Most Meaningful Takeaway

During Wednesday's English Class, the whole class took part in a group discussion about the Interview "An African Voice" with Chinua Achebe about his novel "Things Fall Part". Throughout the whole discussion, various things were discussed, but for me, the most meaningful takeaway was when we touched base on the subject of the media's presentation of Africa. Knowing that Achebe's novel Things Fall Apart is a strong reflection of wester author's portrayal of the African culture, it was interesting to see his takeaway from the novel itself and what he had to say about the general theme of the story. One of the quotes from the interview that really struck me was when Achebe said, "I knew I had a story, but how it fit into the story of the world -- I really had no sense of that." Throughout his novel, Achebe tells the story from the African's perspective other than the colonizer's, to really draw readers away from this "one-sided" perception of Africa that the media portrays today. We discussed that this portrayal that the media has on Africa being uncivilized, dirty and very much poor might not have been on purpose, but was simply due to a lack in understanding of  the African culture and it's traditional practices. Furthermore, over the years the media has addressed this subject from a very subjective sense other than objective. It was interesting to hear what Achebe had to say as he was quite strongly opinionated on the matter of the subject of discussion, and clearly had his mindset on justifying and serving as "An African Voice" for an entire culture at stake.