ABSTRACT: This work aims to present the Thematic Study Of The World Collapses Of Chinua Achebe, seeks to present the different themes in which Achebe to present in this work, known always to be relevant and important to contemporary African society. We traced a history of African literature and also presented African culture by talking a bit about the influence of colonialism on African society and how African culture was affected by colonialism. The problematic of the study exists in the level where some Africans still despise their cultures. We presented the summary of the collapsing world and then proceeded to present the themes that are the literary engagement of Chinua Achebe in this work. These themes divided into subtitles, presents the cultural themes, which are religious conflict, the supernatural, inter-tribal conflict and culture. There is also the part of the text that presents social problems in Africa with themes like tragedy, colonialism, feminism and fear.
We discovered his concerns and advice for contemporary African society. We then linked the themes that rise Chinua Achebe to our contemporary society like Nigeria. Then having examined these themes and then linked these themes to contemporary society, we have made recommendations which aim to improve society which is the introduction of the novel The World Collapses into the Nigeria academic program at the tertiary level.
Thematic Study Of The World Collapses Of Chinua Achebe
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
African Literature is the result of sad historical realities of black people in the world. Africa’s history was neglected for years, but Africa had managed to survive and move forward.
The era of colonialism was very important because it laid the foundation for African literature (modern colonial) and this African literature was born as a reaction against the body of literary writings which reacted to the intellectual discourses of the colonization of Europeans in Asia. , Africa, the Middle East and many others.
In the early days of colonialism, whites tried to give black people an identity according to their views and this was prominent in ‘colonialist literature’ works which are subject to the imagination, which portrayed colonialized and enslaved peoples as inferior. They also denigrated their achievements and abilities as Western culture was propelled as the universal norm. According to the analysis of writings by whites during colonialism, literature was an exploration and representation of a world on the edge of a civilization that had not yet been controlled by Europeans but presented as chaotic, barbaric and uncontrollable.
These literary works written by European writers like Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe (1731), Shakespeare’s La Tempête (1975) and many others started from what Ngugi Wa Thiong’o described as “ literature in colonialism ” in which the revolutionaries who opposed colonialism were barbarians. “The noble and intelligent was the character who cooperated with the colonial process. The bad and the ugly was the African who opposed colonialism ”(Ngugi 18).
1.2 Statement of the Problem
The negative presentation and demotion of African cultures has provoked reaction and resistance from Africans. According to Mudumbe 66 “Africa was neither a virgin nor without recognized archives during the colonial era”.
Colonialism was a real revolution that came to overthrow an old world of beliefs, ideas and way of life.
Africa had literature of its own and it was in the form of a very vibrant oral tradition. It is with this that Africa made its history before the arrival of colonial power. African writers demanded the diversity of culture, the works of writers like Chinua Achebe, Ferdinard Oyono, Wole Soyinka, Ngugi Wa Throng’o and many others question and struggle against colonialist literature, but rediscover and maintain traditional values of ‘Africa (Egejuru, 3).
African literature must show the culture of Africa. African works written at the time of colonialism by Africans insisted on the potentialities of African culture pushed to the fringes because of the contact which produced the new formation of culture. The colonial forms that were made with the colonial histories were necessary to develop resistance against colonialism. It was the time when western ideas about culture and personality were used against colonialism to demand independence and it was during this time that the most famous works by African writers were produced. The common characteristic of novels is the incessant recourse of writers to oral tradition, proverbs, myths, tales, riddles, folklore.
In Africa there is still a problem of the inferiority complex which was caused by the application of white culture to Africa. Our black culture is in the process of being forgotten especially by young Africans who value all that comes from the West. Our food and our way of life are considered inferior. We still hear the inter-tribal crises in the various regions and states of Nigeria fifty years after the independence of African states, African women still suffer suffering, oppression and poverty. However, these concerns have already been presented by Chinua Achebe. What informs this work.
It is from this perspective that we would like to examine the themes in the collapsing world of Chinua Achebe.
Thematic Study Of The World Collapses Of Chinua Achebe
1.3 Objective of the study
The objective of this study is to:
– Deal with the main themes in the collapsing world of Chinua Achebe.
– Valuing African culture across the world is collapsing.
– Showing the aspect of feminism in the world is collapsing.
