"Things Fall Apart" and the Misconceptions About the Native African People

After reading "Things Fall Apart" after "Heart of Darkness" I can understand why they are so often tought together in many college classes around the world. In many ways they are two sides to the same story. You can imagine some of the nameless African slaves from "Heart of Darkness" having lived in a village from "Things Fall Apart" but never being able to have their story heard.

Up until "Things Fall Apart" was written, almost all of the novels that involved Africa were much like Conrad's "Heart of Darkness," portraying natives as savages or animals and not even human. There was never a story that portrayed African's as people just like Europeans, they were always slaves to be used and were never given a voice or a backstory. European novels would talk about the exploration and colonization of Africa and all the riches that were being found there. Then came "Things Fall Apart," and finally native Africans were given a much more accurate depiction of their lives, and people around the world could really start to analyze past works such as those from Conrad and other authors.

One of the greatest examples that Chinua Achebe gave of the portrayal of native African's in previous European novels was the last paragraph of "Things Fall Apart." When the District Commisioner thought about the book he was going to write and how he could include the story of Okonkwo killing a messanger and then hanging himself, he figured:

"One could almost write a whole chapter on him. Perhaps not a whole chapter, but a reasonable paragraph, at any rate. There was so much else to include, and one must be firm in cutting out details. He had already chosen the title of the book, after much thought: The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger" (117).

This one paragraph really sums up Achebe's thoughts on previous novels involving Africa and it's people. The European colonists show up thinking they know everything, that they can sum up a person's entire life story in a couple sentences, and then title the work to show that they are superior because they were able to pacify these primitive people. Looking back on the novel, "Things Fall Apart" seems to have the ultimate goal of getting the reader to really consider previous novels such as "Heart of Darkness" and think about how they portray the natives. Achebe is trying to break the common views of these African people being primative and animal-like, and if we hope to move on as a species, we must continue to analyze these past novels and realize they only cover one side of a story, while the other side might be equally as important.