Question

why you think Achebe chose to tell the story of the clashes between colonialism and African culture from an African point of view.

Answer 1

Albert Chinualumogu Achebe was born on November 16, 1930, in Ogidi, a large village in Nigeria. Although he was the child of a Protestant missionary and received his early education in English, his upbringing was multicultural, as the inhabitants of Ogidi still lived according to many aspects of traditional Igbo (formerly written as Ibo) culture. Achebe attended the Government College in Umuahia from 1944 to 1947. He graduated from University College, Ibadan, in 1953. While he was in college, Achebe studied history and theology. He also developed his interest in indigenous Nigerian cultures, and he rejected his Christian name, Albert, for his indigenous one, Chinua.

Answer 2

Answer: Chinua Achebe wrote about the way of life in Nigeria that avoided stereotyping African identity, and at the same time keeping a critical viewpoint of the actions humans take that lead to their downfall. The aim of Achebe´s fiction is to take normal everyday passions that are common to all human beings and expose them without falling prey to over-simplified stereotypes, which tend to dehumanize the subject of the story. In ´Things Fall Apart´, for example, the plight of the main character is described without resorting to any sort of value judgements on the village´s strict and un-western system of justice.

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