Set in the
village of Umuofia in pre-colonial Nigeria ''Things Fall Apart'' is said to be Achebe''s answer to ''Mr. Johnson''
- a book written to portray the black as incapable of having conviction. The protagonist of the book - Okonkwo - easily reminds blacks in dispora of who their African forebear could have been. The
village setting of the book shows the purity of the primitivity of the civilization that obtained in typical Africa before the coming of the white man. It showed a
people living a life that they were quite content to live before a different form of norms were introduced albeit, with the force of arms. It showed the falsity of christianity as the carriage for salvation - it being used as a vehicle for cutting the unity of a people. Achebe had no difficulty in telling the story since he must have lived it. Being one of the few to have acquired western style education within the second half of the last century Achebe met men who experienced the white man without the benefit of a precedent. Achebe thus wrote with an authenticity that was both forceful and germane.