and beliefs of the periods in which they took place.
NCSS Thematic Strand 8: Science, Technology, and Society
Science, and its practical application, technology, have had a major influence on social and
cultural change, and on the ways people interact with the world.

NCSS Thematic Strand 9: Global Connections

Global connections have intensified and accelerated the changes faced at the local, national,
and international levels.

RESOURCES:
1. John Green Imperialism: Crash Course World History #35:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alJaltUmrGo
This video helps explain imperialism in clear details, spending quite a bit of time
focused on the scramble for Africa (though he does, of course, include imperialism in
India, East Asia, and Southeast Asia as well). It also provides context that helps to
differentiate the Ibo world created in Things Fall Apart from the reality of African
colonization.
2. Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston S. Churchill The Atlantic Charter August
14,1941: http://avalon.law.yale.edu/wwii/atlantic.asp
The Atlantic Charter provides students with an example of American influence during
and after the war, and how war goals seemed to push for self-determination and
thus, the breakup of empires.
3. UN General Assembly: Fifteenth Session 1514 (XV) Declaration on the granting of
independence to colonial countries and peoples:
http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/RES/1514(XV)
This primary source document shows students how the post-war world moved toward
a sense of self-determination, even against colonial powers which still attempted to
maintain some colonies for multiple reasons (economic recovery, influence against
the spread of communism, etc.).
4. Harold MacMillan The Wind of Change February 3, 1960:
http://www.africanrhetoric.org/pdf/J%20%20%20Macmillan%20-%20%20the%20wind
%20of%20change.pdf
A transcript of former British Prime Minister Harold MacMillans Wind of Change
Speech, in which he addresses the South African government to understand the
situation in Africa (and thus, the crumbling of empires there). More importantly, this
speech provides further support that Western minds were changing, particularly
minds in the British leadership the nation which governed Nigeria.
5. U.S. Department of State: Office of the Historian Milestones: 1945-1952
Decolonization of Asia and Africa 1945-1960:
https://history.state.gov/milestones/1945-1952/asia-and-africa
From the DOS Office of the Historian, this source provides students with a more indepth look at the complexities of decolonization, including the reasons imperial
powers gave for holding onto certain colonies, and why the U.S. became hesitant in
the 1940s and 1950s to allow decolonization (their fear of the spread of communism).
So, in opposition to the Atlantic Charter, this source shows students how the U.S. was
both a help and hindrance to African decolonization in the post-war era.
6. Chinua Achebe An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrads Heart of Darkness 1977:
http://kirbyk.net/hod/image.of.africa.html
This speech given by Chinua Achebe provides the context for why he wrote Things
Fall Apart, and provides a contextual view of how Europeans and Western society
viewed Africans since after the scramble for Africa.

NOVEL REVIEW:
Things Fall Apart provides the perfect pretext for students to learn about differing cultures,
how it changes over time, and how technology can enhance a nations abilities and impact
other cultures either positively or negatively. By studying the plot, students can come to
understand the clash of cultures that exists throughout history and continues today (and
that this global exchange of cultures could be brutally destructive). They can understand
how ethnocentric views of superiority nearly (or actually) eliminated entire cultures, as was
done to many native Africans. They can learn that this destruction of native African societies
by Europeans began along the coasts, until further technological advancements allowed
European powers to travel further inland, avoiding diseases and causing countless casualties
amongst native Africans through superior weapon technology. Yet, by studying the time
period in which Achebe wrote his book, students can come to understand how people are
able to reclaim their identity and culture, while changing the dynamic of international
relations or how international global connectedness can even help them to reclaim an
identity.
By studying this book and the historical events that it encompasses the scramble for Africa
and the eventual decolonization of it as well students can come to understand how
imperialism worked, particularly that it relied upon the subjugation and degrading of other
cultures. They can also understand how imperialism finally came to end through common
understanding, international action, and active participation in defining the African cultures
that had been stripped away from them. Students can also learn how cultures deal with the
change in times particularly how, despite retaining their cultural identity after
decolonization, Africans still face modern issues such as market economies, global trade,
democracy, and population booms due to medical advancements.

INSTRUCTIONAL ACTIVITIES:
1. Read a Book in a Day: Students will be assigned in pairs and/ or groups of three
(depending on class size) and a certain set of chapters to read mostly in sets of two.
Pairing for chapters shall go as follows:
- Chapters 1, 2 &3 (23 pages) Okonkwos Past
- Chapters 4 & 5 (20 pages) Okonkwos Character; breaking the peace
- Chapters 6 & 7 (17 pages) Wrestling Match; Ikemefunas death
- Chapters 8 & 9 (24 pages) Okonkwos grief over Ikemefuna; Ezinma sick
- Chapters 10 & 11 (23 pages) trial with egwugwu; Chielo takes Ezinma
- Chapters 12, 13, & 14 (23 pages) Obierikas sons wedding; Ezeudus funeral;
banishment
- Chapters 15, 16, & 17 (18 pages) news of missionaries; theological debate; Nwoye
leaves
- Chapters 18, 19, & 20 (21 pages) cultural differences unresolved; return to Umuofia
- Chapters 21 & 22 (14 pages) more theological debate; new reverend/ burning of
church
- Chapters 23, 24, & 25 (18 pages) District Commissioner arrests egwugwu; town
meeting;
Okonkwos suicide
Students will wrote down the main plot point for each chapter in no more than three
sentences, as well as any key terms/ characters and descriptions of them (if possible). In
numerical order, groups will come up to the white board and write down their main plot
points/ key terms/ characters and verbally announce the same. Other students shall

2.

3.

4.

5.

write down what the previous group has written/ spoken about and create an effective
synopsis to understand the story.
Colonization of Africa Compare and Contrast
Students will watch the Imperialism Crash Course video, and compare and contrast what
actually occurred in Europes scramble for Africa versus how Achebe addresses the issue
in his novel.
Understanding Motive examining Achebe
Students will read copies of Achebes speech, An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrads
Heart of Darkness and take notes on the motives Achebe had for writing Things Fall
Apart. In a Socratic Seminar, students will discuss how his arguments are justified and
whether we still face this issues in regard to our viewpoint of Africa or not, i.e. whether
Achebe has made a real difference on the minds of Westerners.
Fighting for Africa Understanding Different Viewpoints
Students will read the Atlantic Charter, the UN Declaration 1514, an abridged version of
MacMillans Wind of Change speech, and the Department of States Decolonization of
Asia and Africa piece, taking notes of key concepts in each. They will then be broken
into three groups; one will act as if they are an African arguing for independence,
another will act as a European supporting decolonization, and another will act as a
European attempting to keep the empire together.
Africa Now Learning how African nations have dealt with decolonization
Each student will be assigned a country and will use the CIA World Factbook to do a case
study, doing their own research on the history of that nation post-decolonization and how
that country fares politically, socially, and economically. Students will then share their
results to note any common themes between the countries.