Ecology and Religion in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart

Abstract

Although African and Western literary scholars have explored diverse themes and issues in Chinua Achebe’s classic novel Things Fall Apart, there has been a marginal attention to the theme of ecology in scholarly engagements with the literary text. This neglect is reproduced in the works of African Christian theologians and scholars who have mainly studied and analyzed the novel through themes such as God, religion, morality, and violence. On account of the ecological silence in African theological engagement with Things Fall Apart, this article explores the rich ecological motifs in the novel in conversation with African Christian theology and religious thought. It argues that a rediscovery of the ecologically grounded and sustainable ways of living of our ancestors, as portrayed in the novel, can provide African and non-African ecological thinkers and practitioners with spiritual and ethical resources for addressing the ecological crisis facing Africa and our world. At the heart of this engagement are the new possibilities that Things Fall Apart offers for thinking theologically about ecological harmony and sustainability in the age of the Anthropocene. The article is an instance of ongoing calls for African theologians to take works of African literature seriously in theological discourse.