Download or read book Things Fall Apart written by Chinua Achebe and published by Penguin. This book was released on 1994-09-01 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A true classic of world literature . . . A masterpiece that has inspired generations of writers in Nigeria, across Africa, and around the world.” —Barack Obama “African literature is incomplete and unthinkable without the works of Chinua Achebe.” —Toni Morrison Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read Things Fall Apart is the first of three novels in Chinua Achebe's critically acclaimed African Trilogy. It is a classic narrative about Africa's cataclysmic encounter with Europe as it establishes a colonial presence on the continent. Told through the fictional experiences of Okonkwo, a wealthy and fearless Igbo warrior of Umuofia in the late 1800s, Things Fall Apart explores one man's futile resistance to the devaluing of his Igbo traditions by British political andreligious forces and his despair as his community capitulates to the powerful new order. With more than 20 million copies sold and translated into fifty-seven languages, Things Fall Apart provides one of the most illuminating and permanent monuments to African experience. Achebe does not only capture life in a pre-colonial African village, he conveys the tragedy of the loss of that world while broadening our understanding of our contemporary realities.
Download or read book The Female King of Colonial Nigeria written by Nwando Achebe and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2011-02-21 with total page 323 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While providing critical perspectives on women, gender, sex and sexuality, and the colonial encounter, she considers how it was possible for this woman to take on the office and responsibilities of a traditionally male role.
Download or read book Female Monarchs and Merchant Queens in Africa written by Nwando Achebe and published by Ohio University Press. This book was released on 2020-07-14 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An unapologetically African-centered monograph that reveals physical and spiritual forms and systems of female power and leadership in African cultures. Nwando Achebe’s unparalleled study documents elite females, female principles, and female spiritual entities across the African continent, from the ancient past to the present. Achebe breaks from Western perspectives, research methods, and their consequently incomplete, skewed accounts, to demonstrate the critical importance of distinctly African source materials and world views to any comprehensible African history. This means accounting for the two realities of African cosmology: the physical world of humans and the invisible realm of spiritual gods and forces. That interconnected universe allows biological men and women to become female-gendered males and male-gendered females. This phenomenon empowers the existence of particular African beings, such as female husbands, male priestesses, female kings, and female pharaohs. Achebe portrays their combined power, influence, and authority in a sweeping, African-centric narrative that leads to an analogous consideration of contemporary African women as heads of state, government officials, religious leaders, and prominent entrepreneurs.
Download or read book Anthills of the Savannah written by Chinua Achebe and published by Heinemann. This book was released on 1988 with total page 246 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Annotation Achebe writes of the old Africa and the new, tribal warfare and the war that goes on in people's hearts. His story takes place two years after a military coup in the mythical West African state of Kangan, and shows the transformation of a brilliant young.
Download or read book Holding the World Together written by Nwando Achebe and published by University of Wisconsin Press. This book was released on 2019-04-16 with total page 393 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Featuring contributions from some of the most accomplished scholars on the topic, Holding the World Together explores the rich and varied ways in which women have wielded power across the African continent, from the precolonial period to the present. Suitable for classroom use, this comprehensive volume considers such topics as the representation of African women, their role in national liberation movements, their experiences of religious fundamentalism (both Christian and Muslim), their incorporation into the world economy, changing family and marriage systems, impacts of the world economy on their lives and livelihoods, and the unique challenges they face in the areas of health and disease. Contributors: Nwando Achebe, Ousseina Alidou, Signe Arnfred, Andrea L. Arrington-Sirois, Henryatta Ballah, Teresa Barnes, Josephine Beoku-Betts, Emily Burril, Abena P. A. Busia, Gracia Clark, Alicia Decker, Karen Flint, December Green, Cajetan Iheka, Rachel Jean-Baptiste, Elizabeth M. Perego, Claire Robertson, Kathleen Sheldon, Aili Mari Tripp, Cassandra Veney
Download or read book Achebe s Women written by Helen Chukwuma and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 351 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Women character portraiture in Achebe s novels has been seen from the widely explicit inferiority that marks her being. She is schooled from infancy to be docile and be satisfied with being voice-less even in matters that affect her or her children directly. The overall picture of women is one of weakness and self-effacement. This image stuck especially from the background of Achebe s objective to present real heroes in the culture that is not what Josef Konrad depicted in Heart of Darkness. The story of Things Fall Apart is of Okonkwo and a society of men where women were relegated to the background of domesticity and motherhood and where if they offered any opposition however feeble, they were beaten to submission and silence. True but that did not reflect the whole story. There are indeed some historical and cultural imperatives in Achebe s representation of women in his fiction. These are varied according to the historical setting of his novels. The rural setting of Things Fall Apart in the pre-colonial period showed women with little or no identity except as wives and mothers. No tales of renown or accomplishments are told of them even as mothers and mothers of sons. In this text, we posit that women faced with overwhelming odds of subsumation, do