Igboland

And one of the reasons Things Fall Apart is so important is that prior to it, most novels about Africa and Africans in English had been written by Europeans.

Achebe turned the traditional European notion of Africans as savages on its head, and confronted the great failure of people to, quote, "see other human beings as human beings." With characters that you can feel with and think with and breathe with, layer after layer of the reality of the colonial situation in Igboland is exposed, and we see the vicious, cyclical realities that are produced both by individual and institutional power when it's based in fear and hatred and ignorance.

[upbeat music] So things fall apart in Things Fall Apart, not only because of the outside pressures of colonialism, but also because of the interior pressures of the main character, Okonkwo.

Okonkwo was a man known throughout the nine villages and even beyond, whose fame rested on solid personal achievements.

That sounds pretty good, actually.

I'm sure it sounds lovely, me from the past, although we both know that you can't drink a bottle of Strawberry Hill without vomiting.

But the important thing here is that in 19th century Igboland, you couldn't get ahead in life if you weren't willing to work, which, come to think of it, is also true today, me from the past.

So Okonkwo grew up knowing that the whole village thought his dad was a loser, and the pain of it stuck with him.

They write Yoruba music.

Christian Ony each, he, he inspires himself from, uh, percussion ensembles in Igboland.

And this is something that only within a region you get to understand how diverse and how culturally colorful Africa is.

And the more you listen to the music more, the more you, um, listen to albums, come to concerts, you discover that the continent, in fact, is fascinating because within these works, composers insert music that is very, um, close to the customs, to their cultures because in Africa, music is part of people's everyday lives.

Our parents owe children for training The first training comes from home.

In fact, there's this thing said in Igboland, once a child misbehaves outside or does something irresponsible or you see a child that is rude-

Mm.

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