African indigenous values identified in Chinua Achebe’s “Things Fall Apart”: a socio-cultural analysis

Abstract

It is the case that no human society exists without committing itself to certain unique values evidenced in the people’s way of life. This paper analytically identifies and assesses some African indigenous values depicted in Chinua Achebe’s novel: Things Fall Apart. These values are tied to the African culture and consistently define African identity, history, beliefs, and worldview. We observe that while some of these pristine indigenous values of African cultural heritage remain undiminished, others have in many and different ways, been significantly affected or vitiated mainly by the wave of globalization. In the light of modern intellectual enlightenment, we hold that the African indigenous values that respect the dignity of the human person, have to be revived, re-evaluated and made more significantly relevant in the day-to-day societal life of Africans for veritable integral development and socio-cultural progress of African states in the contemporary world.

Keywords: African, indigenous, value, culture, community