In the following excerpt, Rhoads contrasts African and British culture in Things Fall Apart, as well as related shortcomings in criticism of the work.
That Achebe sees the best of Igbo village life as offering something of the ideal is suggested by an interview in 1988 with Raoul Granqvist [in Travelling: Chinua Achebe in Scandinavia. Swedish Writers in Africa, Umea University,1990]. Achebe, talking of the importance of ideals, refers to the example of village life based on a kind of equality. "This," he says, IS what the Igbo people chose, the small village entity that was completely self-governing... The reason why they chose it [this system] was because they wanted to be in control of their lives. So if the community says that we will have a meeting in the market place tomorrow, everybody should.....
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