manage to navigate their way through, enough to affect men s power and yet, no songs are made on them, their stories are not told. This text is our song for the un-sung, our recognition of the roles of women in the subsuming patriarchal society. This text aims to project the activities of women characters behind the enclave of subsuming patriarchy. It is an interrogation of the image and status of women in Achebe s fiction. The female characters are the foundation on which the home rests. Without them, there will be neither home, nor children nor nurture. Importantly, the power of women is the power of the survivor; they are the real heroines who withstand time after the ravages of men and war. In this regard, they form the spirit essence of life anchor which holds all humanity to obeisance and ethical behavior. Thus Ani/Ala is the earth goddess who oversees the activities of men. The Oracle of the Hills and Caves has a priestess on which her supreme authority is bestowed to oversee the general day-to- day living of mortals. The failure and tragedy of Okonkwo rests on his non-recognition of the female principle which is the balancing principle of life. In this text, we note the developmental portraiture of women by Achebe in his subsequent novels. Thus the woman continues to develop to Beatrice in Anthills of the Savannah. In this novel the old parameters of woman-being gave way to fresh paradigms of personhood and identity. This text is informed by two considerations: first to record our tribute to the Eagle on the Iroko our highly esteemed and beloved Chinua Achebe as a post- fiftieth anniversary tribute of the publication of Things Fall Apart and the making of modern African Literature. Secondly to re-visit the portraiture of women characters in order to show the true image of women, regardless of the patriarchal tent. This text shows in bold profile, the strengths and resilience of women which are not celebrated, not brought to the fore but are present and pervasive nonetheless.
Download or read book The Novels of Chinua Achebe written by G. D. Killam and published by New York : Africana Publishing Corporation. This book was released on 1969 with total page 106 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Probes the significance and artistry of the Nigerian writer's four novels and numerous short stories
Download or read book There Was a Country written by Chinua Achebe and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2012-10-11 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the legendary author of Things Fall Apart—a long-awaited memoir of coming of age in a fragile new nation, and its destruction in a tragic civil war For more than forty years, Chinua Achebe maintained a considered silence on the events of the Nigerian civil war, also known as the Biafran War, of 1967–1970, addressing them only obliquely through his poetry. Decades in the making, There Was a Country is a towering account of one of modern Africa’s most disastrous events, from a writer whose words and courage left an enduring stamp on world literature. A marriage of history and memoir, vivid firsthand observation and decades of research and reflection, There Was a Country is a work whose wisdom and compassion remind us of Chinua Achebe’s place as one of the great literary and moral voices of our age.
Download or read book Farmers Traders Warriors and Kings written by Nwando Achebe and published by Praeger. This book was released on 2005-07-30 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a brilliant and refreshing book, which gives ample and well-deserved voice to women...It is a book that will definitely be of interest to scholars and students in the fields of history, anthropology, political science, religion, and political economy. It is a must read for scholars and students in Women's Studies Programs. - Felix K. Ekechi; Professor Emeritus(History); Kent State University This orginal and insightful work's sensible and balanced view of Igbo women's power and authority is modulated by a profound understanding of the ways in which women negotiated indigenous cultural spaces and at the same time negotiated with and refashioned pre-colonial and colonial contexts. Farmers, Traders, Warriors, and Kings is a major event in African gender studies publishing. - Obioma Nnaemeka; Professor of French, Women's Studies, and African/African Diaspora Studies; Indiana University, Indianapolis Nwando Achebe's book is rich in accounts of the life histories of recent powerful goddesses that were constructed by the Nsukka Igbo from the late 19th century... She] recounts these case studies with passion and fascination. This is another important addition to the growing literature in Igbo studies, gender studies and African historiography. - Ifi Amadiume; Professor of Religion and African and African American Studies; Dartmouth College A] landmark in African historiography. In the best tradition of the discpline, Dr. Achebe] reminds us after all that history, however academically grounded, should aim to delight as well as educate. Nwando Achebe is ahead of her generation not only in the depth of her sensibility but in the facility with which she represents the structures of feeling of her Igbo society. - Isidore Okpewho; Distinguished Professor of the Humanities; State University of New York, Binghamton There is an adage that the Igbo have no kings. Farmers, Traders, Warriors and Kings focuses on an area in Igboland where, contrary to this popular belief, Igbos not only have kings, but female kings. It is an area where women served as warriors and even married many wives. Because women in Nsukka Division served as prominent actors in a complex set of interactions, relationships and manifestations unmatched elsewhere in Igboland, the author argues that researchers cannot adequately analyze the landscape of Nsukka Division (or any other African society, for that matter) without investigating the central place of women and the female principle in the spiritual world of the society. The author examines the political, economic, and religious structures that allowed women and the female principle to achieve measures of power and looks at some of the ways they reacted and adjusted to the challenges of European rule. Such an investigation into the history of this gender dynamic yields important results for both African History and Women's Studies. Achebe focuses on the evolution of gender politics and female power in Nigeria's northern Igboland over the first six decades of the 20th century. This time period, approximately 1900-1960, is important because it allows for the exploration of continuity and change in Nsukka women's activities, as well as the female principle, over three periods: late pre-colonial, colonial, and post-colonial Nigeria. Along the way, she raises and answers questions relating to scholarship on women, sex, and gender in Africa by uncovering the complexities of the Igbo gender construct, arguing, for example, that sex and gender did not coincide in northern Igboland. Consequently, women were able to occupy positions that were exclusively monopolized by men in other societies, and men, likewise, occupied positions that would have otherwise been monopolized by women. Expanding on this premise, the author calls for a revision of traditional classifications of African women
