Chinua Achebe was a novelist, poet, critic from Nigeria, who is regarded as the dominant figure of modern African literature. He is often referred to as the "father of African literature", although he vigorously rejected the characterization. One of the greatest novels he wrote is Things Fall Apart. He wrote it in 1958, which occupies a pivotal place in African Literature and remains the most widely studied, translated. Chinua Achebe was the winner of the Man Booker International Prize in 2007.

Okonkwo was a respected and influential leader within the Igbo community of Umuofia in eastern Nigeria. Okonkwo determined to gain titles for himself and became a powerful and wealthy man in spite of his father's weaknesses. Because Okonkwo was a leader of his community, he was asked to care for a young boy named Ikemefuna, who was given to the village as a peace offering by neighboring Mbaino to avoid war with Umuofia. Ikemefuna befriended Okonkwo's son, Nwoye. Okonkwo became depressed after accidentally killing Ikemefuna, so he visited his best friend, who said that Okonkwo's act would upset the Earth and the earth goddess would seek revenge. Then Nwoye realized that his father had murdered Ikemefuna and began to distance himself from his father and the clansmen. A public trial about the murder of Ikemefuna done by Okonkwo was held on the village commons with the nine clan leaders, including Okonkwo. During Okonkwo's second year in exile, he received a visit from his best friend, Obierika, who recounted sad news about the village of Abame. Okonkwo believed that the man spoke with nonsense, but Nwoye was captivated and became a Christian. The Christian missionaries built a church on the land given to them by the village leaders in the Evil Forest, which according to tradition, the missionaries would die because they built their church on the cursed land. But nothing happened to the missionaries. Soon, many people also became Christians. Nwoye left Okonkwo’s hut and moved to Umuofia where the Christians built a school. When Okonkwo's exile was over, his family arranged to return to Umuofia. But after returning to Umuofia, he discovered that the village had changed a lot. Many people converted to Christianity, and the white men had built a prison and established a government court of law, where people were tried for breaking the white man's laws.

The main theme of this book is religion. “Near the barn was a small house, the ‘medicine house’ or shrine where Okonkwo kept the wooden symbols of his personal god and of his ancestral spirits. He worshipped them with sacrifices of kola nut, food and palm-wine, and offered prayers to them on behalf of himself, his three wives and eight children.” The Igbo people prayed to their gods through the wooden idols. It was important that the shrine was devoted both to a god, but also the spirits of Okonkwo’s ancestors. Family life was so important in Umuofia that ancestors took on a somewhat divine nature, which meant that they must be remembered and honored, or the ancestors would bring bad fortune. Another example of the religion of the village of Umuofia was when Okonkwo accidentally killed Ikemefuna. The people from the village believed that this act would upset the earth god.

Another theme of this book is tradition. One thing that is kind of primitive in the village is the traditional gender roles, which women usually do the cooking and tell the clan stories, and deal with the “women's crops”, while men usually work farms to plant and harvest the yams and some were also the warriors of the clan which fought in all sizes of wars.

“We all know that a man is the head of the family, and his wives do his bidding. A child belongs to its father and his family and not to its mother and her family. A man belongs to his fatherland and not to his motherland.” This explained why a man was exiled to his motherland when he had committed a crime, where he could expect to find sympathy and forgiveness. Therefore, exiling people from their motherland could let them deeply reflect on what they had done wrongly, so that they can know how to do better and not commit crimes again. This also showed the gender roles, which men were mostly more important