Africa Day 2023 marks the 60th anniversary of African Union. To celebrate, let's honor two Nigerian writers, Chimamanda Adichie and Chinua Achebe.
Chimamanda Adichie is a prolific writer and speaker. Students from my teaching days really liked her talk The Danger of the Single Story.
Things Fall Apart (1958) by Chinua Achebe (1930-2013), a story of changing tribal values, is imbued with the traditions of great novels: humanity, tragedy, honesty, and yes, humor. In addition, the title is tip-top, not because it's borrowed from a famous literary work*, but simply because it's really true. Things do fall apart. That doesn't have to be a bad thing. My well-loved, very old paperback copy had to be abandonned due to its irretrievable state of disrepair. But maybe now I'll get a better copy and read it again! Put Things Fall Apart on your reading bucket list.
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