Things Fall Apart @ 50 in Uppsala, Sweden

The Nordic Africa Institute, Uppsala invites you to a discussion on

Things Fall Apart

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe is a milestone in African literature, and the 50 years’ anniversary since its publication has been the topic of many conferences and seminars. Now the turn has come to Uppsala. Both Africa and African literature has undergone many changes since 1958, but this book still hangs on as the classic number one. It has been translated to 50 languages, for thousands and thousands of African school children it has been prescribed reading, it has not once been out of print. We will discuss such questions as why is this book about the meeting between the Igbo people and the colonisers still a classic? What did the book mean for the African novel? What does it mean today for writers and readers in Nigeria? Why has it not yet been translated to Igbo?

These and other questions will be discussed by Stefan Helgesson, literature scholar and literature critic, and Tolu Ogunlesi, a young Nigerian writer, presently ending his 3-month grant as African guest writer at the Nordic Africa Institute.
The event is part of the series “The Writers’ Africa”.

Welcome!
Venue: The Nordic Africa Institute (Library), Kungsgatan 38, Uppsala
Date and time: Thursday 20 November 2008, 18.00-20.00. (Note the library is open until 18.00, welcome to browse!)

Mai PalmbergCoordinator for the ”Cultural Images in and of Africa” research programme
Nordic Africa Institute