Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
Map Games
Setting
Nigeria, the country in which the novel is set, is on the west coast of the African continent. The capital is Lagos (pronounced like the building toys). It is populated primarily by three tribes, the Ibo, Yoruba, and Hausa. The tribe in the novel Things Fall Apart is Ibo, the third largest ethnic group in the country. The Ibo live mainly in the southeastern part of the country, a tropical rain forest, with a rainy season dominated by the dusty harmattan winds.
Historical Background
The novel takes place in the late-1800's , a period of time known as the Victorian Era because Queen Victoria had the throne in Britain. The Ibo way of life had not changed for hundreds of years and was based on their own religion, ceremonies, and folklore. The British government, which had staked a claim on Nigeria much earlier in the 19th century, began near the end of the 1800's to colonize Nigeria, a process which included conversion to Christianity, education in English, and use of Nigerian resources to advance Britain's economy.
