Chinua Achebe is dead: Memorable lines from the novel ‘Things Fall Apart’

Novelist Chinua Achebe speaking about Things Fall Apart

Nigerian novelist and poet Chinua Achebe is dead. Achebe died in a hospital in Boston U.S.A. The novelist needs no introduction to students of literature and lovers of the English language. Some of his most successful novels ‘Things Fall Apart’ and ‘No Longer at Ease’ “A man of the people’ ‘Arrow of God’ are household books in Kenyan homes.

One of his quotes that the book derives is title is,”The white man is very clever. He came quietly and peaceably with his religion. We were amused at his foolishness and allowed him to stay. Now he has won our brothers, and our clan can no longer act like one. He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart.”

Read below some of the most memorable quotes about one of Achebe’s character in Things Fall Apart, the towering Okonkwo below;

• Nwoye was making me want to take my machete & wipe out the church, the vile, & the miscreant gang. How could he do such a thing.
• I was starting to think that the way Nwoye was acting, he was not my son, but he had to be. He is acting foolishly, like a woman,
• Nwoye is my first son. He wasnt captivated by the logic of the Trinity, but by the poetry of the new religion.
• The white man was speaking of another god. I am convienced that the man is mad, or, crazy. But Nwoye was captivated
• In my 2nd year of exile, abame had been killed by a white man. Not long after, more white men came and killed the town of abame.
• Uchendu had asked me some questions I did not know the answers to. He called me a child.
• I have been banished for 7 years and have returned for a wedding which were not my kinsmen. Uchendu intimidated me.
• A cannon broke the morning silence and it has been announced that Ezeudu was dead. It sent chills down my back.
• Obierika’s eldest brother said to me while breaking the kola nut, “Your daughter will bear us sons like you.” I felt proud.
• Ekwefi waited and saw a man with a machete she got scared and screamed, it was only me. I told her to go home and get some sleep.
• Agbala wanted to see Ezinma in the caves. My wife Ekwefi got scared and followed them. She didnt want anything to happen.
• The spirit is called Evil Forest. He is the Dry-meat-that-fills-the-mouth and the Fire-that-burns-without-faggots.
• Uzowulu and Oduke both presented their cases to the spirit. I do not know whom is being truthfull.
• Okagbue is famous for these matters, is getting ezinma to tell him where she burried her iyi-uwa. I am anxious.
• My wife Ekwefi’s only daughter has an iba. She is an obanje. I am very upset. We have to look for her iyi-uwa.
• I talked with a few people and realzied that talking keeps my mind off Ikemefuna. I am glad to be going back to my old self
• I have killed 5 men in battle but killing Ikemefuna has got me really upset, much like a girl. I havent eaten in 2 days
• As a man raised his machete at Ikemefuna, i turned away. I heard him cry. I didnt want to seem weak, so i finished him off.
• Ezeudu told me they were to kill Ikemefuna. Ikemefuna calls me father and i was upset to hear the news.
• At the yam festival, the crowed was large and loud. I wonder who is going to win, Okafo or Ikezue?
• I am fond of Ezinma, she looks a lot like her village beauty mother. She is also much wiser than her older sister Obiageli.
• My second wife cut leaves from my banana tree and made it look as if it were dead. It made me angry and I also beat her.
• My oldest son and Ikemefuna helped prepare the yam seeds, but they didn’t use any effort. They may be young, but they can learn.
• My wife has angered me, and I began to beat her forgetting that it was the week of peace. I was ashamed to break the peace.
• When I was asking Nwakibie for some of his yam seeds, I knew he would not turn me away, but I didn’t know he would be so generous.
• I didn’t get the start in life that many men had. I didn’t inherit a barn or a title, but i made a prosperous future for myself.
• I was wondering what it was about, “A war maybe?” When morning came, I learned that the daughter of Umuofia was killed in Mbaino.
• I was laying in bed when i hear the town crier give his message that every man of Umuofia was told to meet tomorrow morning.
• I’m not judged by my fathers worth, but by my worth. I’m the greatest wrestler in the 9 villages, I have 3 wifes, and I am wealthy
• I am ashamed of my father. He was a debtor and owed every neighbor some money. He was poor, only had one wife, and was quite lazy.
• Looking at the king’s mouth one would wonder if it suckled on the mother’s breast