Onookome Okome

ENCOUNTERS AND ENGAGEMENTS WITH THINGS FALL APART

The fact that Harold Bloom included Things Fall Apart in 1994 in his list of canonical works of world literature (along with two of Achebe’s later novels) is an indication of the continuous process of canonization of Achebe’s first novel. Things Fall Apart has been translated into fifty languages, is taught in schools and universities all over the world, and has sold 11 million copies worldwide. The canonization of Things Fall Apart on a global scale began almost as soon as the novel was published in 1958. On the basis of its authorship, Achebe has been famously called ‘the man who invented African literature’ (Gikandi 2000). Fifty years after its publication, Things Fall Apart, written when much of Africa was preparing for independence from British and French imperialism, remains the quintessential African and postcolonial novel. As a work of world literature, it can be compared to nothing else but itself. According to Simon Gikandi, ‘After sending [Achebe’s] manuscript to a typing agency in London where it was mislaid for nearly a year’, William Heinemann, British publisher of modern fiction, ‘finally decided to give it a try. He published Things Fall Apart in 1958 and the ‘‘rest is history’’ ’ (2000: ix).