African Literature : Is It Truly Authentic?

In Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart, it is shown that the African people had their own complex culture before the Europeans decided to "pacify" them. The idea that the dignity of these people has been greatly compromised is acknowledged in the essay "The Role of the Writer," which is explanatory of Achebe's novels. A writer trying to capture the truth of a situation that his readers may know little or nothing about needs a sense of history in order to appropriately address the topic. It is not enough "to beat" another writer to the issue. Writers should make the attempt to express a deeper understanding. Without proper mental investment in a written work, the

From the 1500s to the 1700s, African blacks, mainly from the area of West Africa (today's Senegal, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Gambia, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Dahomey, Togo, Nigeria, Cameroon, and Gabon) were shipped as slaves to North America, Brazil, and the West Indies. For them, local and tribal differences, and even varying cultural backgrounds, soon melded into one common concern for the suffering they all endured. Music, songs, and dances as well as remembered traditional food, helped not only to uplift them but also quite unintentionally added immeasurably to the culture around them. In the approximately 300 years that blacks have made their homes in North America, the West Indies, and Brazil, their highly honed art

It was easier for people to look at Africans as creatures with “Iron Collars” and “Grotesque mask” which is why Chinua Achebe wrote “Things Fall Apart” which was set during the late 1800s to early 1900s when British were expanding their influence in Africa in order to display the true idyllic beauty of the African people. In “Things Fall Apart”, Achebe uses irony to reflect the importance of customs and traditions through Obierika. Achebe uses an esprit tone to explain the “Flaws” others misinterpreted about the Igbo community. Achebe disliked how Europeans depicted Africans as “passionate instinctive savages”, so he refutes those depictions to give a viewpoint from the inside, the colonized and not the colonizer.

There are millions of varying perspectives in the world on many different topics. Sometimes two different mindsets clash and disagree with one another. This is apparent in the work of Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart and Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. Achebe gives a personal account of African life, culture, and customs in his book. He grew up in Nigeria, solidifying the reality that his take on their culture is the most natural, the one that will hit home. Also, since Achebe grew up surrounded by the culture so it is something intimately familiar to him. On the other hand, Joseph Conrad’s book Heart of Darkness makes Africa into a wild and savage place that needs to be ‘tamed’ by the white men and their ways.

The novels Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe and Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad depicts different viewpoints of Africans and their culture. In Heart of Darkness, the African culture is viewed through the eyes of the Europeans, who are in the process of imperializing and colonizing Africa. These Europeans see the African as mere savages, disregarding any possible sophistication in their civilizations. In response to Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, Achebe describes the perspective of the natives in Things Fall Apart. The novel depicts the Africa not as crude, but as a civilization with cultured ways.

Into Africa by Martin Dugard, is a unique retelling of one of David Livingstone’s last expeditions through Africa. Martin Dugard lives in Orange County, California and is an accomplished writer and adventurer. Martin Dugard accurately provides his readers with an inside look at his characters motivation and inner thoughts. Dugard has also written several other nonfictional history books that showcase his desire to display his characters psychological processing such as Killing Clinton, published in 2012, and Killing Lincoln, published in 2013. Into Africa was published in 2003, by Doubleday, a division of Random House, inc. in New York, NY. Dugard uses the book to prove his thesis that Henry Morton Stanley and

Most of what we know to be African Literature, talks about the changes from an un-dignified "lion-chasing" culture to that of a semi-dignified European society. The novel Things Fall Apart by Nigerian-born author Chinua Achebe, tells the story of a Umuofian villager named Okonkwo, and how Okonkwo has to come to grips with the changes that are happening in everyday Ibo life. The novel Things Fall Apart is not your typical "tall African tale." The novel is a story, a story not just about one person, but about an entire civil-society circa 1890's that becomes overwhelmed with the ideas and beliefs of the European colonizers, or as some like to refer, "the white man." Author Chinua Achebe witnessed this "invasion" first-hand, so who better

There was a misconception that African people did not have any culture and they were not civilized. But they had a culture that was similar to that of the Europeans and other races. However it was interrupted when the Europeans decided to take them from Africa and transplant them in America as slaves. As a result, their authentic cultures were drastically changed from the way of life in their native Africa to life in the plantation society of the Americas. In this essay, I will attempt to show how the conditions of enslavement disrupted all dimensions of the African’s authentic culture. To aid in my analysis, I will be using the “Reid Culture Conflict Model” as a guide and also drawing upon the works of Olaudah Equiano, Venture Smith,

Good afternoon, for the past few months I have been traveling around the United States in an effort to educate today’s youth about the complexity, diversity, and pure beauty that is defined by Africa. I have been sent to speak to you by the National Africana Studies Association as part of a campaign to promote the study of “Africa in the classroom.” Throughout the course of my journey, I’ve seen how obvious it is that the high schoolers across the country have little to no knowledge about Africa. Quite frankly, I feel that the lack of African knowledge serves as a tremendous disadvantage to an individual by inhibiting their understanding of what the extraordinary continent is in actuality. Students across the country have a preconceived misconception about every aspect of Africa, including their economy, slavery, and culture.

The religious ceremonies practiced within the African religion attempt to funnel cosmic energy or power for the betterment of the tribe. These ceremonies serve as a way for them to build strong relationships with other members of their community, the gods, their ancestors, and nature spirits. The shrines and altars they use generally are not a grandiose structure. Often they are not even a permanent structure, they can be a simple stone marker in someone’s yard.

     Knowledge of Africa and the inhabitants of the massive continent were often portrayed as barbaric beasts by the first missionaries to enter the land.  Because of skewed writings by European missionary workers, a picture was painted for their readership of a savage Africa saved only by the benevolent, civilized western influence.  Achebe successfully attempts to redirect this attitude. Achebe educationally has the means to convey a different perspective, an advantage most other individuals of his culture lack.  In his novel Things Fall Apart, rather than glorifying the Ibo culture, or even offering a new view, Achebe acts as a pipeline for information to flow freely without partiality.

It was a hot morning in Sierra Leone. I was farming in the rice field while my wife took care of my three children. Being part of the Mendi people, I was raised to work hard for my family. I had to take care of my father who was very ill. My real name was Singbe-Pieh, but people call me Cinque for short.

Elisabeth says then there will never be any solution to the problem of novel in Africa if the Africans wanted a ‘living voice’. The main problem faced by them was because the African writers unlike the French and the English were not acting as writers but were actually behaving like interpreters of their exotic cultures and that the root of their problem was ‘ Having to perform your Africanness at the same time as you write.’

In my reading of Things Fall Apart, it has better informed me of a culture that I did not know of before, and by reading it helped correct some broad misconceptions that I previously held of the people and their cultures of Africa. Reading the novel also gave me another perspective on the effects of imperialism/colonialism by the Europeans on the Africans. I believe Achebe has succeeded in enabling the West an opportunity to have them "listen to the weak" (Achebe interview), but whether or not Western society decides to listen will come down to the individual within the society--if they do choose to listen to the call of the "weak." In this essay I will share

Chinua Achebe published the fictional account Things Fall Apart in 1958. It was written to provide a new perspective on the African culture and the societies of the pre - colonial villages in Africa. He tried to dispel stereotypes and overshadow the writers who previously persuaded the world to shun Africa and its culture. Things Fall Apart told the story of the village of Umuofia over a period of many years and how they behaved and what happened with white foreign missionaries entered their lives and started the village of Umuofia on the path to falling apart.