How many times have you heard or read that Things Fall Apart has been translated into over 50 languages? And yet, do you know just exactly how many there are, or what the titles of the translations are, or who translated them?
For #ChinuaAchebeWeek, on what would’ve been Achebe’s 89th birthday, we bring you all the translations of Things Fall Apart we were able to find. We used a combination of Worldcat, UNESCO’s Index Translationum, Google Translate, Goodreads, Amazon, and just sheer persistence to locate these titles and their covers. We realize there might probably be errors here and there whether in terms of the titles’ transliterations, translator names, etc., and we certainly didn’t include all re-translations of all languages. Nor could we, admittedly, find all the covers for all of the translations. For that reason, though, we invite you to correct us and provide us with any suggestions you may have.
We hope you enjoy this omnibus of translations of Things Fall Apart. Fortuitously, we found 61 of them the year Things Fall Apart turned 61 years old. Enjoy!
(P.S. We hear there is indeed an Igbo translation of Things Fall Apart. But it seems, as of today, that it does not yet exist in book form).
Ngozi Iloh April 18, 2023 17:21
Indeed, it's a great compilation. It's interesting to notes some languages have up to two or three translations. I am doing a Comparative analysis of the French translations. Thanks for the compilation.