RELINQUISHING COLONIAL BELIEFS AND RESTORING AFRICANS: A CRITICAL READING OF CHINUA ACHEBE'S THINGS FALL APART

Abstract

This paper investigates Achebe's mapping of the African historical and cultural topography in a way which draws significant impact on the decolonization process and the transformative role of Things Fall Apart in the evolution of African literature from its position of marginality. This is done because Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart offers an important paradigm alternative perception of the African and yields the foundational premise upon which African cultural nationalism and literary discourse have been built. Viewed from the postcolonial lens, the work shows that the novel has remained a critical text in the interrogation of long held perceptions of the African; especially as projected in such texts as Joyce Cary's Mister Johnson and Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. Indeed, Achebe proceeds in the process of negotiating and constructing the identity of the African image through a deliberate and sustained projection of those distinct values that define the African essence. The conclusion is that Things Fall Apart effectively appropriates colonial language in its delineation of African culture and history; and engages in the process of re-imaging of the African by undermining the colonial conceptualizations of the African.