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Let’s face it, African novelists don’t figure prominently on the average North American’s reading list. However, the name Chinua Achebe may ring a few bells.
Achebe is renowned in scholarly circles as the “father of modern African literature” and has accrued numerous honorary degrees. Over his long career, the 79-year-old has worked for the Nigerian Broadcasting Service, as a professor, literary critic and promoter of African literature and arts. Currently, he holds a position in African Studies at Rhode Island’s prestigious Brown University.
Achebe is best known for his first novel, Things Fall Apart (1959), which Time magazine lists as one of the 100 greatest English-language novels published since 1923, alongside such classics as The Grapes of Wrath and Nineteen Eighty-Four.
Now, thanks to Calgary writer Cheryl Foggo, Things Fall Apart may soon be coming to local stages. Foggo is writing a theatrical adaptation of Achebe’s work, which will receive its third public reading as part of this year’s Afrikadey! celebrations (there were previous readings of the work through FUSE, Theatre Calgary’s new play development program, and during Black History Month in February).
Foggo says Afrikadey!’s Tunde Dawodu and Johanne Deleeuw (former executive director of the Alberta Playwrights’ Network) approached her to write an adaptation in honour of the novel’s 50th anniversary. “By the time we pulled together the resources and obtained permission from the author's agent, the anniversary had come and gone, but we wanted to go ahead anyway,” says Foggo.
Things Fall Apart explores traditional social structures and customs of the Igbo people in the late 1890s and how colonialism and Christianity threatened them.
The central character is Okonkwo, a respected warrior who tries to live down the shameful legacy of his father. Okonkwo, who thinks it’s weak to show much emotion, goes on to play a part in the death of his “adopted” son and accidentally kills the son of a village elder. As punishment, Okonkwo and his family are forced to leave their home and live in exile. Christian missionaries descend on the area and start trying to separate the Igbo people from their traditional beliefs in order to convert them to Christianity. Of course, this results in a deadly struggle between the two cultures.
Even though the novel is more than 50 years old, and depicts an era that reaches back some 120 years, Foggo says she is “amazed by the relevance of the themes.”
“I guess in the way of all great literature, many of the themes are universal and timeless: male-female dynamics; father-son relationships; the struggle people have with living up to societal expectations; the clash of cultures; and the ways in which power imbalances bring destruction,” she says.
Foggo compresses the time frame of the novel and combines some of the ancillary characters to make the story work for the stage.
“I cannot think of any way to say this without the use of cliché, but I believe I have remained quite faithful to the spirit of the novel, while also trying to make it a theatrical experience that bends to the needs and expectations of stagecraft,” she says. “Let's face it — the novel spans approximately 30 years and employs hundreds of characters. Some changes were necessary.”
Foggo is of African descent and says “unconfirmed reports” trace her maternal lineage to West Africa. More recently, though, she can trace her ancestors to slaves in the U.S. and the Bermuda Islands.
“All writing projects are personal journeys, because you grow as a writer through each one,” she says. Though she admits that as a person of African descent who is “keenly interested in African cultures and history,” it does make this particular journey a bit more personal.
Foggo says she also found herself making comparisons to western Canadian history “as it pertains to colonization and our Aboriginal peoples” when working on her adaptation — a connection she hopes is not lost on audiences.
Another one of her goals is to provide opportunity for local black actors. “The local pool of talented actors of African heritage has increased quite a bit over the last five years,” she says. One of the things I had hoped to accomplish was to introduce some of those actors to audiences and the theatre community. I wanted to bring the spectacle, colour and music of Igbo culture to the stage.”
The next reading of Things Fall Apart is on August 12 in the John Dutton Theatre at the W.R. Castell Central Library.
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