Class Notes 3/28

Today in class, we started off by talking about which book from the first half of the semester we would eliminate if this class would become a two credit class. From there we began to talk about the elements of this class that were helpful to us and our learning styles. Some techniques for reading strategies were suggested as well. A few of the suggestions were to go to a quiet place to read, take the book with us everywhere we go, read before bed or first thing in the morning, divide the reading up between days, and skim the specific reading section first.

Larissa and Danny gave a brief historical background of “Colonialism in Africa” next. European colonization of Africa began in the early 20^th century and was mainly due to the economic reasons, like the European powers wanting more land and money. European countries had a fear of conflict and war and therefore they held the Berlin Conference. It was here that they decided African boundaries without a say from Africa, and developed the Berlin Act, which allowed imperialism between European countries. The British in Nigeria starting in 1884 caused divisions, poverty, disease, slavery, and lost traditions, while it also introduced cash crops, education, government structure, and international trade to the region. In Africa, there was no doctrine of ownership of land and they did not realize what they were signing when the Europeans forced them to give up their land.

After this, we listened to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie in a TED talk. She discussed how impressionable English and British books were on her growing up in Africa. She also mentioned how surprised her roommate was to find out that she actually knew quite a bit about American things. Chimamanda described how too many people who grow up in the United States only have one perspective on people from Africa. Toni Morrison, an African American woman, also expressed how growing up in the U.S., she learned about Africa in this way and thought that Africa needed white people to save them.

After getting different perspectives on Africa, we began discussing the author of Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe. Written in 1958, his novel is one of the few to have an author with an African voice in this time period. Achebe was impacted by his parents’ conversion to Christianity and his schooling in the United States. Inspired by The Heart of Darkness, Achebe wrote his book at age 28. The title, Things Fall Apart, comes from “The Second Coming”, a poem by W. B. Yeats, written at the start of WWI. Achebe says in An Image of Africa that every culture has strange customs and superstitions and those who read Things Fall Apart shouldn’t be surprised at the amount of customs they read about. In this book, Achebe writes in both English and Ibo and has the narrator be the voice of the villagers. The setting is Nigeria mid 19^th century and throughout the book there are folktales told and binary opposition between ideas, like masculine/feminine, spiritual/physical, good/evil, individual/community, and strong/weak.

One of the big parts of the book is character development. In class we split into groups and were each assigned a passage of the book to read and pick out different character traits of Okonkwo. In chapter one, we see that he values his status, resents his father and therefore is motivated by fear of being like his father, and masks his emotions. In the next section, we talked about how Okonkwo doesn’t want to be seen as weak in front of his family, violates the laws of the clan, and loves his family but struggles to show it. After the death of Ikemenfuna, we see Okonkwo feeling guilty. “He tried not to think about Ikemenfuna, but the more he tried the more he thought about him.” (pg. 63). In chapter nine, Okonkwo shows a small amount of love and affection by doing all that he can to take care of Ekwefi when she is sick. “Ekwefi went to bring the pot and Okonkwo selected the best from his bundle…” (pg. 85) As we continued throughout the different sections, groups pointed out that Unoka (Okonkwo’s father) was seen as a coward, unmotivated, without a title, and “agbala”, which means woman or man without a title. Nwoye (Okonkwo’s son) cherishes the stories of his mother (pg. 53), wants to impress his father, and is very influenced by Ikemenfuna and develops a level of morality. Obeirika (Okonkwo’s friend) is the opposite of Okonkwo and questions traditions, cares for the earth and people, and regrets getting another title (pg. 69). We are going to start the next class with finishing up this activity.

The main focus of today was trying to understand the time period and develop more knowledge about Africa and European colonialism. We also looked at some other perspectives of this time period and learned background information about Chinua Achebe. Lastly, we finished class with talking about the characterization of Okonkwo and how the author describes him and uses his foil characters to develop him even more.