Things collapse

Most of the story's events take place in the village of Things Falling Apart, located west of the city of Umuofia on the eastern bank of the Niger River. The events are set in the 1890s. The novel depicts Igbo culture, similar to the culture of Chino Achebe's hometown, Ugwidi village. The inhabitants, who speak the Igbo language, live in separate groups in villages governed by tribal elders. The novel reflects the customs of the real people of Umuofia who live near Ugwidi. Within forty years of the arrival of the British, and at the time Chinua Achebe was born in 1930, missionary campaigns had become established in the area. Achebe's father was among the first to embrace Christianity in Ugwidi. As for Achebe, he was an orphan raised by his grandfather, who opposed Achebe's conversion to Christianity, but he allowed him to marry Christianly.