In 1962, four years after the successful publication of Things Fall Apart, its British publishers Heinemann Educational Books began the African Writers Series (AWS)—a series of books by African writers packaged to give international voice to the continent’s literature in English. The series published paperback books by most of the major voices of the day: Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, Steve […]
Tag Archives: things fall apart
The Magic of Things Fall Apart
Sometime in April, I received an email from the BBC Culture’s editor to nominate five stories that I believed had “the most impact on shaping ideas and changing minds through history.” The same invitation had been sent to other writers, critics, and academic the world over. 108 people from 35 countries responded, including myself. On […]
Things Fall Apart, Song Of Lawino, Nervous Conditions Among BBC’s Top 100 Stories That Shaped the World | How African Experts Voted
In April, BBC Culture polled literary experts around the world to “nominate up to five fictional stories they felt had shaped mindsets or influenced history,” and got answers from 108 writers, critics, journalists, academics, and translators from 35 countries, who selected novels, folk tales, poetry, and dramas in 33 different languages. After the final tabulation, three […]
Read Prof. Kwame Anthony Appiah’s Foreword to the New Edition of Achebe’s Trilogy
So much has been said about how Chinua Achebe’s first three novels—Things Fall Apart (1958), No Longer at Ease (1960) and Arrow of God (1964)—constitute a trilogy charting the response of three generations of the Igbo society to colonialism. Okonkwo’s story in the first novel is set in the 1890s, at the beginning of colonial […]
Somaliland Set for the 2015 Hargeysa International Book Festival
It is all about books starting this weekened at Hargeysa, the capital of Somaliland. The city hosts its 8th International book fair from Saturday August 1 to 6, 2015 and will be welcoming delegates from around the world. The Hargeysa International Book Fair is an opportunity to explore writing from and about this East African […]
Africa’s Mad and Most Loved Emperor | Chaka by Thomas Mofolo | A Book Review
If you’re reading this, you are about to join me on a trip to an early moment in African literary history. Thomas Mofolo‘s Chaka is a novel languishing in the dark, airless pit of the African literary archive. Join me as we dig it up, give it a good dusting, and see whether it’s cool […]
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