Things Fall Apart is the most widely read and influential African novel. This casebook provides a wealth of commentary and original materials that place the novel in its historical, social, and cultural contexts. Ogbaa, an Igbo scholar, has selected a wide variety of historical and firsthand accounts of the Igbo historical and cultural heritage. These accounts illuminate the issues relating to Britain's colonization of Nigeria.

Fascinating materials bring to light the novel's cultural context-folkways, language and narrative customs, and traditional Igbo religion. Among the documents are a slave narrative, interviews, journal and magazine articles, and historical essays.