As you may or may not know, the new adaptation of Things Fall Apart has been released! Now, in my previous blog post, I reviewed Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe and I briefly mentioned its 1987 Nollywood TV series adaptation produced by Adiela Onyedibia and Emma Eleanya. However, I didn't give you a review, did I? Well the day has come my fellow bibliophiles! This new adaptation is a 1 hour and 45 minute Hollywood production. So far, the only possibly successful film on imperialism or colonization I've seen, is Avatar. So even though I was a little bit skeptic, I was still hopeful and giddy when it was announced that Things Fall Apart would be brought to life on the screen and finally be recognized for all its glory! I wasn't expecting Harry Potter standards but I also was not expecting this flat and lifeless cardboard box. I know that may seem harsh but it was undoubtedly, a cinematic failure and it did not do the book justice at all. So my fellow bibliophiles, I'll be comparing this 2015 Hollywood film adaptation with the 1987 Nollywood TV series adaptation. I think you'll know which one is my favorite.
First of all, the core aspect that allowed Nollywood to be successful was the representation of Okonkwo as a character. Onyedibia saw Okonkwo as a concept not a human being. Okonkwo as an individual represents the ideal values of the Igbo culture. His life falling apart parallels the traditional Igbo society falling apart and changing, assimilating in order to survive. Hollywood, on the other hand, missed this opportunity and focused on Okonkwo as the main character throughout the entire movie. However, the novel is written in third person omniscient. Though most of the novel is focused on Okonkwo, there are times where the narration is focused on different character such as Ikemefuna, Nwoye and Obierika. This multiplicity of voices allows the reader to not only see different characters through different lenses but also gives dimensionality to the Igbo people as a whole. This emphasis on Okonkwo lets the viewer assume that the Igbo people are homogeneous and could be summed up in one single character, when in reality, Okonkwo represents only one aspect of Igbo society.
Second of all, Nollywood dug deep between the multiple layers of Things Fall Apart, right to its very core while Hollywood took it at surface value, missing the cultural depth. This was shown in the use of stylistic features. For example, Nollywood expanded on the writer’s choice of a line from Yeats’s poem “The Second Coming” (1919) for the title of the novel by borrowing it and altering it as the lyrics for the opening song. This was the product:
Things fall apart and the centre cannot hold;
Things fall apart and the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.
We must not fall apart
We must not fall apart
Lest anarchy be loosed upon our land.
The function of this theme song, which is also directly inspired by Igbo folktales, is to expand on the characters’ feelings and comment on events as they take place. This significant element placed the TV series in line with Igbo oral genres which are characterized by oppositions and repetitions. In contrast, Hollywood opened up to Things Fall Apart with a black screen and the original epigraph of the novel written in white. Simple yet linear with the book again.
Hollywood tries to adapt a novel as entertainment. Whereas, Nollywood, in the absence of an Igbo translation of Achebe’s novel, brings back the stories to the people as their own story. Personally, I believe that this novel serves as an agent of decolonization for many Africans, reconciling its own hybridity and setting the stage to regain their African identity. Nollywood captures this essence extremely well and intimately. This is seen yet again with the deliberate and extensive use of the Igbo language in the film and the inclusion of traditional folktales and music such as the war song chanted by village youth as they torch Okonkwo’s compound after his accidental killing of Ezeudu’s son. Not only does it enhance the cohesion of the storyline and ignite pathos, but it also keeps the storyline firmly rooted in Igboland.
In contrast, Hollywood backs away from code-switching as a tool and focuses on the visuals to tell the story. This could have worked as well if not for the fact that they went linear, following the book almost exactly and tried to impress the audience with high tech and stunning visual effects. It lost the necessary core of the origin story and creates something that gives an entire misconception of not only the novel but the Igbo culture and history as well. Nollywood while keeping to the spirit of the novel, constantly adds details to Achebe’s story, thereby facilitating viewers’ understanding of events with extended scenes, such as the killing of an Umuofia woman by two men from Mbaino: this crime, left unexplained in the novel, is put in the context of the burial of the Ani high priest. Achebe moved his readers slowly from place to place - e.g. from Okonkwo’s town in part I, to Mbanta in part II, and back to Umuofia in part III. This short yet onion layered novel, requires more than 2 hours of film as Hollywood attempted. The Nollywood adaptation adopts a faster pace which helps audiences to consider local events from a wider perspective, following the Igbo proverb that, you do not observe a masquerade by staying in one place.
Well there you go folks, those were the three main issues I had. The way Hollywood handled the structure, the stylistic features and the representation of Okonkwo all brought its downfall whereas Nollywood, climbed to the summit. What made this a great novel was its deceptive simplicity used in order to convey a plethora of concepts. Hollywood changed the function of the story to suit their demands on profit and removed all this cultural depth for mass appeal.
My final recommendation: A waste of your time. Go watch the 1987 TV series on YouTube and be amazed!
Until next time, my fellow bibliophiles!
