Chinua Achebe Explores Legacy After 50 Years

“The amazing thing about stories is that they, in fact, travel,” novelist Chinua Achebe explains, using the term both figuratively and literally. “You let the story develop. You let the story begin. The story makes all kinds of preparations for its own arrival.”

No one knows that truth better than Achebe. The Nigerian author, who currently teaches at Bard College, established himself as Nigeria’s literary ambassador to the Western world with his first novel, “Things Fall Apart,” published in 1959. This past Tuesday, Chinua Achebe came to Harvard to celebrate his novel’s fiftieth anniversary.

The novel was one of the first major works to bring Western readers the experience of an African man under colonial rule from an African perspective. It tells the story of the unsympathetic protagonist, Okonkwo, a volatile patriarch who attempts to reassert his status and masculinity against a tide of circumstances out of his control. Achebe’s most extraordinary feat in the novel is his ability to communicate Okonkwo’s poignant experience to Western audiences.

But Achebe’s visit to Harvard was not only a celebration of his first novel, but also a celebration of his legacy. Since penning “Things Fall Apart” at 28, the writer has had a prolific career as a public intellectual, outspoken activist, professor, and postcolonial patriarch. He has written multiple essays, a book of poetry, and several other celebrated books, including “Arrow of God” and “No Longer At Ease.”

The themes that Achebe tackles in “Things Fall Apart” are emblematic of those he has negotiated throughout his career. Achebe traverses cultural boundaries by integrating them. In “Things Fall Apart,” he blends features of the African oral tradition with English literary tropes. Although the novel is written in English, Achebe mimics the cadence and narrative structure of the Ibo language, and the characters’ lives revolve around priorities informed by Umuofian values.

This blurring of boundaries is to be expected from Achebe, who was born in a Nigerian village to Protestant parents. Though he came of age in a Christian household, Achebe was surrounded by manifestations of traditional Nigerian religions and practices. Achebe’s first name at birth was “Albert,” which he dropped when he developed an academic interest in Nigerian culture during college.

The ability of “Things Fall Apart” to straddle two artistic traditions has led to the book’s characterization as the first “modern” African novel, though Achebe eschews the title. “Categorizations are difficult always,” he says. “If you say, ‘This is a modern African novel,’ then you tell us what you mean by ‘modern’ and ‘African.’” Achebe says that stories, regardless of categories, still must do the work of narratives.

The novel, which examines the social and political implications of colonialism from an African perspective, has made quite an impact over the last 50 years. But Achebe is far from satisfie.d “Some people would say considerable impact,” Achebe says. “But it’s never enough. Society does demand constant attention from its observers, the writers.”

But for Achebe, who is an outspoken postcolonial critic, “Things Fall Apart” is first and foremost a work of art. “I write fiction,” Achebe says, though he accedes that fiction and fact meet at crossroads. “I believe, for instance, that the truth of fiction is sometimes stronger than the truth of the newspapers.”

And in “Things Fall Apart,” Achebe allows his characters to do the work of social commentary for him. By focusing on his characters’ unique and disparate relationships with colonial elements, he draws into relief the tremendously complicated experience of the village as a whole. “There is a certain area of our experience that you can reach best through the imagination,” he says.

But Achebe is still not done with his first novel. After “Things Fall Apart” has been translated into 50 languages, Achebe plans to finally translate it into Ibo, something he’s considered for a long time. “It somehow seems appropriate,” he says. “I work in two languages, English and Ibo. I have done that from the beginning. ‘Things Fall Apart’ is kind of a celebration of these two languages, what they can do together.”

—Staff writer Asli Bashir can be reached at bashir@fas.harvard.edu.