Terri Ochiagha - A Short History of Chinua Achebes Things Fall Apart

A Short History of Chinua Achebes Things Fall Apart

Ohio Short Histories of Africa

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Short-changed? South Africa since Apartheid

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Robert Mugabe

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A Short History of Chinua Achebes Things Fall Apart

by Terri Ochiagha

A Short History of Chinua Achebes Things Fall Apart

Terri Ochiagha

OHIO UNIVERSITY PRESS

ATHENS

Ohio University Press, Athens, Ohio 45701

ohioswallow.com

2018 by Ohio University Press

All rights reserved

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Cover design by Joey Hifi

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Ochiagha, Terri, author.

Title: A short history of Chinua Achebes Things fall apart / Terri Ochiagha.

Other titles: Ohio short histories of Africa.

Description: Athens, Ohio : Ohio University Press, 2018. | Series: Ohio short histories of Africa | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2018043018| ISBN 9780821423486 (pb : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780821446546 (pdf)

Subjects: LCSH: Achebe, Chinua. Things fall apart.

Classification: LCC PR9387.9.A3 T53643 2018 | DDC 823.914--dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018043018

This book is dedicated to the memory of my beloved

grandfather,

Isidro Plaza Prestel,

who was born on Christmas Eve, 1926,

and passed away on July 16, 2018.

El Yayo was my Rock, my Dream Maker.

To his love and support I owe this book and

all of my lifes accomplishments.

He gave me wings to fly, and his example,

wisdom, and love will forever guide me

as I fly higher and higher.

Contents

Illustrations

Acknowledgments

I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to the following:

The English Department at Brandeis University, where I met Carina Ray, without whose unwavering faith in my ability to write this book I would have never gotten started.

Gill Berchowitz, Director of Ohio University Press, for her encouragement and patience.

My two anonymous readers, without whose suggestions this book would have been much poorer.

Nancy Basmajian, Managing Editor of Ohio University Press, and John Morris, the copyeditor of this book. Their attentive reading and gentle suggestions have not only enriched this book, but have made the revision process a pleasant and edifying undertaking.

The Department of African Studies and Anthropology at the University of Birmingham, where I was an Honorary Research Fellow when I started to work on this book, for providing the bibliographical resources necessary for my research.

The students and colleagues at the History Department of Kings College London with whom I discussed the making of this book, for their interest and encouragement, especially my colleague and office mate, Anna Maguire, for her very insightful thoughts on the Things Fall Apart Wikipedia ad.

Simon Gikandi and Lyn Innes for inspiring me, and for their enduring support.

Steph Newell and Toby Green, friends and mentors extraordinaire, for setting a priceless example of scholarship, humanity, and resilience.

The convenors of and participants in the Genealogies of Colonial Violence Conference, held at the University of Cambridge in June 2012, where I first presented my ideas on mbari poetics, for their enthusiasm.

Professor Herbert Cole, whose extraordinary work on mbari has so inspired me, for the excellent suggestions he offered upon reading the draft of this books first chapter and for permission to reproduce his photographs.

Dr. Emily Hyde, for very kindly responding to my inquiries on the illustrations of Things Fall Apart.

Angela Andreani, whose friendship and intellectual companionship mean so much.

My mother, Mara del Carmen, for her loving support across the telephone lines; my maternal grandparents, Los Yayos, for their joyful, unconditional love; my aunt Sagra, always there when I call, and her partner CsarI must thank them too for the loving care they have so selflessly bestowed on my grandparents in my absence.

My grandfather passed away right before the copyediting stage of the manuscript. I longed for the day he would have held this book in his hands. I pay tribute to him as well as to his life companion, my beloved grandmother, Carmen, who, alongside him has been my shining light, and who is left to carry on without him. May the publication of this book bring her a small measure of comfort. May it be a token of what her and my grandfathers union, and their love for us all, have made possible.

Finally, I want to thank Carlos, who bears the brunt of each research project and this peripatetic life of mine, and whose pride, with each dream fulfilled, makes everything worth the while.

Introduction

The publication of Chinua Achebes Things Fall Apart (1958) was heralded as the inaugural moment of modern African fiction, and the book remains the most widely read African novel of all time. It has been translated into more than sixty languages, has sold over twelve million copies, and is a required text at the primary, secondary, and tertiary educational levels the world over. While Things Fall Apart is neither the first African novel to be published in the West nor necessarily the most critically valued, its enduring, larger-than-life iconicity has surpassed even that of its author. It is in this spirit that it is included in the Ohio Short Histories of Africa series.