Download or read book On Deconstruction written by Jonathan Culler and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2014-10-01 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With an emphasis on readers and reading, Jonathan Culler considered deconstruction in terms of the questions raised by psychoanalytic, feminist, and reader-response criticism. On Deconstruction is both an authoritative synthesis of Derrida's thought and an analysis of the often-problematic relation between his philosophical writings and the work of literary critics. Culler's book is an indispensable guide for anyone interested in understanding modern critical thought. This edition marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the first publication of this landmark work and includes a new preface by the author that surveys deconstruction's history since the 1980s and assesses its place within cultural theory today.
Download or read book Collected Poems written by Chinua Achebe and published by Penguin Group. This book was released on 2009-01-16 with total page 97 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A collection of poetry spanning the full range of the African-born author's acclaimed career has been updated to include seven never-before-published works, as well as much of his early poetry that explores such themes as the African consciousness, the tragedy of Biafra, and the mysteries of human relationships.
Download or read book Girls at War written by Chinua Achebe and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2012-02-22 with total page 126 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Twelve stories by the internationally renowned novelist which recreate with energy and authenticity the major social and political issues that confront contemporary Africans on a daily basis.
Download or read book Achebe s Women written by Helen Chukwuma and published by Africa Research and Publications. This book was released on 2012 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Achebe's Women is an interrogation of the image and status of women in Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe's fiction. The text is informed by two primary considerations: First, as a tribute to the recently passed fiftieth anniversary of Achebe's seminal work, Things Fall Apart; second, to revisit the portraiture of female characters in order to discover the true image of women - regardless of the patriarchal context.
Download or read book Women are Different written by Flora Nwapa and published by . This book was released on 1992-01 with total page 138 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The moving story of a group of Nigerian women which follows their lives from their schooldays together through the trials and tribulations of their adult lives. Through their stories we see some of the universal problems faced by women everywhere: the struggle for financial independence and a rewarding career, the difficulties of relationships, and the dilemmas of bringing up a family, often without a partner. Set against the background of a developing Nigeria, this novel shows Nwapa at her finest.
Download or read book Chike and the River written by Chinua Achebe and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2011-08-09 with total page 98 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The more Chike saw the ferry-boats the more he wanted to make the trip to Asaba. But where would he get the money? He did not know. Still, he hoped. Eleven-year-old Chike longs to cross the Niger River to the city of Asaba, but he doesn’t have the sixpence he needs to pay for the ferry ride. With the help of his friend S.M.O.G., he embarks on a series of adventures to help him get there. Along the way, he is exposed to a range of new experiences that are both thrilling and terrifying, from eating his first skewer of suya under the shade of a mango tree, to visiting the village magician who promises to double the money in his pocket. Once he finally makes it across the river, Chike realizes that life on the other side is far different from his expectations, and he must find the courage within him to make it home. Chike and the River is a magical tale of boundaries, bravery, and growth, by Chinua Achebe, one of the world’s most beloved and admired storytellers.
Download or read book Colonialism in Chinua Achebe s Things Fall Apart written by Louise Hawker and published by Greenhaven Publishing. This book was released on 2010 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A collection of essays that explore issues in Chinua Achebe's work Things fall apart.
Download or read book A Man of the People written by Chinua Achebe and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2016-09-30 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the renowned author of The African Trilogy, a political satire about an unnamed African country navigating a path between violence and corruption As Minister for Culture, former school teacher M. A. Nanga is a man of the people, as cynical as he is charming, and a roguish opportunist. When Odili, an idealistic young teacher, visits his former instructor at the ministry, the division between them is vast. But in the eat-and-let-eat atmosphere, Odili's idealism soon collides with his lusts—and the two men's personal and political tauntings threaten to send their country into chaos. When Odili launches a vicious campaign against his former mentor for the same seat in an election, their mutual animosity drives the country to revolution. Published, prophetically, just days before Nigeria's first attempted coup in 1966, A Man of the People is an essential part of Achebe’s body of work.
