Appropriating THINGS FALL APART in the Sierra Leonean classroom

Chinua Achebe's first novel Things Fall Apart is one of the most widely read books in African literature. To mark the second anniversary of his death, language and literature professor Sheikh U. Kamarah takes a look at Achebe's classic in the Sierra Leonean classroom. One of the world’s greatest works of literature in English, Things Fall Apart , has been, and continues to be appropriated by different communities around the world. In West Africa in particular, where the “world” of Things Fall Apart is very similar to the “worlds” of the various communities, it has been easier to appropriate the late Chinua Achebe’s masterpiece. In Sierra Leone, Things Fall Apart has been one of, if not the most popular novel; one that almost every educated person either would have read or heard about. In teaching this novel, many teachers in Sierra Leone have invariably relied on the Sierra Leonean culture or aspects of the Sierra Leonean culture akin to aspects of the culture of th...