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The Headstrong Historian Analysis

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Fiction is known to be for entertainment. In fact, a story is defined as an account of imaginary or real people and events told for entertainment. Although fiction is said to be for amusement, is it possible that these stories have value to historians? The Headstrong Historian by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a historical fiction story that is historically accurate, and does an outstanding job of portraying the vital truth of Colonial Nigeria. Fiction holds great value in the study of Colonial Nigeria, because not only is it accurate in portraying historical events, it provokes an emotional response in relation to these events and the vital truth of Colonial Nigeria. Through the way that The Headstrong Historian portrays the topic of assimilation and the creation of the “Nigerian middle-class”, we are shown the historical accuracy of The Headstrong Historian. The British assimilated many Nigerians through education. Because of the many benefits to be gained from a European education, by the late 19th century, more and more Nigerians were taking …show more content…

She shows the vital truth in her portrayal of Heathenism in The Headstrong Historian. “Father Shanahan told her that Anikwenwa would have an English name, because it was not possible to be baptized with a heathen name.” (Adichie 5) In thinking of native Africans as heathens, Father Shanahan represents the lack of regard/empathy that most Europeans had towards native Africans. The Headstrong Historian also demonstrates the vital truth in Ayaju’s story of the village of Agueke. The British attempted to shape the way the people of Agueke did trade. When the people refused, the British destroyed the village. (Adichie 3) Because of the little regard for African people, the British destroyed an entire village because the people wouldn’t abandon their “primitive ways”, for their own ways. Adichie shows lack of empathy in The Headstrong

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Amadou Hampaté Bâ is extremely detailed throughout the book, The Fortunes of Wangrin, in explaining the colonial world in West African societies. He provides multiple examples in this work of fiction that precisely describe the factual aspects of African colonialism that we have discussed in class. I will point out a few of the examples that Bâ uses such as: limitations colonial governments set on Africans, the Métis relationships within colonies, and issues that arose, not only between Europeans and Africans, but within the native African communities as well. I will then point out certain details from the book that do not perfectly reflect the components of colonialism that we have studied in lecture.

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In The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Olaudah Equiano writes about his experiences as a slave. Beginning with his childhood, he tells of how he was kidnapped and traveled through the Bermuda Triangle, bought by his first white owner, and eventually gained his freedom. Although Equiano still considers himself an African at the end of his text, the text tells a different story about his transformation from an African to a British man. Considered to be a slave narrative by many critics because of its true stories about slavery, there are many issues with Equiano’s argument against slavery: Rather than asking that Britain completely rid of slavery, Equiano actually suggests that they create a new form of slavery which would allow Africans to assimilate to the white men through economic reforms such as paying the Africans for their work and using their land for production.

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This chapter addresses the central argument that African history and the lives of Africans are often dismissed. For example, the author underlines that approximately 50,000 African captives were taken to the Dutch Caribbean while 1,600,000 were sent to the French Caribbean. In addition, Painter provides excerpts from the memoirs of ex-slaves, Equiano and Ayuba in which they recount their personal experience as slaves. This is important because the author carefully presents the topic of slaves as not just numbers, but as individual people. In contrast, in my high school’s world history class, I can profoundly recall reading an excerpt from a European man in the early colonialism period which described his experience when he first encountered the African people.

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Although many readers tend to blame the missionaries for the disastrous end to the Umuofian society, Chinua Achebe, the author of Things Fall Apart, suggests that the real culprit is the clash of customs between both the Africans and Europeans because of the Africans unwillingness to change their customs, the Christian’s feelings of superiority, and the inclusivity of Christianity. The loss of culture signifies the lack of unique views, values, and a sense of belonging. The differing customs of the Africans and Europeans were important factors to the destruction of the Umuofian society due to the Christians disdain for the African’s religion. For example, the Europeans believe they "have to put an end to the awful misery” (Source A).

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Many stereotypes of African culture have emerged due to western literature and media and first hand accounts of explorers. Things Fall Apart offers a view into the truth and reality of African cultures, which are often misconceptualized by these stereotypes. Acebe shows how African society functions well without assistance from foreign travelers. In Things Fall Apart, Achebe counters the imperialist stereotypes of Africa by keeping certain words in the Igbo language, as opposed to translating them into English, to fight back against the spreading western culture and to embrace their own way of life. He also counters the imperialist stereotypes of Africa by using Igbo proverbs to show how their culture values many of the same things that western

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The tripartite novel “Things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe, published in 1958 focuses on the changes taking place in Nigeria, as a result of colonization during the 20th century. Chinua Achebe’s pragmatics when writing the novel focused on changing the perspective of Western readers with regard to African society. He mainly wanted to falsify the assertions in books such as “Heart of Darkness” which he claimed gave people of African descent a dull personality. Social status is one of the novels’ main themes. Chinua Achebe successfully incorporates the importance of social status, giving readers the impression that for the Ibo society, social structure consists mainly of a hierarchy of both skill and strength.

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In Igbo culture it is acceptable to beat women and look down upon them? Women are below men in this culture and in the eyes of the Europeans that is wrong. In Things Fall Apart sexism is shown in many ways such as the abuse of women, social expectations and the power of males. But the Igbo culture views that as normal while the rest of the world despises the cultures way of treating women. Although Chinua Achebe’s novel Things Fall Apart shows traces of gender equality among the Igbo, the European audience views the culture as sexist.

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Before she met her, Adichie’s roommate, felt enormous pity for her and did not believe the two of them could be similar in any way simply because she was African. Adichie questions how things would have been different on their first encounter had her roommate heard of all the positive influential people making a difference in Nigeria. The undeniable truth is, a single story has the power to both deprive and empower people. In “The Danger of a Single Story”, Adichie captivates her audience and convinces them that many stories matter.

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The book, Biography and History by Barbara Caine, was published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2010. This work explored and discussed the complex relationship between history and biography, the changes within the field of biography over time, and acts as an essential introduction for contemporary biographers. While there are many areas that are repeated and stressed throughout the book, the main argument supports the legitimacy of biography as a field both within the field of history and in its own right. Although in the recent past, the trend amongst historians was to question the validity of biography as a field, due to the source matter’s changing reliability and a number of other factors, Caine vindicated the worth and legitimacy of biography

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The purpose of this paper is to analyse the positive and negative impacts of colonialism. Key words: - Colonialism, Religion, Culture, Civilization, Conflict INTRODUCTION Things Fall Apart was published in 1958 just two years before Nigeria’s independence from the British’s rule in 1960. Achebe, who was born in 1930, had experienced colonialism in his country. The novel depicts the pre-colonial and early colonial Nigerian society.

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