'Things fall apart' - Achebe's legacy, from book to screen

Ugochukwu, Françoise

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Title:	'Things fall apart' - Achebe's legacy, from book to screen
Author:	Ugochukwu, Françoise
Year:	2014
Periodical:	Research in African Literatures (ISSN 0034-5210)
Volume:	45
Issue:	2
Pages:	168-183
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Nigeria
Subjects:	novels radio films television Igbo Nollywood
About person:	Albert Chinualumogu Achebe (1930-2013)
External links:	http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/research_in_african_literatures/v045/45.2.ugochukwu.pdf https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/reseafrilite.45.2.168
Abstract:	This article compares Chinua Achebe's first novel - 'Things fall apart' - with its main screen counterpart and highlights the reasons for the huge success of this televised program, revealing some of the ingredients behind the success of Nollywood films and helping to get a better understanding of their content and message. The novel was written in 1958 and centres on Okonkwo, a respected Igbo leader, wrestler and farmer. During his life British colonialism and Christian missionaries bring an end to Igbo independence. In the end he realizes that his clan will not go to war against the white men and he hangs himself. The seminal text has, over the years, inspired several adaptations: 1. a dramatic radio program, 'Okonkwo', by the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation (1961); 2. a film produced in the United States in 1971, blending 'Things fall apart' with 'No longer at ease' (1960); 3. a Nigerian, German, and American co-production, using scenes from 'Things fall apart' as flashbacks to provide background to the political and economic woes of postcolonial Nigeria; and 4. a television adaptation (1986). This television adaptation revealed some of the traits that would become part of Nollywood films: a deep-seated interest in history, theme songs reinforcing the message of the film, the ancestral village as a place to return to in order to reconnect to one's roots, and Igbo-English code-mixing and code-switching. Bibliogr., notes, sum. [ASC Leiden abstract]

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