By definition, literature is the body of written works produced in a particular language, country, or age, and it so happens that over the centuries, English has attained widespread use in countries other than England, its country of origin. In the Philippines, for instance, English is the second official language next to Pilipino and, over the past 114 years (48 of which was under American colonial rule), the country has developed an English literature of its own—meaning literature originally written in English by Filipino nationals, with literary writers like Nick Joaquin, N.V.M. Gonzales, and Bienvenido Santos as prime examples. The same is true with certain countries in Africa, which, I’m sure you learned in school, became colonies of Great Britain for many decades and acquired English as their second or third language, in the process developing an English literature of their own.
One such African country is Nigeria, where the author of Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe, was born and was raised by Christian parents in the village of Igbo in southeastern Nigeria. Achebe excelled at school and won a scholarship for undergraduate studies, later becoming a novelist writing in English. In 1958, he published Things Fall Apart, which is considered the archetypal modern African novel in English. This well-written novel about traditional village culture in Africa received global critical acclaim, and is now required English-literature reading not only in schools all over Africa but also in many English-speaking countries worldwide. And this, of course, is also why it has also become required reading in your English literature class—yes, there’s such a thing as a literature class—in your school in the Philippines.
Today, Things Fall Apart now forms part of the world’s widely acclaimed literature in English, written originally in English by writers who are not subjects of the United Kingdom.
