Personally, for me, the most meaningful
takeaway was the portrayal of Africans in general, on the world stage up to
that time. European writers had mostly characterised Africans as being ‘savages’
and often portrayed Europeans as a ‘civilising’ force. Most notably as an
example, is Joseph Konrad’s “Heart of Darkness”, which is described as racist, according to Achebe, in an essay he wrote.
After learning more about the context of "Things Fall Apart", it seems to have gotten
more weight. It’s not just a look back into the past, but rather some of the
first steps to getting back a culture, and taking charge of the way that
culture is presented.
“Even after the slave trade was
abolished, in the nineteenth century, something like this literature continued,
to serve the new imperialistic needs of Europe in relation to Africa.” (note
that ‘this literature’ refers to works such as “Heart of Darkness”). What this
quote means, is that there seems to have been this urge, from European authors,
to justify the actions of their nations in Africa. By portraying Africans in a
bad light, authors were able to justify colonialism as a ‘mission to civilise’
and a ‘white-man’s burden’. This way, any ethical or moral issues that arose
out of colonialism were justified as necessary for the ‘greater good’ of those
people. Chinua Achebe’s “Things Fall Apart” challenges the ideas and
perspectives that European societies had of Africa, and made it a lot harder
for them to justify colonialism.
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