Achebe's novel “things fall apart” was a revolution in the African literacy society when it was published. The book provided for the first time, an interpretation of African tribal societies from the view of another African. Achebe wrote the novel in the time frame of the English missionaries and government expanding and conquering other countries. In the time of the book being created, the nigerian society was heavily governed by the british empire but resistance soon began to grow. But, why did Achebe write about the generation that was at least two ahead of his own.
Achebe needed to create the view of a true nigerian tribe, and because those hadn’t been around for half a century he had to use what he knew from the past. His novel includes mass amounts of cultural values and believes, many of which were removed by the british government. Because he wrote about before the arrival and during the arrival of the empire, he was able to demonstrate a clear contrast. To could easily show how the traditions rapidly changed when the british arrived, and he could easily reflect the problems of both the british-ruled society and the independant tribes. Because Achebe includes the issues of the old tribal society, it could indicate that he does want change, but does not want to go back to how it was before. He also worked towards an independent society of Nigeria, which further suggests that he wanted people to not live in the past but to learn living together as a country.
Many believe that Achebe writes during the arrival because he is a proud christian and wants to represent these values as well. There are indeed aspects of this in the novel, namely being the openness of the missionaries and the churches in the changing nigerian tribes. Achebe writes that they helped those who were outcasts and allowed them to live again, this is also how christianity often link themselves to people saying that they give others another change and only work to help the people. This could suggest that Achebe purposely includes the change in religion to justify the actions of the missionaries we came to the tribes.
Ultimately Achebe’s novel holds deep values for the both the nigerian tribes and christianity, but he still wrote fairly towards both sides. His novel became a revolutionary text as it was one of the first pieces of acknowledged african literature
